The Norwegian Fly Fishing Club on the Gaula River overlooks one of the Gaula’s most idyllic beats.
Located on the Rogstadmoen Farm, the new NFC Lodge offers full room and board in a magnificent setting overlooking one of the Gaula’s most idyllic beats. Decorated in authentic Norwegian style, we offer a single, double and suite accommodations all with bathrooms and river views. Other amenities include a conference center; free WiFi access, living room, wader drying room, as well as a traditional Norwegian sauna and relaxation area.
Our chef will prepare hearty meals with fresh local produce, as well as riverside picnics that can be arranged for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Weekly riverside barbecues are arranged for all guests as a social interlude to the week’s fishing. A fully stocked bar is also at your disposal at the lodge.
Spanning over 145 km from its headwaters in the high mountains near the village of Holtalen to where it joins the sea in the Trondheim Fjord, the Gaula is a wild and unregulated river which has never been built out for hydroelectric power. As such, it has a constantly fluctuating water level, which provides seasoned anglers with a varied and exciting fishing challenge. Second only to the Tana (that is over ten times longer) in catch, the Gaula is one of the most consistently productive salmon rivers not only in Norway, but also in the world.
The river supports healthy stocks of some of the world’s largest Atlantic salmon. Many of the fish in the Gaula average over 30 lbs. and some even top 40 lbs. In the early season, fish can average over 20 lbs. This is truly the river of dreams and a place to try for the “fish of a lifetime”.
Norwegian Flyfishers Club is located near the village of Støren, in Central Norway. The lodge is only a hour drive from Trondheim and the Trondheim Airport. The Trondheim Fjord is one of the most well-protected fjords in Norway, perhaps the reason the Gaula’s salmon grow to such a large average size. What makes NFC unique is our diverse selection of fishing beats in the middle and lower sections of the river, which increase overall chances for good fishing throughout the season, regardless of the conditions.
At NFC, we offer various accommodations, which we can tailor to each client or group’s needs. Sunday welcome meetings take place at the new NFC lodge and include an informal welcome dinner. Our weekly barbecues are a good way for lodge guests to meet, share fishing experiences, laughs, and a good meal.
In 2014, Norwegian Flyfishers Club opened its new lodge and welcome center. Located at Rogstadmoen farm which is approximately 8km upstream from the village of Støren. It incorporates our dining facility, fly shop, and bar, and offers comfortable space for up to 14 fishermen in a variety of single, double rooms and suite, as well as a wellness center with sauna and a massage room.
History of the Gula
As early as 1440, there were written reports about salmon fishing in the Gaula. Salmon fishing rights were frequently used for validation of property ownership. Custom papers, dating back to 1571, show there has long been the export of smoked and salted salmon from Trondheim to Denmark and Holland. Netting and spearing were common methods used to catch salmon.
Fishing with rod and line is known to have been in use for a long time, but did not really become important until 1825 when the first English fishers using greenheart fly rods, silk lines, and salmon flies laid the foundations for sport fishing on the Gaula. Some travelled by boat to Kristiania (now Oslo) and were using coach and horses to get up to Støren and the Støren Hotell, the center of the Gaula valley, crossing the Dovre Mountains on their way. Many of them came by boat to Trondheim and from there, a short journey to the valley of the Gaula. After the railway from Oslo to Trondheim was built in 1864, and the railway line from Trondheim to Röros was established in 1877, it was easier to access the different parts of the Gaula valley.
In 1835, Mr. Andrews and other English fishers stayed and fished around Støren. At a farm up stream of Støren the “English House” was built on the riverbank in 1837, after English fishers had been fishing there for some years. The lease on this water, which includes the original and now fully-renovated English House, is held today by the Norwegian Flyfishers Club (NFC) and is a cozy place for small parties to stay. The NFC leases over 25 beats of beautiful fly water along the course of the Gaula.
After the early flyfishers like Mr. Rogers and Mr. Hunt experienced such fantastic fishing on the Gaula, catching 266 salmon within 26 days in 1848, more and more flyfishers began to visit. Year after year, many wealthy Brits came with a lot of relatives, friends and servants. One of them was John Gordon, who virtually came every summer, from 1860 until he died in 1899. He fished the Bogen water and lived his first years out on the Bogen Farm. On several other farms, various English tenants lived during the summer, hiring the services of the farmers for guiding, transport, cooking etc., and brought a considerable amount of income to the riparian owners.
The pilgrimage of English flyfishers to the Gaula – “perhaps the best Salmon river in Norway” continued until World War I. In the Jones Guide to Norway, edited by Frederic Tolfrey and published in 1848, the Gaula is described as follows: “It is not only renowned in Norway, but its fame has spread far and wide, and it is held by all who have visited it, to be one of the noblest streams in which the Salmon-fisher ever wetted a line. Wondrous has been the sport met with by our Countrymen; and, to this day, the Guul (Gaula) is remembered by them with feelings that none but a real lover of the Art can enter into or appreciate”.
The same book reports about a Mr. Hornden who landed a thirty-pounder after he had to follow it swimming over to the other bank: “This is a fact worthy of being recorded, and adds, if possible, to the celebrity Mr. Hornden has gained for himself as a first-class salmon fisher. This gentleman has been known to kill three hundred weight of fish on the Guul (Gaula) in two days.” Jones Guide to Norway closes with the words: “May we meet on the banks of the Guul (Gaula), the Namsen or the Alten (Alta)… and drink success to salmon-fishing in general, and to the Jones Guide to Norway in particular.”
“The Gaula is not only renowned in Norway, but its fame has spread far and wide, and it is held by all who have visited it, to be one of the noblest streams in which the Salmon-fisher ever wetted a line.” —Frederic Tolfrey
