Drift ­boat ­fishing ­the ­Rena ­river

The season in famous Rena river opened up this weekend, and we where invited by Rena Fishcamp owner, and now captain, Lars B Johansen to go drift boat fishing with two of the Rena guides. Four men with trout abstinence backed the boat up with coffee, hot-dogs, steak and streamers -massive streamers. This is opening day in Rena river.

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The season in famous Rena river opened up this weekend, and we where invited by Rena Fishcamp owner, and now captain, Lars B Johansen to go drift boat fishing with two of the Rena guides. Four men with trout abstinence packed the boat up with coffee, hot-dogs, steaks and streamers -massive streamers. This is opening day in Rena river:

A good number of people showed up to get their registration in order, as this gives you the opportunity start the fishing at 21.00 the day before actual opening day (1 may). This puzzled me, as fishing from nine in the evening will only give you one hour of daylight. And the weather was absolutely horrible. Thankfully the social scene in the lavvo tent was upheld by a small group of fishermen, smart enough to wait until Sunday morning with the fishing.

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Come sunday and we where ready. I was lucky to be invited. Lars and his two guides Petter Berget and Martin Mikkelsen know the river very well, and know some of the fish by name. Having spent som years threading the banks of the Rena river, I know it fairly well. But sitting here with these guys, all set on targeting big fish, i knew the veil on some of Renas secrets would be lifted. These guys know how to enjoy their time off, and with steak on the menu i was impressed.

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“Watch the paint job!” Lars pulls a grin as his newly acquired drift boat is being launched into the water. What is so nice with a drift boat, is the fact that it gives you proper control. You have one man rowing and one or two men fishing. The boat rides on top of the current, and you can with ease have the boat stop in mid current. We where four men in the boat this day, and with eight hours of flogging the river with streamers, its nice to take a break and just watch the river.

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The day started with several fish in the first few hours. Most where caught on the streamer”Sid” by Andreas Andersson and the rest on big rag-doll streamers. The mood in the boat was good. The season had started, the new boat was working great, but we had not yet been in contact with a proper fish. And the trout here in Rena can get very big. Last years opening fish was 5,5 kilo, and fish over 8 kilos have been caught here before. We had pulled a few fish of about 500 grams, and that paints a good picture about the health of the river, but we did not pack our fly boxes with huge chunks of rabbit to catch small fish.

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For some weird reason all the fishermen that went down to the river the night before was gone. Now, with the sun shining and nice conditions all around, they were all gone. Weird. Lars who had taken it upon himself to row the boat the first few hours, now made his claim to the stern to start fishing. He pulls up a zip-lock bag and the resemblance to the fly fishing film “Streamers Inc”  was amusing. Hi pulled up a rag-doll fly of about 20 cm. In less than 20 minutes later the tight line was singing.

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It is easy to be tricked by the pull on your line when hooking up, as the boat is in the heavy current, and the line gets a lot more drag than what you are used to from land. We had quite a few “woooow”‘s that turned out to be small fish. Lars`fish seemed to be the real deal though. Finally in the net the fish weighed 1,5 kg. Not a massive fish in Rena river but never the less a decent fish.

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What i like about drift boat fishing the Rena river is the perspective and overview one gets. It gives you ideas about where to go next time when you most likely are confined to land. You can achieve this with a kayak to some extent, but its a lot messier compared to this. Going down river backwards in a kayak while paddling and holding your rod at the same time does not really compare.

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After a welcomed stop with some on-the-bank cuisine in the form of chilli-hot-dogs and steak, we set of once again. The after noon fishing, however, was not the best. It really switched off. We persisted either way, and at the very end Martin pulled up a nice fish. In all we landed 9 trout and – a grayling on a 15 cm streamer.

Summer and fishing season is ahead of us  – have a good summer

By: Anders Dahl Eriksen

Pictures