The mountain fjords of northern Norway are a very special place to fish. Stood in a 19ft boat surrounded by cliffs and mountains rising well over a thousand feet puts the sheer scale of the fishing environment in to perspective, for what you see above the water is pretty much exactly what you’re dropping your lures in to below.

It had been two years since I was last in Norway, but I spent the third week of May visiting a new fishing complex, Oksfjord Sjofiske, way up in the Arctic Circle at Oksfjord in the county of Finnmark. Teaming up with Ian Peacock of Din Tur UK, the Norwegian fishing and adventure holiday company, and Barney Wright editor of Total Sea Fishing Magazine, we were virtually the first group in to test the fishing potential.

Within an hour of arriving Ian and I were out on the harbour breakwater catching small coalies and codling to close on 3lbs on spinners. This breakwater is ideal for the fly fisherman too, as the depth at close range falls in to 30ft plus over a mix of weed and rock. I’m not exaggerating in saying that a fly angler could well hit a double figure cod or even a small halibut here, if you set your stall out to do so.

It was midnight and still light, and having had a taste of catching fish we glanced at each other and took an instant decision to take our boat out just for a couple of hours armed only with light spinning rods. We made a few drifts just out from the breakwater and must have had well over 30 cod between us with Ian taking the first double of the trip, a fish that looked about 11lbs and as fat as pig. These fish were all caught on light pirks and spinners.

Subsequent short sessions over the next few days in deeper water over rough ground found double figure torsk and stunning looking redfish.

We had a couple of days with strong winds, but being inside the fjords you can always find a sheltered spot somewhere and you’ll be surprised what can be caught within just a few yards of the shore. We found a little spot tying up at the end of a pier and set up with simple long flowing trace rigs with strips of coalie for bait aiming for dabs. Fat sea scorpions started rattling the rod tips but it was slow fishing to start. The other lads fancied a move, but I said, “Lets just give it a minute or two more” and it’s a good job we did as we started hitting some of the biggest dabs I’ve ever seen. Some well over an inch thick and around the 2lb mark. Not just the odd fish, they were coming up two at a time and a 3lber would not surprise me when fishing here.

There are large shoals of coalies off the jetties and you’ll hit these to 4lbs or more which on light spinning tackle really perform, and underneath the coalies are cod.

But what of the real fishing? Well I’ve decided to keep you all in suspense a little longer as I’ll be writing full features on our adventures here on WSF and Barney will be writing his account of things in TSF mag shortly. It’ll be worth the wait as we enjoyed some great fishing!

What I can tell you, and requests for information on fishing in Norway are one of the most frequent we receive here at WSF, is that this new fishing complex offers you access to some virgin waters that will produce some huge halibut and cod, as well as haddock to 10lb plus, big wolfish, torsk, monster coalfish over 30lbs, ling over 40lbs and big redfish which are typically the species targeted by visiting UK anglers.

Look out for the features coming very shortly then, but in the meantime you can also check out all the information you’ll need on fishing in Norway by contacting Ian Peacock, Din Tur UK, Unit 1B, Cromwell Business park, Hartlepool TS24 7LR. Tel: 01429 866814 E-mail: peacock@dintur.co.uk . Their website at www.dintur.co.uk also gives masses of information on all Din Tur’s Norwegian fishing destinations.