Trolling for the big trout in Mjøsa

11.07.18

After our 18-hour fishing competition at Femunden (LINK) where we placed third, Christian and I decided to go south to Mjøsa. I was feeling very excited about this, as it would be my first experience fishing there, and I was lucky to be the crewmember and photographer for professional fisherman Christan Juel.

Three and a half hours of driving later, including a pit stop at Burger King, we were ready for a new fishing adventure. Needless to say, we were both feeling quite exhausted after barely getting 3 hours of sleep over the past 28 hours, but the hope of landing "the big trout" gave us new life.

There was not a single breath of wind. The time was 9pm and we were ready to start fishing. The first 30 minutes went by before our first catch. A 1kg trout. Nothing really to brag about... We decided to cross the lake towards the southwest corner, and the conditions were absolutely unreal. We found an area filled with smaller fish, and the weights were barely distinguishable from 1-9 meters. It's a good sign having all the smaller fish towards the surface, as it means the larger fish is more likely to come up. We did a small turn, and bam! The reel was screaming, and we knew we had a big one on the line. Christian held the fish on a straight line. I got around to hauling up the rest of the gear. We were ready for a fight. Christian started playing the fish and it came up to the surface. It turned itself around and disappeared from sight, the fish was lost. Christian swore loudly and was obviously frustrated and upset. "It was a big one" he managed to exclaim between the other swearwords.

We kept going. Our eyes were heavy and our bodies were yearning for sleep. It was 3am and we were trolling close to shore, in and out, up and down. We drank Cola, Red Bull and coffee, anything to keep ourselves awake. And bam! Another fish hit. We heard the reel scream as the fish took the line. We quickly realized we had another big one. 4, 5 or 6 kilos? Impossible to know at this time and only one way to find out. The fight was on. It came in towards the boat then ran again. It jumped on the surface before diving for another run. It went on and on like this for 15 minutes. Finally the fish started to become tired as it came in closer towards the boat. It was a monster! It was huge! Christian became very quiet, calm and concentrated as he carefully and skillfully reached the net towards it.

"YES! WE HAVE IT! WE HAVE IT! YES!" Christian screamed for the entire lake to hear. The monster measured 84 cm and weighed in on 8,1kg. We swore, screamed and fell a happy tear in that exact order. An indescribable feeling to be cherished forever.

The fish was caught on a Kopello. You can buy it on Larvik Fiskesport AS. We had a speed at 2,3 knots. 200 meters from land. 

See the video from the fantastic trip.

If you'd like to come out on a trip like this, check out our information on our fishing trips HERE

//Christer Nannestad

Translated by Translated by Bergljot Sindredottir Støer

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