Brown Trout ~ Bergen, Norway

The Finicular is a tram that scales the mountainside northeast of the Bryggen District. At the top sits an overlook taking in the surrounding city, harbor and islands. There is a coffee shop, gift shop and restaurant. This attraction is well done, in true “overfunded” Norwegian style. A well traveled trail takes me through a forest of Norway Spruce, some nearly four feet across the base. The forest floor is covered in a soft carpet of moss and lush ferns giving the surroundings a rainforest quality.

I tie on an orange stimulator in size 10 to act as a float for the small prince nymph below. Positioned on a shelf next to some deeper looking water I begin casting, Sonya and Jemi observing from a sheltered picnic table some 100 meters away. A dozen casts in, the first of four norweigian browns took the fly. The first on the stimulator, the balance took the nymph.

The fish or “fiske”, petite and slightly stunted, are 6” in length on average (being generous) with golden bellies, dark olive brown background and oversized spots. Quite different in many ways to their relations stateside.

We took on a coffee and pastry, then rode the tram down the mountain. And this ends, the first fishing opportunity of the 5 week and 3 country (Norway, Scotland and Ireland) trip. A success by any measure, a milestone of sorts, landing my first ever european trout.