Post by Admin on Aug 20, 2014 21:32:02 GMT
After months of meticulous planning and being skint after numerous paydays myself, Gray and Hoggy finally set of on the road to Norway. Now plenty of people have gone and fished Norway from the UK and some had even quite recently kayak fished it before. However, none, to our knowledge, had put their won yaks on top of their own cars and driven over 1250 miles to the island of Vannoya 70 degrees north latitude deep inside the Arctic circle. Where we mad? Definitely maybe lol
The Secret Shad and Coddy Coffin ready to go
Well as as the ECKA motto goes, fortune favors the brave, we decided to give it a go. We knew their would be thrills, spills, highs and lows along the way. Also that traveling with three strong characters could cause friction but what the hell, each of us bought our own unique traits to the trip and it made it what it was. I’ll try to give an accurate account of how it went so I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. There won’t be pictures of all the fish we caught as there is simply not enough hours in the day and after all you’d not be interested in seeing the bits so I’ll just show the best parts.
The start:
At 0400 we departed from Immingham on the DFDS vessel petunia seaways. Now this was a very comfy ship with tidy cabins and good food, which I loved as I eat like a dog and was happy to able to go to the fridge every 5 minutes to feed me and my tapeworm lol, class.
Loads of food, juice and tea and coffee for the 25 hour trip. There was even an indoor! smoking area for Gray and Hoggy to feed their insatiable nicotine habits, no wet fags for them
After a good nights kip we arrived at Gothenburg at 0800 a full day later and then the journey really began. 1275 miles over three days to the land of the halibuts.
We took the Baltic coast road through Sweden to avoid the insane speeding fines of Norway and the toll roads oh and trolls lol. They exist you know but the government keep it quiet. After 8 hours driving on speed camera infested roads we decided to stop at a nice campsite to rest up for the night and get a wash, nice site but a bit pricey.
We wild camped the 2nd night on the road at a lovely lake that we chanced upon after seeing a camper van in the lay bye.
After that we were off again on the baltic coast road, nothing but trees for a 1000 miles, boring. Finally we got to Finland and the reindeer started to appear, this one hogged the road and was grunting at the cars as if they should not be there. Finally a truck honked its horn and scared it off the road, funny as to see. Oh I was having a pee when I took this photo.
A traffic jam in Finland
What you looking at?
Untitled by grayskull888,
At some points the roads were bad lol but the ecka were badder
Roads resembling the Lombard RAC Rally
Untitled by grayskull888,
Finland passed and we arrived in Norway and headed to our first stop Tromso and a lovely campsite at a place called Skittlenelv, 200 NOK a night but it had all the amenities plus a shop that sold ice cream, mmmmmm I had a few.
View from the tents
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Untitled by
Night fishing at Skittlenelv
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We where there for 2 days so we had a fish at a place called Oldervick where we had some really nice cod upto 26lb and some wolfish upto 15lb, great some target fish caught on the first day on the water.
Lots of double figure cod and two wolf fish for our Gray
Untitled by grayskull888, on Flickr
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
26lb pb for Gray
Untitled by grayskull888,
10lb nit cod
Untitled by grayskull888,
What’s the time Mr Wolf?
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888, on Flickr
After a good kip and a meal we set of to the port of Hansnes to catch the ferry to Vannoya, 40 minutes later we were there. The ferry was cheap, only £14 for a car and passenger, now that’s cheap for Norway.
Untitled by grayskull888,
Off the Ferry and straight to the fish camp Sjocamping where we were met by IDA and his Thai wife Ting Tong. An odd couple to say the least but they made us feel welcome. Our hut was small but cosy with all the things you need, Hoggy even had some bed pals to keep him company which came as part of the price. Gray was even given some complementary underpants which I thought was really generous lol.
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
The 1st day we fished in front of the fish camp and it was really hot and there was no wind, this was a bit of a problem as there was no drift which meant it was hard to work our 400gram lures grrrrrrrrr. We fished long and hard that day in the true ECKA way and only got a few cod upto 10lb for our efforts, not good we thought.
The next day we went to a mark that our mate Graham Precious of the fishing basket in Hull gave us, a place called Fakken and as usual his information payed off.
