Fly Fishing Reports 2022
Of course the fly fishing season is not open yet, and the river is still frozen. These two pictures are from this morning,
showing river Glomma just upstream and downstream of Tolga bridge. Source of these pics : https://glb.no/vannstander/tolga/
You can follow the water level on that website, and witness the breaking of the ice ...
Actual water level :
Average water level 2006 - 2019 :
Water in Glomma is : a bit hard on top 🙂
Air temperature min - max : minus 6 °C
Wind speed and direction :
Actual water level : 588,29
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,19
Water in Glomma is : almost clear
Air temperature min - max : 4 °C - 20 °C
Wind speed and direction : 10 m/s , SW
Only two weeks to go and the fishing season at KFF will open. The river looks nice right now, the water is almost clear and the water level is not very high, considering the high air temperature and the snow melting. Most of the snow is gone, but high up in the mountains there still is a lot.
Glomma at Eidsfossen seen from the west bank - 16-05-2022 - Photo HVA
31-05-2022
Actual water level : 588,20
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,24
Water in Glomma is : clear
Air temperature min - max : 8 °C - 17 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , NE
Today the river looks very inviting to me. The water level is 588,20 (meters above sea level) and with this level it is possible to fish several good spots in river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing. Tomorrow is opening day ! For sure, I’ll be in the river – it will be great to fish Glomma again, after two years …
But let me tell you a bit about the power plant, that is now in operation. The plant consist of an outlet (see the pictures above) that is situated about 11 km NE from KFF, a tunnel with turbines etc, and an outlet at the end of the tunnel, situated at the Eidsfossen water falls. The tunnel can take max 60 m3/s water, and in summer time there must be a minimum of 12 m3/s left in the river stretch between the inlet and the outlet. During winter this will be 7 m3/s. Right now the flow rate at Hummelvoll is about 120 m3/s, so 60 m3/s is going through the tunnel, and 60 m3/s stays in the river. In normal summer condition the level at Hummelvoll is about 587,50 , and the flow is about 42 m3/s . Minimum flow is 12 m3/s , so they can take 30 m3/s in the tunnel. That's basically how it works. The water level just above the small dam at the inlet of the tunnel is only there to make sure there is enough water to get into the tunnel.
I quote the company's project leader: "We are not allowed to utilize the intake reservoir to regulate the production. The water through the hydropower station will be regulated to keep the water level in the intake reservoir constant. This means that normal operation of the hydro power station will not influence on the water flow below Eidsfossen."
The pics above show the outlet of the tunnel, just downstream of the Eidsfossen falls. Difficult for me to find the right words to describe this so I let the pictures and the small video below speak for it self. What I should say is the impact of all this on the KFF fly fishing zone seems minimal - during normal operation there is no sudden change in water level whatsoever - but only time will tell what this human intervention will do to the river and her inhabitants.
06-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,15
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,11
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 9 °C
Air temperature min - max : 4 °C - 19 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , S
Today the water level in river Glomma is quite normal for the time of the year. The water is clear now, and the temperature of the water is about normal. A lot of rain was predicted for last week, but in the end not so much came down. The weather forecast, especially the amount of rain, is many times not very accurate. In the mountains North of Røros there still is a lot of snow, and if the weather stays as it is now, there will be melting snows for the weeks to come. If there would be a lot of rain too, the water level will be very high. If it stays more or less dry, the level will be okay. I think.
Last week was opening day at KFF. I spend a few hours fishing from the bank, since the level in river Glomma was too high for me to go wading. The grayling were where they should be, feeding on nymphs as they always do, and I was able to land a few nice fish. I met Mikael and Curt from Sweden, they fished the first week of the season at KFF. They also landed several grayling each, using dries as caddis and stoneflies.
A few days ago Lars and his son Kevin from Denmark booked me to guide them. The fishing was not very good, but the guys had decent results anyway. Lars mailed me this report :
“Hi Hein, Thank you for a good guiding day. We are heading home tomorrow, but will be back in 6 weeks. We had some really good fishing, especially Saturday and Sunday. Kevin became good at nymphing as you showed us, but we had some good dry fly fishing as well. Both of us got a grayling of 48 cm and several above 45 cm. Your CDC Zebra Midge worked well along with the fly I caught the trout on.”
The video below shows Lars and Kevin fishing – and landing some nice fish, including a good trout that took a dry fly.
