July is primetime on the Gaula. In terms of both quantity and quality, July provides the best overall opportunity for both size and numbers of fish.
Guides
Guides are available for a full week or single day, depending upon your needs. Our guides are some of the best in Scandinavia with over 30 years of fishing experience. NFC guides are well versed in tackling all the challenging conditions the Gaula has to offer. Their deep understanding of the river and its environment enables them to provide expert advice to guests about anything from tackle selection to casting as well as fishing techniques and fly selection. Guides can arrange riverside picnics for breakfast, lunch, or dinner as well as provide transportation between our beats. This allows the fisherman to get the most out of his or her stay at NFC.
Season
June is usually a very exciting and challenging time to fish the Gaula. As the season opens, the fish may be fewer in numbers, but what is lacking in numbers is made up in size. June fishing offers some of the best opportunities to catch salmon between 25 and 40 lbs. Our rotation provides water both above and below the famous Gaulfossen rapids. This ensures that even in the early season, quality fishing is guaranteed in all water levels and conditions. Our experience suggests that 14-16 ft double-handed rods with sinking lines and large weighted tube flies are best suited for June.
July is primetime on the Gaula. In terms of both quantity and quality, July provides the best overall opportunity for both size and numbers of fish. Typically water levels stabilize and fish can be found in all reaches of our beats. With lower water levels and an increase in temperature, floating, and intermediate lines with smaller tube flies and double-hook flies are most suitable. The midnight sun offers 24 hours of fishing in the pristine Norwegian landscape throughout the entire month.
August is delicate salmon fishing at its finest. Fish of all sizes can be encountered throughout our beats. With each new rain, fish move around in their spawning pools. This is the time to use small flies with a floating line on a small double-hand rod. Single-handed or switch rods are also quite effective. During August, fishermen can target salmon on a dry fly or with a riffling hitch. There is nothing more exciting than seeing a 20-lb. salmon rise to a small-skated dry fly!
Conservation
NFC spearheaded the catch-and-release salmon fishing on the Gaula river; we actively promote live-release fishing. Over 80% of all fish caught in 2013 were released. NFC supports salmon conservation projects in cooperation with The North Atlantic Salmon Fund, The Atlantic Salmon Federation, and Redd Villaksen.
Gaula Salmon Fund — Est. 2013
Norwegian Flyfishers Club is proud to be known as one of the charter members of the Gaula Salmon Fund, a non-profit organization made up of local landowners, businesses and interested parties with a unified goal to preserve the future of the Gaula River and its stock of wild Atlantic salmon. Gaula Salmon Fund has launched a community wide and international effort seeking to strike a balance between the economic interests of the local community and the environmental challenges faced by the wild Atlantic salmon. Together, we can make a stand to help protect this vital natural resource for the benefit of our future generations.
www.gaulasalmonfund.com
New Ownership & Management
Fulfilling life-long dreams to operate a fly fishing establishment, Norwegian-American Per Arneberg and Danish-Italian Enrico Cristiani, have partnered to run the Norwegian Flyfisher’s Club. Both men have been avid fishermen from an early age and have fished the Gaula for many years. Between the two, they have fished several of the finest rivers in Norway, Scotland, Russia, Iceland, and the United States. With their shared passion for fly fishing and deeply entrepreneurial spirits, it was perhaps inevitable that after a chance meeting in 2011, while fishing the same beats of the Norwegian Flyfisher’s Club, they partnered to take over the ownership and operations.
Daniel Stephan, from Hamburg in Germany, has been working on the Gaula for Norwegian Flyfishers Club since 2005, and has great knowledge and experience on the river. The NFC team is upgrading the hospitality and logistics of the club while continuing the tradition of conservation programs and initiatives, begun over 30 years ago by founder Manfred Raguse. Their goal is to actively protect wild Atlantic salmon to ensure that the Gaula continues to thrive as one of the top salmon rivers in the world. The NFC strives to provide guests with a truly Norwegian fishing experience with top-level service and accommodation.