(De)Tour to Norway IX: The Fishing Tour
The fishing tour...
This is Oddleif.
Oddleif was the proprietor of the Feskarbrygga Rorbuer where we stayed in Å.
But not only that, Oddleif also...
...operates fishing and sightseeing boat tours on his fishing boat.
With the weather we woke up to, what better day to go on a fishing tour? Good thing we booked places on the Wednesday tour.
After Oddleif showed us his impeccable skill at making a 3-point turn with a one-engine fishing boat, we made our way out of the Å harbor.
Out of the harbor, we headed southwest along the southern edge of our island, Moskenes Island, then as we got close to the tip of the island, we started to work our way south to get some distance away from land.
Somewhere along the way, though we don't have a photo, we saw a lone puffin floating on the water. So now I can say I saw one. And I did. But I guess I already said that. Anyway,....
The idea was to put ourselves on another mælstrøm, but unlike the Straumen mælstrøm, this one was a massive tidal flow passing through the gap between southern tip of Moskenes Island and the next island to the southwest, Mosken Island. Where that flow mixes with the more stationary water east of the tip of Moskenes Island, there is an interface area with, again, a lot of fish.
So many fish, in fact, that all you had to do was run a line with several hooks on it down into the water, and constantly move the line up and down. No bait required.
At least, that was the idea.
It worked well enough for this guy, who caught somewhere around 12 fish.
For others of us, not so good. Daniel only caught three. April and I traded off on a line, and we caught...er, well, did I mention Daniel caught three? That's right, he sure did.
No matter, in the end there was plenty of fish to go around.
After we got our fill of fishing, Oddleif started up the engine again and took us all the way to the tip of Moskenes Island, then around the tip and into a small cove. In this cove is the long-abandoned settlement of Helle, which Oddleif then told us was where he was born and raised. He also mentioned that cruise ships passing Lofoten used to come into this cove during bad storms.
Soon we turned around and made our way back to Å, where there was much work to do.
Back at the dock, Daniel got a chance to gain some fishing-boat-operational experience, which will hopefully come in handy once his own fishing boat is sea-worthy. (kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "Fisherman's Friend"...har har! (sorry, Scandinavia joke))
We took home a coe-fish to cook up for dinner. We were going to ask Oddleif the best way to cut it up, but instead he just did it himself, which took all of 15 seconds.
After the boat tour, there was still plenty of time before dinner to take a short hike above Ågvatnet, a lake that drains into the bay at Å.
This gave us a chance to see some wild hjorton, or cloudberries, up close, and...
...gave us a new perspective of Å.
If you look closely, you can see some mountains on the horizon. That's the mainland, across Vestfjorden.
That evening, we ate the fruits of our labor.
After dinner, we caught our first "sunset" without clouds obstructing the view. OK, this shot was at an early 8:30pm. But consider the horizon we're dealing with here. You want one last late-night photo? Fine...
Here's April. 12:30 AM.
This is Oddleif.
Oddleif was the proprietor of the Feskarbrygga Rorbuer where we stayed in Å.
But not only that, Oddleif also...
...operates fishing and sightseeing boat tours on his fishing boat.
With the weather we woke up to, what better day to go on a fishing tour? Good thing we booked places on the Wednesday tour.
After Oddleif showed us his impeccable skill at making a 3-point turn with a one-engine fishing boat, we made our way out of the Å harbor.
Out of the harbor, we headed southwest along the southern edge of our island, Moskenes Island, then as we got close to the tip of the island, we started to work our way south to get some distance away from land.
Somewhere along the way, though we don't have a photo, we saw a lone puffin floating on the water. So now I can say I saw one. And I did. But I guess I already said that. Anyway,....
The idea was to put ourselves on another mælstrøm, but unlike the Straumen mælstrøm, this one was a massive tidal flow passing through the gap between southern tip of Moskenes Island and the next island to the southwest, Mosken Island. Where that flow mixes with the more stationary water east of the tip of Moskenes Island, there is an interface area with, again, a lot of fish.
So many fish, in fact, that all you had to do was run a line with several hooks on it down into the water, and constantly move the line up and down. No bait required.
At least, that was the idea.
It worked well enough for this guy, who caught somewhere around 12 fish.
For others of us, not so good. Daniel only caught three. April and I traded off on a line, and we caught...er, well, did I mention Daniel caught three? That's right, he sure did.
No matter, in the end there was plenty of fish to go around.
After we got our fill of fishing, Oddleif started up the engine again and took us all the way to the tip of Moskenes Island, then around the tip and into a small cove. In this cove is the long-abandoned settlement of Helle, which Oddleif then told us was where he was born and raised. He also mentioned that cruise ships passing Lofoten used to come into this cove during bad storms.
Soon we turned around and made our way back to Å, where there was much work to do.
Back at the dock, Daniel got a chance to gain some fishing-boat-operational experience, which will hopefully come in handy once his own fishing boat is sea-worthy. (kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "Fisherman's Friend"...har har! (sorry, Scandinavia joke))
We took home a coe-fish to cook up for dinner. We were going to ask Oddleif the best way to cut it up, but instead he just did it himself, which took all of 15 seconds.
After the boat tour, there was still plenty of time before dinner to take a short hike above Ågvatnet, a lake that drains into the bay at Å.
This gave us a chance to see some wild hjorton, or cloudberries, up close, and...
...gave us a new perspective of Å.
If you look closely, you can see some mountains on the horizon. That's the mainland, across Vestfjorden.
That evening, we ate the fruits of our labor.
After dinner, we caught our first "sunset" without clouds obstructing the view. OK, this shot was at an early 8:30pm. But consider the horizon we're dealing with here. You want one last late-night photo? Fine...
Here's April. 12:30 AM.