07-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,10
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,09
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 9 °C
Air temperature min - max : 8 °C - 20 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , N
09-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,23
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,08
Water in Glomma is : almost clear
Water temperature : 10 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 17 °C
Wind speed and direction : 1 m/s , NE
11-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,40
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,07
Water in Glomma is : a bit dirty
Water temperature : 10 °C
Air temperature min - max : 11 °C - 18 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , SW
The heavy rainfall of yesterday afternoon has made river Glomma come up, the level is 588,40 early this morning, and the water is a bit dirty. Difficult conditions for dry fly fishing, try nymphs and streamers. Yesterday I fished with Herbert from Austria, we landed a few nice grayling and a trout on nymphs. There were hardly any rising fish, and no insects on the water. I guess the water will clear up again today, and fishing will be possible at a few places in the fly fishing zone.
Mikael from Sweden emailed me this report : "Hey! Small fishing report from our trip to Kvennan Fly Fishing, we were up between 1 June to 5 June, had good fishing every day, got several grayling between 35 cm - 45 cm, we also got some between 48-50 cm, we caught all on dry fly, most on stonefly size 10-16, but also some on f-fly and ant. We fished mostly at the Telneset bridge where a lot of fish were watching. Regards Mikael and Curt "
Worth mentioning is also an observation Herbert made - he saw quite a few large flying ants, the ones with red in the body. On his first day at Glomma he used ant patterns and landed his first Glomma grayling 🙂
Herbert playing a nice grayling - 10-06-2022 - Photo HVA
12-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,33
Average water level 2006 - 2019 : 588,06
Water in Glomma is : almost clear
Water temperature : 10 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 15 °C
Wind speed and direction : 4 m/s , SW
14-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,08
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 588,10
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 11 °C
Air temperature min - max : 9 °C - 14 °C
Wind speed and direction : 1 m/s , E
The water level is back to a normal - average - level, and fly fishing conditions are improving. Michael and Michael from Gemany are in the area, fishing Glomma at KFF and some places nearby, and they report good results ...
Michael from Germany : " 53cm, my biggest one in Norway "
16-06-2022
Actual water level : 587.95
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 588,05
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 11 °C
Air temperature min - max : 7 °C - 14 °C
Wind speed and direction : 1 m/s , E
The river's water level is falling slowly, and is now below the average level for the time of the year. Today I spend some time looking for rising fish, but only at a few places I saw some. Telneset bridge is an obvious place to scan the river, and there were some risers. I guess the fishing will explode soon enough...
A few days ago I guided Herbert from Austria. He wanted to learn quickly what KFF and the area have to offer, and he thought booking a guide was a good idea. I showed him several good places in Glomma that fish well, even in high water conditions. I also showed him where to go at the Hodalen Lakes and what little river Hola is all about.
For these reports I filmed him when he was fishing ...
18-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,03
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 588,03
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 11 °C
Air temperature min - max : 5 °C - 13 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , E
Yesterday I fished a few hours in the middle part of the fly fishing zone. I used big streamers but I couldn't find any trout. There were almost no rising fish, and I haven't seen many insects on the water. I landed two grayling, the first one was 44 cm. Today some German fly fishers reported slow fishing in the lower parts of the stretch, and even though they have seen may flies on the water, again there were only a few fish rising.
22-06-2022
Actual water level : 587,91
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,99
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 11 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 19 °C
Wind speed and direction : 4 m/s , SW
The fishing is picking up. Each day there are more insects on the water, caddis, stoneflies and mayflies. All kind of species in all kind of sizes. The water level is stabilizing, the water temperature slowly rising. The weather forecast for next weekend is great, and I guess the fishing will be quite good. Earlier this week I guided Philip and Daniel from Belgium. The guys landed a good number of grayling up to 43 cm, and there were a few trout, all on dry flies as CDC caddis and Klinkhamers.
24-06-2022
Actual water level : 587,89
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,94
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 12 °C
Air temperature min - max : 12 °C - 27 °C
Wind speed and direction : 4 m/s , S
25-06-2022
Actual water level : 587,75
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,87
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 13,5 °C
Air temperature min - max : 13 °C - 26 °C
Wind speed and direction : 4 m/s , S - SW
The water level is falling now, I guess most of the snow in the mountains now has melted, and I think the river will be a bit more stable now. Warm summer weather has arrived, and we have very pleasant days of grayling fishing in sunny conditions. In weather like this I like to fish the fast flowing stretches in the river. Yesterday late afternoon during an inspection trip I met Koen form Holland. He is at KFF for a week, and he told me about his fishing. It has been not very easy, he said, but there were times, especially in the mornings, when he found good hatches of caddis and some may flies. The pictures above show Koen, fishing in the area around Kvennan Camping. I also talked with some French fly fishers, who have been fishing several rivers such as Folla, Grimsa and others, and they noticed there were not many insects on the water yet. Bernd from Germany informed me that at the Hodalen Lakes the Vulgata's are hatching now.