Fakken Bay, Vannoya, at low water
Untitled by grayskull888,
Within half and hour and a bit of searching for the coalies BANG the first halibut fell to me. Now this was a surprise to us all as I was trolling for bait with a 12lb sabiki trace with a Yo-Yuri deep diving crystal minnow on. The rod lurched round hard and I though mmmmmmm this feels heavy and with that three 3lb cod came up on the sabikis and an 18lb halibut on the plug lol, insane I thought. Now halibut come up easy and take a look at you then they go mad and dive lol, I played it well on my 6ft spinning rod, that Hoggy said a big pollock would snap, and shimano stradic reel. The fighting drag on that reel saved the day as every time it dived I flicked the drag to let it run and then tightened up to pull it up. I prayed for the line not to snap and I don’t believe in god. After 15 minutes and lots of swearing I gaffed it and stabbed it a few times, got it on board and bled it out for out tea. Gotcha! Let no man mock my little whip again lol
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Next up was Gray bagging one about 18lb on a trolled dead bait, he got it on board, took the photos and let it go.
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Then Hoggy shoulted that he had a good one on, with this I raced to my comrades aid and held his yak steady as he pulled a 60lb lump to the top, then it dived then dived again and again. After the 5th dive hoggy pretended to cry as his forearm was on fire, these boys fight a lot harder than tope as they are basically one big fin. This was a sight to see and eventually he beat it, unhooked it, took the photos and let this magnificent creature go. Epic and I was glad to see such a sight.
The deadly face of halibut (stay tuned for the 7 deadly faces of halibut)
Untitled by grayskull888,
That's one bloody big flatty
Untitled by grayskull888,
Check its fecking mouth out lol
mouth by grayskull888,
Tons of cod on lures too but they are boring, halibut bait lol
Untitled by grayskull888,
Day 2 of fishing on the island we had achieved our goals, you could not script it I tell you. As the tide rose the halibut bites went and the cod came on on plugs. Cod after cod after cod after cod after cod on plugs, so many we got bored and landed lol, besides it had started raining so we though sod it we’ll go back and sort out for day 3. As I landed I noticed my fish finder had froze and would not turn off. I pulled out the power lead and put it back only to find it was dead, gutted, no more sonar and this was it for the rest of the trip. I noticed after that that my catch rate went down as I could not precision bomb with my lures, oh well time to tail one of the others, grrrrrrrrrrrr. I hate having my wings clipped.
Happy men we left Fakken
Untitled by grayskull888,
On the way home we saw what the locals do to naughty cod ewwwww
Untitled by grayskull888,
What a view driving back to Sjocamping
Untitled by grayskull888,
Day 3 Torsvag, a mark on the north of the island. Now this place was rocky and had lots of cod upto 15lb, plus ling and lots of coalies. We even went to look at the other fish camps and was met by a man called Stefan, very helpful and we saw some pictures of some real monsters on his wall. When we told him that we were fishing for halibut of kayaks he just said “right” lol, I wonder what he meant by that?? You are limited to how far out you can go here on a kayak as the sea can become brutal within 5 minutes and I nearly came a cropper on a reef when landing. This is because I could not see it due to no sounder, close call I tell you.
A young Swedish guide from the Torsvag camp told us some good marks to the disgust of the man who's they were and we could hear him berating him outside lol "if you tell people my marks again I'll throw you to the Russian male rapist fishing team" lol or something along those lines. Poor lad lol, Stefan seemed a nice bloke but the woman who helped him run Torsvag seemed a bit grumpy. When we suggested they get some kayaks in she said in an abrupt manner "no kayaks". Oh well their loss.
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
After a few hours catching cod from the reefs of Torsvag the wind and the rain came and forced us off the mark. This was the case for a few more days on different marks, so much so we thought some Devine intervention was messing with us lol.
The next day we had another go at our fish camp, caught some cod and Hoggy got another halibut on a live flatty. Then the thunder and lightening came and forced us off again. It really can be 4 seasons in half a day there.
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
The next day we went back to Fakken and this time the tides where bigger and the wind was stronger but we still went out. Fishing was hard in those conditions but Gray got another halibut and we all got some more cod, not monsters but about 10lb and loads of coalies.
Untitled by grayskull888,
The poor coalies, everything eats them even the star fish lol
Untitled by grayskull888,
The wind was so strong that we had to land at a beach a few miles from where we launched and walk to the cars as it was impossible to paddle against it. Gray even took a short cut through the bog of doom.
One thing that was really good was the little jetty outside out fish camp where we had a species hunt on a night, loads of cod, coalies, flatties to keep us entertained.
Untitled by grayskull888,
The coalies living under our jetty
Untitled by grayskull888,
fishing at 1 in the morning in the land of the midnight sun, class
Finally the day came for us to leave vanna and go back to the main land. We went back to the campsite with the ice cream, I got some new tires for my car as I’d got a puncture on Vanna and and we fished oldervick again. A few more nice cod for Gray and bits for me and Hoggy, no fish finder is no fun lol.
