The world's best are fishing the water you drive past
23 fish in three hours on the Atna. 55 fish in one session on Nordre Rena/Unsetåa. Two world championships are being fished in Østerdalen this week, and the results should make us all consider heading up the stream less travelled.
This weekend some of the best fly anglers in the world fish some of the less used stretches of our local rivers, and the catches are nothing less than inspiring.
The venues are not the region's celebrity beats. The ladies rotate through Atna below the confluence with Setninga, a beat in Glomma in Stor-Elvdal, Femundselva and boat sectors on Storsjøen and Galtsjøen; the masters fish the Glomma, Northern Rena/Unsetåa, Femundselva and boat sectors on Sølensjøen and Isteren. Water many visiting and local anglers alike drive past on their way somewhere more famous.
The clearest example is the rapid freestone stretch of Atna the ladies fished on Tuesday, where Melanie Meissel of France registered 23 fish in three hours. Maija Koistinen of Finland took seven fish in barely an hour, averaging 33 centimetres. She would probably have had more, sollia.net reports, had she not had to run across the gravel to her controller for every measurement.
Trophy trout and grayling where, you said?
The longest fish recorded in the Atna sector that day went 50 centimetres; sollia.net put the day's biggest at a 47-centimetre grayling. On Wednesday, Chloe Quillard of France took 15 fish there, her best 47.
Results from Northern Rena/Unsetåa, a stretch mostly overshadowed by the Southern Rena and its magnificent stock of bug-eating trout and grayling, tell the same story: Pat Weiss of the USA landed 43 fish in three hours on Tuesday, his longest 51 centimetres.
On Wednesday, Jordi Oliveras Cortina of Spain caught 55 fish in the same sector, in the same three hours. On the Glomma, José Manuel Socastro Gens of Spain has had a 44-fish session.
Four fish of 55 centimetres has been caught so far. Two from Galtsjøen and one from Isteren, all from boats, and one from the bank on Femundselva.
"It is smart to check other areas"
None of this surprises the people who fish here every week.
"It is absolutely clear that it is smart to check out other areas than just the best-known ones," says Eirik Sætren, river keeper at Kvennan Fly Fishing and warden on several Fishspot beats.
The scorecards hold a second reminder: fish the fast water, even though it’s harder to read.
"Fish can show themselves with rises in fast-running water too, but it is usually a good deal harder to spot the rises in broken water — riffles and the like," he explains.
"Even so, it is often effective to try a slightly large bushy fly, a streaking caddis or even a Chernobyl Ant, before you go looking for the heavier artillery like streamers and heavily weighted nymphs," he adds.
Three hours, one sector, no warning
From 27 July to 1 August, Østerdalen is hosting the 5th FIPS-Mouche World Ladies Fly Fishing Championship and the 11th World Masters Championship, the masters being men over 50. Fifteen nations are here, from Australia, Mongolia and South Africa to the Channel Islands and the USA: around 140 anglers, 250 volunteers, three host municipalities. Norway has form: the first women's world championship in fly fishing was held in Rendalen and Stor-Elvdal in 2022.
Each morning the competitors board buses without knowing where they are going; which nation fishes which sector is drawn only when the bus stops. The angler then fishes from 10.00 to 13.00 with a personal controller who records every fish. Fish are kept in the net, in the water, measured with purpose-made equipment and released immediately.
And in the scoring, numbers usually beat size: five decent grayling will often beat one very good fish.
Where it stands after three sessions
In the ladies' championship, South Africa lead the team standings after three sessions, ahead of Finland and France, with Norway in fourth. Maria Elizabeth Heyns of South Africa has taken over the individual lead with 34 fish; Maria Tuominen of Finland and Julie Quillard of France follow.
In the masters, Spain lead the team standings ahead of Italy and the Czech Republic, and Jordi Oliveras Cortina of Spain heads the individual standings with 66 fish in three sessions. Karl Engelbrecht of South Africa, who took the Femundselva 55, sits second.
Two sessions remain: Friday and Saturday. Full results are published session by session on the FIPS-Mouche pages for the ladies and the masters.
The open events
The ceremonies are open to the public. The closing ceremony and medal presentation is at Åkrestrømmen on Saturday 1 August, 17.30–18.30, followed by the closing banquet at Storstua in Koppang from 19.00.
Fish the same water
Every venue fished this week is ordinary licence water:
The Atna: licences for the Atna water system are sold by Atna Fiskeforening on Inatur: some 50 lakes and 150 kilometres of rivers and streams with trout, grayling and char, season until 15 September.
The Glomma sector: covered by Stor-Elvdal's common fishing licence, which takes in Glomma with tributaries in Stor-Elvdal but not the Atna watercourse.
Femundselva and Galtsjøen: both on the Fishing in Engerdal licence.
Isteren: a separate licence on Inatur.
Storsjøen: see Lake Storsjøen in Rendalen.
Sølensjøen: see Spekedalen and lake Sølensjøen.
The Nordre Rena/Unsetåa sector: see Unsetåa.
Or pick a river or a lake nobody talks about, and fish the fast water in it properly. The world's best have just spent a week proving there is more here than the famous names.
Sources: results and sector reports from FIPS-Mouche (5th World Ladies Fly Fishing Championship and 11th World Masters Fly Fishing Championship, sessions 1–3); Eirik Sætren, river keeper at Kvennan Fly Fishing; sollia.net; Stor-Elvdal municipality.