27-06-2022
Actual water level : 587,90
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,81
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 15 °C
Air temperature min - max : 15 °C - 25 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , changing directions
The water level came up again. There must have been heavy rain showers upstream. The water is clear, and the temperature in the water is also rising. All in all not very good conditions for dry fly fishing - changing water levels and temp will put the fish down. Well, that's fly fishing, we are depending on good conditions. If Glomma is fishing slow, you can find other fisheries close by that are interesting. Like the Hodalen lakes, or little river Hola. About half an hour driving from KFF. I was there last week with old friend Pieter, we had good fishing and I landed a very good sized grayling - about 50 cm. Pieter shot these pictures of me .... see below.
29-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,38
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,74
Water in Glomma is : dirty
Water temperature : 14 °C
Air temperature min - max : 13 °C - 22 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , E
Heavy rain storms yesterday caused the river to come up a lot, and the water is dirty. Right now (14:00 hours) the water is clearing up a bit, and the level has fallen 10 cm since the maximum level. Fly fishing Glomma today is not going to be very good I think. But at KFF there are almost always good alternatives around : in this case the Hodalen Lakes are a perfect plan B with good Vulgata hatches and plenty of good places for wading and fly fishing ...
30-06-2022
Actual water level : 588,08
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,70
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 13 °C
Air temperature min - max : 14 °C - 25 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , E
The water level has fallen quickly, the water is clear again, and the fishing conditions are improving. Last week Bernd from Germany and the group he was guiding fished at KFF and the area around. See the pictures below.
03-07-2022
Actual water level : 588,20
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,69
Water in Glomma is : a bit dirty
Water temperature : 14 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 16 °C
Wind speed and direction : 4 m/s , SSW
Yesterday a lot of rain fell in a few hours, resulting again in a swollen river Glomma. In the afternoon the water became also dirty, due to upstream agricultural activities. Right now, early Sunday morning, the river is falling again. The highest level was last night, and if it stays dry, the level will come down quickly. I think the water will be clear enough this afternoon for fly fishing.
Last week I guided Dick and his father Jorgen from Sweden. We had difficult fishing, because there were almost no insects on the water, and thus almost no rising fish. I managed to find a few grayling in the end, and when Dick perfectly presented his nymph he hooked a nice Glomma grayling. See the pictures below.
04-07-2022
Actual water level : 587,95
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,67
Water in Glomma is : almost clear
Water temperature : 13 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 15 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , S
08-07-2022
Actual water level : 587,82
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,59
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 12 °C
Air temperature min - max : 12 °C - 17 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , W
The last days the fly fishing conditions were kind of a mixed bag - fishing could be great one hour, and very slow the next. The good thing is that by now all the snow in the mountains in the upper regions of Glomma has melted, and the water level will be more stable: as long as it doesn't rain to much. I hear enthusiastic stories from visiting fishermen: Arne from Trondheim and Jan from Germany reported quite good fishing early this week with grayling up to 45 cm, Herman and Jan from Holland had good fishing from time to time, and they also landed good sized grayling.
Anders from Stockholm send me this picture from a very nice grayling he landed at the Hodalen Lakes during the Vulgata hatch of the last weeks. Nice one !
Nice grayling from the Hodalen Lakes - photo by Anders
13-07-2022
Actual water level : 587,64
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,55
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 13 °C
Air temperature min - max : 14 °C - 17 °C
Wind speed and direction : 5 m/s , SW
Fly fishing conditions are reasonable, as long as the wind is not too bad. You know, the wind is the biggest enemy of the fly fisher, especially when you are fishing a big river quite high up in Europe. Anyway, the fishing is not bad at all - a few days ago I fished a few hours - upstream dry fly fishing with #12-14 F-fly patterns. I landed plenty of grayling, mostly small (?) fish but also a few very good sized fish. My advice for these days : fish the faster waters, fish dries upstream and search the water, use (CDC) caddis patterns. There are not a lot of insects on the water, and so not many rising fish, but there is a lot of fish in the river, and they all are feeding (because winter is coming ...) You can also try ant patterns and of course a big juicy Daddy long legs ...