The night before we left to drive back we had a few drinks and a nice fire to keep away the cold, Gray managed to clear the campsite with his loud voice which he had stolen off me lol. Man he is loud
He heard some German campers talking about us the next morning, holy bible, holy bible in the words of Tom Waits lol
The fire pit
Untitled by grayskull888,
Even 2Pac had gone home by this point lmao.
The drive home was a good one as we stopped off at some really nice wild camping sites with rivers and lakes next to them. We had a yank and bank fresh water lure challenge to see who could catch the most species on a lure from the bank, I came 1st, Gray 2nd and Hoggy 3rd, would you believe it? lol I jammed it with a dace on a mepp fly spinner.
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888, on Flickr
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
Untitled by grayskull888,
who, what where, go away
Untitled by grayskull888,
So at the end of a hectic few weeks Hoggy got the biggest fish with a 60lb halibiut, Gray got the biggest cod and wolf fish and I got a nice halibut on a yo-yuri. We all got more cod than you could shake a stick at but I’m not going to bang on about them because who’s interested in 5- 7lb tiddlers, not us lol.
On a personal note, would I do it again, definitely maybe. Do I regret doing it? Absolutely not! Could I have gone with better people? Definitely not! I think we learned a lot about ourselves and each other and I for one have a lot more respect for the lads after our Arctic Odyssey. I could have wrote pages and pages more but to be honest some of it is not for public forums Holy bible, holy bible you c**T, yes yes yes yes no no no no no, dirty Dee Dee, she’s your wife isn’t she? she stuck her finger up my B*m h*le and I loved it, I don’t usually go for that sort of thing but from dirty Dee Dee I loved it lol. Yes yes yes yes yes, you are doing it, don’t you make a show of me!! Quotes from the film sexy beast lol, you had to be there folks 
I will add to this post over the next week when thing of importance spring to mind. The ECKA members will read it 1st.
Where we the 1st UK kayak anglers to catch a halibut off our SOT kayaks? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, we won’t be the last, go get em lads and lasses
I’d like to thank Gray, Hoggy, 2Pac Sakur, Ting Tong, Tom waits, Graham Precious, Al, dirty Dee Dee, troll hunter, the WBC and the profit of doom for making this trip possible and as enjoyable as it was. Could not have done it without you guys, word!
We could have fished for smaller stuff all week but to be honest we didn't want to and if the fish over here counted for the ECKA league we all would have had a million points each lol.
So was it a success? We got the halibuts didn’t we
Untitled by grayskull888,
All the best and tight lines to you all
Untitled by grayskull888,
P.S Sorry about the messy code, I'm not used to using flickR
The Secret Shad and Coddy Coffin ready to go
Well as as the ECKA motto goes, fortune favors the brave, we decided to give it a go. We knew their would be thrills, spills, highs and lows along the way. Also that traveling with three strong characters could cause friction but what the hell, each of us bought our own unique traits to the trip and it made it what it was. I’ll try to give an accurate account of how it went so I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. There won’t be pictures of all the fish we caught as there is simply not enough hours in the day and after all you’d not be interested in seeing the bits so I’ll just show the best parts.
The start:
At 0400 we departed from Immingham on the DFDS vessel petunia seaways. Now this was a very comfy ship with tidy cabins and good food, which I loved as I eat like a dog and was happy to able to go to the fridge every 5 minutes to feed me and my tapeworm lol, class.
Loads of food, juice and tea and coffee for the 25 hour trip. There was even an indoor! smoking area for Gray and Hoggy to feed their insatiable nicotine habits, no wet fags for them
After a good nights kip we arrived at Gothenburg at 0800 a full day later and then the journey really began. 1275 miles over three days to the land of the halibuts.
We took the Baltic coast road through Sweden to avoid the insane speeding fines of Norway and the toll roads oh and trolls lol. They exist you know but the government keep it quiet. After 8 hours driving on speed camera infested roads we decided to stop at a nice campsite to rest up for the night and get a wash, nice site but a bit pricey.
We wild camped the 2nd night on the road at a lovely lake that we chanced upon after seeing a camper van in the lay bye.
After that we were off again on the baltic coast road, nothing but trees for a 1000 miles, boring. Finally we got to Finland and the reindeer started to appear, this one hogged the road and was grunting at the cars as if they should not be there. Finally a truck honked its horn and scared it off the road, funny as to see. Oh I was having a pee when I took this photo.
A traffic jam in Finland
What you looking at?
Untitled by grayskull888,At some points the roads were bad lol but the ecka were badder
Roads resembling the Lombard RAC Rally
Untitled by grayskull888,Finland passed and we arrived in Norway and headed to our first stop Tromso and a lovely campsite at a place called Skittlenelv, 200 NOK a night but it had all the amenities plus a shop that sold ice cream, mmmmmm I had a few.
