provocatively beautiful and pure magic

photos & review m.wvengler / pool 32 mag

Årgård River Camp

Two years ago I visited the Årgård River Camp river north of Trondheim in Norway, and I had an absolutely fantastic time, with some of the best salmon fishing I ever experienced.

The Årgård river is a small river which runs out into the same fjord as the famous Namsen river does, this means that quite often some of the big Namsen salmon navigates up the Årgård river by mistake. This means that even though the Årgård river is a typical grills river with an average fish size around 1 - 4 kg, but fish up to 8 -12 kg are caught every season.

One of the thing that really blows me away every time I’m visiting the Årgård River Camp is the beauty of this place. The surroundings are amazing. Beavers, moose, deers, minks and also eagles are a common sight so you really feel like you are in Canada or somewhere in Alaska. But the best part about this place is the absolutely superb fishing conditions.

You have everything within walking distance, no driving are neces-sary at all. You typically fish with a #5-7 rod and it’s easy casting with lot’s of fish all over the place. I would actually claim that everybody can catch a salmon at the Årgård River Camp - even on a dead drift dry fly!!

These classic Norwe-gian wooden cabins you are staying in, are very exclusively furnished plus very well equipped with every modern house hold interior. You will find every-thing you need from a nice flat screen TV with lot’s of movie channels, to heated toilet floor, dishwasher, micro- and normally oven and of course a washing ma-chine as well.

But who care about TV and movie channels - during my two visits at the Årgård River Camp I have never watched any TV at all, why should I - the scenery outside are more than enough. Just sitting out on the porch with a nice glass of vine, en-joying these quiet surroundings, listening to the birds sing beautifully, and over- looking this amaz-ing valley - well, that’s simply, and I can honestly say that a small part of my soul never really leaves this place. As soon as I have left this place, I right away long to come back to this perfect little salmon Paradise again.

pure magic

To underline the comfort of this place you will also be able to enjoy a jacuzzi or a luxury sauna between the huts, so after a long day of casting for plenty of salmon, your can recover with a cold drink enjoying the sublime view of the whole river valley - even from the sauna.

These very tasteful Norwegian wooden cabins are located on the edge of the valley, which gives a superb view of the whole area, and what a view you have, it’s absolutely stunning.

“I can honestly say that a small part of my soul ....never really leaves this place!! ”

M.WenglerPool 32 Mag

The flies I have had the most success with are small tube flies, with orange coloured wings and a bit of copper an red on the tube it self. The tippet I use is typically one and a half rod length of 0.35 - 0.40 - don’t go any further down, because there are some big fish swimming around in these pools, and it would be very sad to loose one of these beauties just because of a wrong choice of tippet.

Besides all the beauty and magic this place contains, the Stenberg family who runs this amazing little place, are just such a great family. They are extremely kind and help-ful so if you should have a problem of any kind, just ask and they will do everything to solved it right away. Angela and Jörgen Stenberg are both excellent fly fishers, and they have been fishing this river for many years, so they know eve-rything you need to know about how to fish these variable and beautiful Årgård River pools.

You constantly see or hear fish jumping in all of these pools, and it’s very moti-vating because you know that in this hu-mus colored river, there is a lot of “silver” swimming around just waiting to see a perfectly presented fly, at the end of your line.

One evening we had a huge run of fresh fish. It was raining very quietly, with no wind at all, standing totally still I could just watch hundreds of silver fish mov-ing close by me in a constant flow - that is probably one of the most fascinating expe-rience I ever had as a fly fisher.

There is not doubt that this place is very unique, even though the Årgård river have had some envi-ronmentally rough years back in time, like so many other rivers around the globe, but it has recovered very well today, and if you lift up a small stone you will find a wide range of living creatures, indicat-ing a healthy biotope. This is alway something that makes me wonder, Mother nature is so grateful if you treat Her well you will be well rewarded, which the Årgård river is a perfect example of.

I can’t wait to go back to the Årgård River Camp one day, and hopefully everything will be exactly a it was when I left, because the kind of perfection this place provides, should never be changed - it is really provocatively beautiful and full of magic!!!

ÅrgÅrd river

Camp

WeBSiTewww.argard.nu

ConTaCT

jorgen.stenberg@sissweden.com&

frank.stenberg@sissweden.com