[Colin Seaspray]

I got back yesterday evening from a 9 day trip to Skottevik Feriesenter in southern Norway, just a 25-minute drive east of Kristiansand.

Our group of 5 was part of a total of 35 anglers from the region and on Friday, 24 March, we drove the 900 km (560 m) to Hirtshals, took the ferry to Kristiansand and were in our apartment by about 00:45h having left at 6 am.

Opinion on here was skeptical about S. Norway, but I reckon it was a pretty decent trip.

Day 1 (Saturday): After taking over the boat, a 25’ diesel – probably an ex-lifeboat from some ship – we stayed within the lee of the skerries as it was pretty stormy outside, catching medium-sized coley and a few small-ish cod.

Day 2 (Sunday): With the sea now calm and the sun shining we were able to get out the 5 or so km (3 m) to the underwater plateaus where the big shoals of coaley hang out, and boy were they on the feed. Using pirks and Norway cod/coley rigs we were winding them up nineteen-to-the-dozen, often doubles and trebles – the pirk never even got to the sea bed before the rod was jerking like mad. Most of the fish were in the 2.5-4 kg range (5-9 lbs).
After about 2 hours things calmed down, by which time we needed a bit of a breather, and for the rest of the day we were regularly picking up single fish, including a good number of cod.

Day 3 (Monday): A repeat of day 2.

Day 4 (Tuesday): The day started off with good weather and we found a good number of shoals, but the fish were not biting, so we were only getting an occasional coley or cod into the boat. Around lunch-time the weather deteriorated and we had to retreat to within the skerries, but were picking up fish quite regularly.

Day 5 (Tuesday): Another pleasant day out on the underwater plateaus, but not nearly as frantic as days 2 & 3. The fish were being very picky and only taking the smallest of baits. We managed 9 hours on the water, hunting around for shoals that were really on the feed, but to no avail. Our catch was small in comparison, but we still had some good sport.

Day 6 (Wednesday): Rough weather, so we kept inside and explored the fjords to the west of our camp, finding a nicely sheltered bay with a decent shoal on the feed, but the wind became quite severe in the early afternoon, so we had to call it quits and head back through some very rough sea.

Day 7 (Thursday): Out on the plateaus again, but around mid-morning a heavy mist came drifting in and we had to return to base. Around 3 pm it cleared up enough for us to get out, staying within the skerries, but the fog soon drifted in again so we had to run for home. I saved our boat from a total afternoon blank with a cod of around 5 lbs.

Day 8 (Friday): This being the last day and having to return the boat by mid-afternoon, all clean and ship-shape, we were up for an early start, but had to wait until mid morning for the mist to clear enough to get out into the skerries. This was our most unproductive day with me catching a stray herring (!!) about mid-session, which looked like it would be the only fish of the day until and a mate picked up a small cod on the final drift.

Day 9 (Saturday): Homeward bound, depart 06:00, arriving home 21:00.

The general skepticism about South Norway may be justified – and from what we heard other locations right round up to Hitra were having a really tough time, but the advantage of Skottevik is that the commercials cannot get in close enough to the coast to trawl the area empty. We saw plenty of trawlers further out – at least 10 km off the coast - but none whatsoever within our range.

OK, you’re never going to get the huge fish – the biggest during our week was an 18+ kg (40 lb) cod, with a 16 kg cod in 2nd place – but everybody got to take home at least his 15 kg quota of fillets and with the 9 days costing us just 515 Euros each (incl. ferry with meals on board, accommodation, boat rental, diesel and sonar) + car fuel + food and drink (all brought from Germany) it was a fairly inexpensive 9 days with some great sport.

I’ve not got much in the way of photos, but here are a couple:

 

[bry]

Great report and sounds like the fishing was good when you found the feeding shoals.

 

[bri1960]

Glad to see you found some fish and had a good time

 

[Raptor1]

Good report pleased you enjoyed your trip.

 

[robbo12]

Well done on the report nice reading and some nice fish .

 

[biffo bacon]

well done mate great report and nice to see you caught plenty

 

[Colin Seaspray]

Thanks for the friendly comments

When I woke up this morning and saw it was quite foggy I thought 'b*gger, we won't be able to get out this morning', before I realized I was home again

 

[gordon wedgwood]

Thanks for a great report Colin :thumbsup:

 

[chindelly]

Great report, it seems the south still has a lot to offer the angler.

 

[Colin Seaspray]

Great report, it seems the south still has a lot to offer the angler.

Thanks - this location certainly turned out to be excellent for us.

 

[Colin holland]

Some nice fish there. Well done. Have fished the north Norway on 4 occasions and the last 2 years the fish have been in large shoals but hard to find. The fjord was empty so a 15 mile steam out to the fish. Maybe the south is similar but with less people fishing it , there is less upto date info or maybe just less fish. Very difficult to know but at that price the fishing can't be faulted.
Just out of interest what sort of depth of water and lures did you use.

 

[Colin Seaspray]

Some nice fish there. Well done. Have fished the north Norway on 4 occasions and the last 2 years the fish have been in large shoals but hard to find. The fjord was empty so a 15 mile steam out to the fish. Maybe the south is similar but with less people fishing it , there is less upto date info or maybe just less fish. Very difficult to know but at that price the fishing can't be faulted.
Just out of interest what sort of depth of water and lures did you use.

Thanks, I was well pleased with the trip. The shoals were not hard to find especially as one of our group had previuously been there a couple of times and knew whereabouts to look.

I started off using CJT Smart Jigs in 200 & 250g blue and red/gold under a 3-hook rig with blue/white muppets and was fairly successful, but when I lost these I switched to a Hayabusa Kick Bottom in gold, 200g, under a locally-sourced, smaller 3-hook muppet rig in red/cream and this combination turned out to be a real killer. Virtually all the coleys came on the rig hooks, whilst most of the cod went for the jig itself.

We were most successful at depths between about 15 and 45 metres. Our best mark, called Blekgrunnen, was a plateau at approx. 19-20 metres dropping off to about 65 metres with the fish congregating on the slopes at - usually - about 25-30 metres.

We didn't fish much below about 45 metres, although there are depths to about 200 metres. Most cod came at depths around 35-40 metres.