View from the tents
Untitled by Untitled by Night fishing at Skittlenelv
Untitled by We where there for 2 days so we had a fish at a place called Oldervick where we had some really nice cod upto 26lb and some wolfish upto 15lb, great some target fish caught on the first day on the water.
Lots of double figure cod and two wolf fish for our Gray
Untitled by grayskull888, on FlickrUntitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888,26lb pb for Gray
Untitled by grayskull888,10lb nit cod
Untitled by grayskull888,What’s the time Mr Wolf?
Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, on FlickrAfter a good kip and a meal we set of to the port of Hansnes to catch the ferry to Vannoya, 40 minutes later we were there. The ferry was cheap, only £14 for a car and passenger, now that’s cheap for Norway.
Untitled by grayskull888, Off the Ferry and straight to the fish camp Sjocamping where we were met by IDA and his Thai wife Ting Tong. An odd couple to say the least but they made us feel welcome. Our hut was small but cosy with all the things you need, Hoggy even had some bed pals to keep him company which came as part of the price. Gray was even given some complementary underpants which I thought was really generous lol.
Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, The 1st day we fished in front of the fish camp and it was really hot and there was no wind, this was a bit of a problem as there was no drift which meant it was hard to work our 400gram lures grrrrrrrrr. We fished long and hard that day in the true ECKA way and only got a few cod upto 10lb for our efforts, not good we thought.
The next day we went to a mark that our mate Graham Precious of the fishing basket in Hull gave us, a place called Fakken and as usual his information payed off.
Fakken Bay, Vannoya, at low water
Untitled by grayskull888, Within half and hour and a bit of searching for the coalies BANG the first halibut fell to me. Now this was a surprise to us all as I was trolling for bait with a 12lb sabiki trace with a Yo-Yuri deep diving crystal minnow on. The rod lurched round hard and I though mmmmmmm this feels heavy and with that three 3lb cod came up on the sabikis and an 18lb halibut on the plug lol, insane I thought. Now halibut come up easy and take a look at you then they go mad and dive lol, I played it well on my 6ft spinning rod, that Hoggy said a big pollock would snap, and shimano stradic reel. The fighting drag on that reel saved the day as every time it dived I flicked the drag to let it run and then tightened up to pull it up. I prayed for the line not to snap and I don’t believe in god. After 15 minutes and lots of swearing I gaffed it and stabbed it a few times, got it on board and bled it out for out tea. Gotcha! Let no man mock my little whip again lol
Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888,Untitled by grayskull888,
Next up was Gray bagging one about 18lb on a trolled dead bait, he got it on board, took the photos and let it go.
Untitled by grayskull888,Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Then Hoggy shoulted that he had a good one on, with this I raced to my comrades aid and held his yak steady as he pulled a 60lb lump to the top, then it dived then dived again and again. After the 5th dive hoggy pretended to cry as his forearm was on fire, these boys fight a lot harder than tope as they are basically one big fin. This was a sight to see and eventually he beat it, unhooked it, took the photos and let this magnificent creature go. Epic and I was glad to see such a sight.
The deadly face of halibut (stay tuned for the 7 deadly faces of halibut)
Untitled by grayskull888, That's one bloody big flatty
Untitled by grayskull888, Check its fecking mouth out lol
mouth by grayskull888, Tons of cod on lures too but they are boring, halibut bait lol
Untitled by grayskull888, Day 2 of fishing on the island we had achieved our goals, you could not script it I tell you. As the tide rose the halibut bites went and the cod came on on plugs. Cod after cod after cod after cod after cod on plugs, so many we got bored and landed lol, besides it had started raining so we though sod it we’ll go back and sort out for day 3. As I landed I noticed my fish finder had froze and would not turn off. I pulled out the power lead and put it back only to find it was dead, gutted, no more sonar and this was it for the rest of the trip. I noticed after that that my catch rate went down as I could not precision bomb with my lures, oh well time to tail one of the others, grrrrrrrrrrrr. I hate having my wings clipped.
Happy men we left Fakken
Untitled by grayskull888, On the way home we saw what the locals do to naughty cod ewwwww
Untitled by grayskull888, What a view driving back to Sjocamping
Untitled by grayskull888, Day 3 Torsvag, a mark on the north of the island. Now this place was rocky and had lots of cod upto 15lb, plus ling and lots of coalies. We even went to look at the other fish camps and was met by a man called Stefan, very helpful and we saw some pictures of some real monsters on his wall. When we told him that we were fishing for halibut of kayaks he just said “right” lol, I wonder what he meant by that?? You are limited to how far out you can go here on a kayak as the sea can become brutal within 5 minutes and I nearly came a cropper on a reef when landing. This is because I could not see it due to no sounder, close call I tell you.
