From the newspaper Asker og Bærums Budstikke, in the magazine "Jakt og fiske"
on 24 . August 2005. Text, Ivar Alver.
THE BROTHERS OLAF AND LEIF GUNDERSRUD BELONG TO THE SALMON ELITE. IN MORE THAN 50 YEARS, THEY HAVE LANDED SEVERAL TONS OF SALMON IN THE COUNTRY'S LARGEST RIVERS.
The brothers have caught the most salmon in Orkla, where they have been fishing since the mid-1980s. Billingstad resident Olaf with Orklagaard on Dragsetmoen. And the Tanum resident Leif a couple of kilometers further up the river at Storås, where he owns and runs the fishing hotel Orkla River Lodge.
With burning enthusiasm, great experience and deep insight into the subtleties of river fishing, the brothers, Olaf 74 and Leif 70, keep the boil year after year. Why they don't get bored is hard to understand, but the fishing fever attacked them as boys as early as the early 1940s when their father took them trout fishing. Åstaddammen in Asker was the trout eldorado of childhood, while Sandvikselva was the start of the brothers' adventurous salmon fishing career. The father was a keen fisherman and hunter, and the brothers also hunt small game. As the salmon fever took hold more and more, Olaf and Leif fished in most of the country's best salmon rivers. They keep statistics on the catch. Both regard the Orkla as one of the country's top rivers, even if it is not in the river where they have caught their biggest fish.
Orkla ranks today as one of the country's best salmon rivers. In the beautiful and lush Orkdal, the river runs relatively shallow and calm, but also with many exciting pools and tempting rapids. In terms of catch, it comes in 5th place with 35.8 tonnes in 2002. In 2003, 31.9 tonnes of salmon and 1.3 tonnes of sea trout were caught. Last year was the worst in this century with a catch of 17,708 kg. This year's season opening has been very promising, and both Olaf and Leif predict an annual result of between 25 and 30,000 kilos. - But there is also another reason why salmon fishing in Orkla is going to pick up sharply this year. - We both have great expectations for the agreement that has been concluded between wedge seiners, anglers and the business community not to fish with wedge seines in the Trondheimsfjord. 70 per cent of wedge seiners have agreed to the agreement, and we assume that this will have very positive results. We have been fishing in Orkla since 1986 and the results have varied greatly. We will be disappointed if this agreement does not have a massive impact. The cessation of wedge seine fishing will give an estimated additional increase of salmon in Orkla of between 6,000 and 8,000. The start of this year's season has per 15 June was three times as large as last year, with a quantity of salmon caught of 3,500 kg. This indicates that 2005 will go down as a very successful year in Orkla. Before midsummer, it is the large salmon that come up the river from the sea. At the time of writing, mid-June, 400 large salmon had been caught with an average weight of approx. 9 kg. The average weight over several years for the entire season is 4.6 kg, but last year it was increased to 5.1 kg. In the middle of the season, medium-sized salmon and some large salmon dominate, and in the last part of the season from the turn of the month July-August comes the small salmon, i.e. salmon under three kg.
Olaf and Leif Gundersrud have fished in the very largest rivers in Norway and Scotland. Leif considers the Orkla to be by far the best river, primarily because it is rich in fish, but also because it is an excellent fly river. It is quite large, and no river like Namsen, for example. This means that you have better control of the entire river and can fish it from the banks without using a boat. Yes, Orkla has gotten better and better after the regulation, states Leif, who believes that Orkla is Norway's best if you judge by how much fish is taken in the fishable stretch, which amounts to about 7 miles, compared to 20 miles for Namsen. In addition, the water in Orkla is rich in minerals and substances that keep the river free of the salmon parasite gyrodactylus salaris, which kills the salmon fry. The overall chemical composition of the river water in Orkla may be part of the explanation for the salmon parasite not being observed in the river, Olaf interjects. The copper and sulphite content of the river water means that the parasite is unlikely to survive in the river. In addition, the river flows through the lush and scenic Orkdal, which tunes the mind to devotion and creates harmony and joy in life when you try your luck at fishing. In addition to an indefatigable belief in success, plus great patience, indeed love for the sport, the salmon fisherman must also have luck. How much of this has been decisive for the brothers I do not know, but both can point to results that are very rare in our country. Olaf caught his first salmon in Bondalselva on Sunnmøre on a Sunday morning in 1952, a small salmon of 1.5 kg. He was approached by a local boy who asked if Olaf had caught salmon. Full