The pictures below I took the last days. A bit dark and sometimes gloomy days at the river ...
17-07-2022
Actual water level : 587,62
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,50
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 10 °C
Air temperature min - max : 12 °C - 18 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , SW
River Glomma is nice and stable now. If the weather also gets more stable fly fishing conditions would almost be perfect. Sometimes it is very windy, making good presentation nearly impossible. Anyway, I talked to Jean from France the other day. He told me about a large and fat grayling that just didn't fit in his landing net. There is a lesson here: when fishing at KFF, bring a large enough net. 🙂
Unknown fly fisher, just upstream of Otter Island. - Photo HVA
21-07-2022
Actual water level : 587,56
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,54
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 13 °C
Air temperature min - max : 13 °C - 21 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , NE
The water level is stable, the weather is nice, only the wind could be less. Not many rising fish, not so much insects on the water. Searching the water with caddis patterns, like I described on July 13, works good. Ant imitations, daddy long legs etc will also work.
Earlier this summer Filip and Daniel from Belgium fished at KFF, I guided them a few days of their week. Filip did send me this report : "Thursday late afternoon, the tide turned. I was fishing the pool near Bermuda Triangle when the wind suddenly dropped and the sun broke through. Result : everywhere rising fish that immediately took the fly (olive emerger) with almost every well placed cast. A true party. Friday, our last fishing day, turned out to be a sunny day. The catches were magnificent, both in our morning and in our evening session the fish went completely wild. Largest grayling of the trip : 47cm. As you said, with a little luck the better fish will come. We have had a fantastic experience and I would like to thank you again for your part in this..."
Unknown fly fisher, just downstream of the Eidsfossen falls - Photo HVA
28-07-2022
Actual water level : 587,49
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,42
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 13 °C
Air temperature min - max : 8 °C - 16 °C
Wind speed and direction : 2 m/s , NE
Fly fishing conditions like water level and water temperature are fine right now. The wind seems to die down a bit, and that is going to help big time. There still are not too many insects on the water, and not too many rising fish. However, if you know where to look, you will find rising fish.
Lars from Denmark mailed me "Last week we were in Norway, fishing both Kvennan Fly Fishing and tributaries. It was quite windy, and at KFF there were few hatches and not so many rising fish. We managed to catch a decent amount of fish up to 49 cm and a nice trout on 35 cm ... "
Jean from France send me this report : "Hi Hein, All good things have to end! Our crew has returned to France. What about our stay at KFF ? (11 to 22/07). Not the better conditions for sure, the wind didn't help, and as often was invariably blowing in the wrong direction! Not so much flies except tiny blue winged olives at some times which turned the fish on. But it is Kvennan Fly Fishing and if you walk and seek there is always fish to catch, actually many fish, allowing all of us to spend good times on the river. The best day was 42 fish for one of us, several days at 20-25 fish and not a single day under 10. Three really 50 cm grayling and average size around 40 cm. Of course this is sufficient to keep us hungry for coming back. So, see you next year ! .... "
The pictures below show Oliver from France, fishing dries in a nice riffle. He was using a real French dry fly - "la Peute".
04-08-2022
Actual water level : 587,57
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,45
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 12 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 18 °C
Wind speed and direction : 5 m/s , S
In spite of last week‘s weather forecast, the wind still is very strong at times, making good presentation of a dry fly difficult ( to say it mildly). The water level has come up a little bit because of very strong rain showers, and I guess this will happen some more the next days. This is not a big problem. Slowly there seem to be a bit more rising fish, but there are also days the river looks empty. I fished a bit some days ago and noticed that dry fly fishing was pointless because of the wind, so I tried streamer fishing. That worked quite well, I landed 6 nice grayling and one good trout in about 2 hours fishing.
Daniel from Denmark added these observations in his catch reports : “ Crazy take in the Eidsfossen area, let the streamer sink deep down into a pool. Hooked a pike and was so lucky that the hook was placed in the upper lip, so no chance it would get free! We had Night Fishing with extremely many fish at the surface, but hard to get biting. Amazing trout on the dry fly. Came out of nowhere and took the fly like it had all the time in the world only 4 meters in front of me. Amazing ! “
Catch Reports
Until today 414 fishing days were reported over 2022. The average size of the grayling is 36,1 cm. The average amount of landed grayling per day is 8,6 . There were 780 grayling between 40 and 45 cm landed, 100 between 45 and 50 cm, and 5 grayling over 50 cm.