A young Swedish guide from the Torsvag camp told us some good marks to the disgust of the man who's they were and we could hear him berating him outside lol "if you tell people my marks again I'll throw you to the Russian male rapist fishing team" lol or something along those lines. Poor lad lol, Stefan seemed a nice bloke but the woman who helped him run Torsvag seemed a bit grumpy. When we suggested they get some kayaks in she said in an abrupt manner "no kayaks". Oh well their loss.
Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, After a few hours catching cod from the reefs of Torsvag the wind and the rain came and forced us off the mark. This was the case for a few more days on different marks, so much so we thought some Devine intervention was messing with us lol.
The next day we had another go at our fish camp, caught some cod and Hoggy got another halibut on a live flatty. Then the thunder and lightening came and forced us off again. It really can be 4 seasons in half a day there.
Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, The next day we went back to Fakken and this time the tides where bigger and the wind was stronger but we still went out. Fishing was hard in those conditions but Gray got another halibut and we all got some more cod, not monsters but about 10lb and loads of coalies.
Untitled by grayskull888, The poor coalies, everything eats them even the star fish lol
Untitled by grayskull888, The wind was so strong that we had to land at a beach a few miles from where we launched and walk to the cars as it was impossible to paddle against it. Gray even took a short cut through the bog of doom.
One thing that was really good was the little jetty outside out fish camp where we had a species hunt on a night, loads of cod, coalies, flatties to keep us entertained.
Untitled by grayskull888, The coalies living under our jetty
Untitled by grayskull888, fishing at 1 in the morning in the land of the midnight sun, class
Finally the day came for us to leave vanna and go back to the main land. We went back to the campsite with the ice cream, I got some new tires for my car as I’d got a puncture on Vanna and and we fished oldervick again. A few more nice cod for Gray and bits for me and Hoggy, no fish finder is no fun lol.
The night before we left to drive back we had a few drinks and a nice fire to keep away the cold, Gray managed to clear the campsite with his loud voice which he had stolen off me lol. Man he is loud
He heard some German campers talking about us the next morning, holy bible, holy bible in the words of Tom Waits lol The fire pit
Untitled by grayskull888,Even 2Pac had gone home by this point lmao.
The drive home was a good one as we stopped off at some really nice wild camping sites with rivers and lakes next to them. We had a yank and bank fresh water lure challenge to see who could catch the most species on a lure from the bank, I came 1st, Gray 2nd and Hoggy 3rd, would you believe it? lol I jammed it with a dace on a mepp fly spinner.
Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, on FlickrUntitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, Untitled by grayskull888, who, what where, go away
Untitled by grayskull888, So at the end of a hectic few weeks Hoggy got the biggest fish with a 60lb halibiut, Gray got the biggest cod and wolf fish and I got a nice halibut on a yo-yuri. We all got more cod than you could shake a stick at but I’m not going to bang on about them because who’s interested in 5- 7lb tiddlers, not us lol.
On a personal note, would I do it again, definitely maybe. Do I regret doing it? Absolutely not! Could I have gone with better people? Definitely not! I think we learned a lot about ourselves and each other and I for one have a lot more respect for the lads after our Arctic Odyssey. I could have wrote pages and pages more but to be honest some of it is not for public forums
Holy bible, holy bible you c**T, yes yes yes yes no no no no no, dirty Dee Dee, she’s your wife isn’t she? she stuck her finger up my B*m h*le and I loved it, I don’t usually go for that sort of thing but from dirty Dee Dee I loved it lol. Yes yes yes yes yes, you are doing it, don’t you make a show of me!! Quotes from the film sexy beast lol, you had to be there folks 
I will add to this post over the next week when thing of importance spring to mind. The ECKA members will read it 1st.
Where we the 1st UK kayak anglers to catch a halibut off our SOT kayaks? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, we won’t be the last, go get em lads and lasses
I’d like to thank Gray, Hoggy, 2Pac Sakur, Ting Tong, Tom waits, Graham Precious, Al, dirty Dee Dee, troll hunter, the WBC and the profit of doom for making this trip possible and as enjoyable as it was. Could not have done it without you guys, word!
We could have fished for smaller stuff all week but to be honest we didn't want to and if the fish over here counted for the ECKA league we all would have had a million points each lol.
So was it a success? We got the halibuts didn’t we
Untitled by grayskull888,All the best and tight lines to you all
Untitled by grayskull888, P.S Sorry about the messy code, I'm not used to using flickR
