A bankside view of Kvennan Fly Fishing
“There are fish everywhere. It is simply an eldorado for grayling fishing,” says Kvennan’s new river keeper, Eirik Sætren.
Some anglers spend a lifetime looking for water like this. Eirik Sætren gets to look after it. As the new river keeper for Kvennan Fly Fishing on the Glomma, he spends the summer on a long reach of broad, easily waded river, up in the Østerdalen highlands between Tolga and Tynset, with grayling, trout and unspoilt country in every direction.
“It is close to the road, with mostrly unspoiled areas surrounding it and it even has easy parking in most areas. What's not to like?” he asks before continuing.
“I have to pinch myself now and then. It is not a bad place to go to work.”
What caught him off guard was the grayling. Sætren fishes mostly dry for trout, in still and moving water alike, and he had never cast a line on Kvennan until he took over the watch.
Like torpedoes from the depths
“You can fish the big, water-rich main river, or work in among the channels and islands,” Sætren says. “Go a little further than the rest, and you will soon have water to yourself.”
And the grayling are not shy about taking a fly. Anis, an angler from Sweden and Bosnia who has fished Kvennan for close to ten years, describes it after a recent visit with first-time guests:
“What makes Kvennan different is that you can find fish almost everywhere. We have never experienced grayling as aggressive on dry flies as they are here. They come up from the depths like torpedoes and attack the fly with incredible determination. It is an amazing sight.”
The fishing backs up the talk. Kvennan Fly Fishing was set up in 2006 as a fly-fishing-only zone with maximum-size rules to protect the bigger fish, one of the first waters in Norway to be managed this way. The average size of the grayling has climbed ever since. KFF’s catch log from one early-August count, based on 414 reported fishing days, showed an average length of 36.1 cm, more than eight grayling landed per day, and every fourth fish over 40 cm. Through the season, grayling over 50 cm come to the net every week, and the river holds fish up to around 1.5 kg.
Why the fishing is so rich
The Glomma at Kvennan runs wide and nutrient-rich over a bed of pale gravel and cobble, broken into runs, glides and little holding pockets. That rich, stony bottom carries dense insect life, and the insect life carries the fish right through the season.
“Good bottom fauna means a steady supply of food, and you can see it on the grayling. Fish in fine condition,” Sætren says.
The fly zone runs 15.2 km from the Eidsfossen falls down to Åbrua, easily waded at normal summer flow and braided here and there into quiet side channels where the grayling gather. “You could stay a week and never fish the same pool twice,” he says. There are trout too, fewer and far shyer, but the occasional fish of three to five kilos turns up. Every trout is released here, to grow larger still.
“I have seen some good trout I could pick out with the naked eye from the bank,” Sætren says. “They hold right in by the shore, under the bushes and in the back-eddies, rising ever so carefully.”
Seasonally increasing selectivity
Aggressive does not mean easy. As the season warms and the grayling settle into steady surface feeding, they grow choosier about what they will take.
“There are rich insect populations, with many different hatches and swarms,” Sætren says. “The fish are starting to get selective, so you cannot just go and collect them. It is a bit demanding.”
Warm water suits the grayling. Where the trout back off into cooler, faster lies as the river heats up, the grayling keep rising in the open glides through the warm weeks of summer. For the angler that means good surface sport, and a real test of presentation.
Anis found that out for himself this year. After years on the dry fly he tried nymphing in earnest for the first time and landed his personal best, a grayling of 53 cm.
Underway
The season is properly open now. A recent report had the river running clear at about 13 °C, a touch below its long-term level, with anglers well pleased by both the size and the number of fish.
2“Just come. Bring a box of small dries and a few nymphs, and be ready for how hard a grayling can hit,” Sætren says.
Fishing licenses for Kvennan Fly Fishing are available on Inatur.