11-08-2022
Actual water level : 587,48
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,49
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 14 °C
Air temperature min - max : 14 °C - 19 °C
Wind speed and direction : 1 m/s , changing directions
Mattia shows a good 40+ cm grayling - Photo Mattia
The fishing is improving again, and while maybe I am not so overly impressed with the fishing right now, our guests can have different opinions. Mattia from Italy writes : "Hi Hein, I was at Kvennan Camp from July 30th to August 6th, unfortunately we found very unfavorable weather conditions, with cold, sometimes rain and strong and constant wind, and during these moments dry fly fishing gave poor results. On the other hand, we found good conditions for 2 days, in particular Friday 5, with sun, a little heat and no wind, and some small hatching put the fish into activity. We caught several Graylings over 40cm, the largest being 45, 46 and 47cm, only dry fly. However, we saw a lot of Grayling that swam right next to us, and the place is really fantastic, it's really worth it and I hope to return soon ! "
Thomas from Germany : "Hello Hein, short update of the fishing today. I had a great time at Eidsfossen today. The graylings were rising and taking insects from the surface. I caught several on dry fly and the biggest was 46 cm. Nice sunny day with perfect conditions. See you next year at Kvennan Fly Fishing."
Ready for the net ! Photo Igor
19-08-2022
Actual water level : 587,63
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,52
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 14 °C
Air temperature min - max : 12 °C - 20 °C
Wind speed and direction : 4 m/s , S - SW
The water level came up a bit this week. Not much, but as always when the level comes up, the grayling stay down, and our precious ladies of the stream only have an apatite for nymphs. What is difficult right now is of course the wind, it still is windy as hell, but the algae that has formed during the last month is being washed downstream because of the increased water flow. So you need to fish nymphs, but there is a lot of salad on your flies all the time. And the ladies down there don't like salad... Well, this will last some days and then things will improve again.
Martin from Holland send me this report about his fishing yesterday : " Hi Hein, this was the last day of the trip, I fished the fast bend, they were in the shallow water as you predicted. I caught three. All in all it was a lovely 2 weeks. At the beginning the numbers were somewhat larger and the fish smaller. As the holiday progressed the numbers got smaller but the fish got bigger. Fine anyway. Most I caught with the nymph either euro nymphing, French leader or indicator nymphing. Only a single one on the dry fly. "
the last grayling of the trip - Photo Martin
27-08-2022
Actual water level : 587,55
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,50
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 15 °C
Air temperature min - max : 10 °C - 16 °C
Wind speed and direction : 3 m/s , N - NE
Water level, weather and temperature are nice, and the forecast is less wind. The algae in the water still make nymph fishing a bit tricky. However, I saw last week some fly fishers doing a bit of Czech nymphing, hooking fish after fish.
I fished a few afternoons last week, trying some slower flowing sections sheltered from the wind. At these places almost always one can observe rising grayling. I landed several grayling each time, nice fish between 35 and 45 cm. In this time of the year I like to fish for them with a small (#16-18) CDC midge emerger - the Zebra emerger - a pattern I learned from Jan van Zandwijk. Years ago I made a video showing how I like to tie this fly. See the video here. Other dry flies that I know will work now and during September are Griffith Gnat in small sizes, and Dynamite Harry will also work.
The best weeks of the season are coming now, and I really am looking forward to some sunny and warm Indian summer days, with large rising grayling, tiny flies and my good old #3 T&T rod 🙂
Thierry from France playing a large KFF grayling - Photo HVA
04-09-2022
Actual water level : 587,27
Average water level 2005 - 2021 : 587,46
Water in Glomma is : clear
Water temperature : 11 °C
Air temperature min - max : 6 °C - 17 °C
Wind speed and direction : 1 m/s , SW
It has been dry the last weeks, and like rivers all over Europe Glomma is quite low now. But there are still plenty of good places to fish, and I guess fly fishing will be good the next week, with some nice sunny days and, most important, not a lot of wind.
Try small flies, dries as well as nymphs. Zebra CDC in size 16-18, Dynamite Harry in the same sizes, Griffith gnats - all will work. Just as small needle fly imitations, small caddis patterns, try bibio imitations (russeflue) and even a daddy long legs will work, or a wasp imitation, and of course ant patterns. Find yourself a nice slow stretch or river with some deep water close by, fish with the sun in your back so you can see that small small fly, and search the water for small rings of rising grayling.
Last week I guided Janto from Germany, and even though the fishing was not the best Glomma at KFF can offer, it was still pretty good. Janto landed his first ever grayling - see the pictures.
