Located on Hadseløya in Vesterålen’s magnificent archipelago is the old trading town of Stokmarknes, surrounded by striking nature and the sea close by. Here is a vibrant coastal environment with a population that lives for tourism with a wide range of restaurants, hotels, museums and a well-functioning infrastructure with an airport only a few minutes away that we will use for all air travelers. Our new destination on Vesterålen is beautifully located on Børøya in the middle of Langøysundet with a view of the harbor in a westerly direction. The village is a well-known place in Hurtigruten’s history and is the site of the company’s first steam-powered coastal ship that created the first Hurtigruten line in 1893. It is now home to the Hurtigruten Museum, which is a very popular destination for visiting tourists.
The great fishing adventure is just around the corner and the first fishing spots are only minutes away from the harbor where halibut, plaice, wolfish and cods swims. The camp is very weather protected and allows you to go both east or west towards many exciting fishing spots. The distances to all our previous fishing spots are the same but the new location opens up even more opportunities to explore new, exciting fishing areas east towards Sortlandsundet, Raftsundet and the northern parts of Lofoten around Fiskebøl where the bottom structure looks extremely interesting on the chart.
Eidsfjorden also offers very varied fishing, with halibut, cod and coalfish on the agenda, but also exciting deep-sea fishing where redfish, whiting, angler fish, lings and other more unusual species have been caught. Looking further west, the opportunities become even greater and more and more fishing spots appear, most of them in the form of free-standing pinnacles or peaks, filled with shoals of baitfish that are diligently courted by marine predators. One of the most interesting areas is on the west side of Vesterålen, around the large island of Litöya. From there, the fishing area spreads out with hundreds of skerries, peaks and channels where many large halibut waiting for their next prey. On the edges, just before the depth drops down to a couple of hundred meters, the big coalfish is actively hunting in the open water and the cod patrols along the deep edge.
If you go south from the camp with a bow towards the of northern parts of Lofoten, there are a large number of interesting fishing spots and in a south-westerly direction, you will find both Strandgrunnen and further away the well-known Gimsøystraumen, which is a very good area for halibut. The fishing is often conducted in very shallow water, which provides spectacular fights and makes it possible to cast and spin for halibut with smaller jigs. There is also a chance of really big plaice for those who want to try this.
If the weather is great, this destination offers something that beats everything else by a mile. Just over an hour’s boat ride from the camp, we have found a place that cannot be compared to anything else, it just has to be experienced! The availability of baitfish out here is almost too good to be true and the big predatory fish have a buffet set up around the clock. Around the shallows, the big cod hunt in the mid-water and when, in the middle of a shoal of baitfish, you see the mark of a giant cod, it’s hard to keep your pulse low. The average size of the fish is the best we have experienced and the top fish is extraordinary, exceeding 38 kg . We have also landed several more cods over 30 kg here and halibuts up to a whopping 240 cm, with an approximate weight of over 200 kg here. That speaks for itself.
In some places, the bottom here is more uneven, as the sonar clearly indicates, and these edges seem to be teeming with big lings, even giant in Norwegian measurments. The water depth is not what you normally associate with ling, where the sonar shows hundreds of meters below the keel, but here we find the ling around 70-80 meters deep. We came across them by chance when we were drifting by with the shads at one point and suddenly everyone in the boat was standing with a heavy rod bend of something that behaved very differently compared to a cod. After this discovery, we have since been targeting these giants with baitfish rigs and catching ling almost as long as ourselves, with weights over 30 kg.
It’s not hard to figure out that halibut thrive here, both because of the availability of baitfish but also because of the current that exists here. In the mid-water around all the baitfish, the coalfish also hunt frantically and at times it is almost perceived as hard, that a coalfish gets ahead of many of the other predators, as it happens that they take the lures on the way down, or on the way up when you have to change the drift. If you choose to fish for coalfish instead, you will soon get long arms and tired backs. Without hesitation, we dare to say that this long trip offers Norway’s absolute best fishing area for big fish.
The nature around Vesterålen is unique and differs little from neighboring areas. The mountains are still steep and pointed as in Lofoten, but the tree line extends higher up and the whole of Vesterålen shines in a fantastic green hue during the summer. Hadseløya with its highest peak at 656 meters above sea level offers an impressive setting around the camp. The waters of both Hadselfjorden and Eidsfjorden, as well as the western side of Vesterålen, are regularly patrolled by killer whales and porpoises, combined with an abundance of bird life that adds an extra spice to the experience.
The camp is well equipped for anglers with a fish-cleaning area, freezer and drying room and with the cabins located right next door, you can not wish for more at a fishing camp. On site there is a very nice and pleasant restaurant with many tasty and exciting dishes that provide a top-class culinary experience. Our guides will make sure that you get the help and service you need during the week to make the experience in Vesterålen as good as possible. They can also join you in the boat for a trip on the sea if you wish. The guides also manage our tackle shop, where we have a large selection of baits and accessories necessary for fishing in the area, where you can also rent both floating suits, fishing equipment and buy styrofoam boxes for transporting your fish home.