of joy and pride at his very first catch, Gundersrud showed the salmon, whereupon the boy jack contemptuously exclaimed: Pøh; it's just a pjakk (Sunnmørsk for small salmon). - I still remember how the boy stole a bit of my joy with this line, smiles Olaf. But there would eventually be more and bigger fish. In total, in well over 50 years as a passionate salmon fisherman, Olaf Gundersrud has fished well over 7,000 kg. When he stopped fishing for trout a long time ago and switched to salmon, it has to do with age. Salmon fishing is more convenient. You don't have to walk a mile or two before you can try your luck, he says. Olaf's biggest salmon of 23.2 kg he caught on a lure in Vosso. In Vosso he caught a female salmon of 20 kg. It was so unusually fat that he sent shell samples to find out more facts about the fish. The result was sensational. The fish was until then the largest known female salmon caught in Norway. It had three years in the river and four years in the sea behind it before it lost its life. Driving the fish only took half an hour, because it was cold in the river. It was caught on shrimp. In vosso, he has caught several salmon of over 20 kg. He caught the biggest salmon on a fly in the Altaelva. It was 18.7 kg. His largest in Orkla on fly was 14.8 kg. - Do you still get heart palpitations when you hook a salmon of around 20 kg? - No more adrenaline rush, but a slightly higher heart rate when it catches the fly. When you have several hundred salmon on your conscience over the years, you become more driven. And doesn't sink into gravel if you lose someone either, says Olaf, who, like his brother, prefers to fish with a fly when the conditions permit. But wobblers and lures are also good tools for fooling salmo salaris. In Sandvikselva, which was Leif's first salmon river, he caught 22 salmon in 1964, mainly small salmon. He caught his biggest salmon in Suldalslågen on shrimp. It weighed 21 kg. And in Vosso, on a wobbler, he got just the right weight. In Bondalselva on Sunnmøre, Leif caught 28 small salmon (pjakk) in one night, all on fly. But Leif's strongest experience as a salmon fisherman was in the Resell pool in Orkla. Here he caught 7 salmon on fly on 22 July 1990 within two and a half hours. Between 12 and 5 kg. His biggest salmon in Orkla so far is 16.2 kg. Leif smiles reminiscingly when he recounts his statistics, and even after more than 50 years as a salmon fisherman, he never gets bored. Between sessions in the river, he takes care of anglers from home and abroad who check in at the Orkla River Lodge, where Leif is both host and guide. He has his nephew Ottar Gundersrud with him in the season from 1 June to the end of August. Ottar is the fishing manager and claps and takes care of the guests. It happens that he helps an inexperienced salmon fisherman to hook the fish and then let the guest drive and land it, both Ottar and Leif are intimate acquaintances in Orkla where Leif has his rented salmon beds and they know exactly where the fish are.
But just when the fish are biting, it is Olaf who is the specialist. When he was co-owner of the magazine "Villmarksliv" he got the idea and prepared a table of when the salmon are most willing to bite. The calculations have been prepared in collaboration with astrophysicist and salmon fisherman Rolf Bradhe on the basis of how the ebb and flow of the sun and moon affect the willingness to bite. That table is used to this day with great success, as far as we understand. Whether it was Olaf's table that made the decision for Asker man Per N. Fostveit, better known in Asker as Tinn-Per, I don't know, but after a couple of days of intense fishing, Tinn-Per struck with a vigorous male salmon of 12,5 kg. He fighted 40 minutes before the fish landed in the net, and immediately sent a text message to his wife. Life in Orkla, and other salmon rivers, is wonderful, but is it a life that only rich people can enjoy, right? Both Olaf and Leif deny that this is the situation. Fishing licenses are not sold in six parts of Orkla. These make up a total of 15 km of the approx. 70 km long river. For the rest of the river, a stretch of a good 50 km, fishing licenses are sold which provide reasonable opportunities for anyone to fish for salmon. In the price range of NOK 200 to NOK 300/the card per day and night. - With me, says Leif, you can live and fish for NOK 1,400 a day. As a rule, the house is full here at Storås, so the suggestion that salmon fishing is only for rich people has no basis in reality, although of course there are particularly exclusive places where the price level is higher.
We let the poet Alexander Kielland answer why it is so attractive, enticing, and even fun to fish for salmon.
In a letter to Edvard Brandes in 1879:
"Why do I feel like writing - yeah, you can't believe how thoroughly it amuses me. When I start a chapter, which I have really hot in my head, it is so funny - yes I won't claim that it's quite as fun as having a salmon on the pole, but at least like a big trout"
R.I.P Olaf
