The Fishing Lodge: Fly Fishing
Winsnes Fly Fishing Lodge – Salmon Fishing Lodge since 1882
Located next to the famous Gaula River, Winsnes Fly Fishing Lodge offers some of the best fishing available on Europe’s best Salmon River.
Guests at the farm can stay on a full or half board basis, with meals arranged around creating the least disruption to prime fishing times. In the early summer (June/July) guests can fish all night and make the most of Norway’s famous midnight sun - see below.
Sport fishing for salmon has been a tradition at the Winsnes Farm since the nineteenth century. Winsnes received its first fishing visitors from England in 1882, the same year that the famous Green Highlander fly was invented in Great Britain. The visitors, members of the British gentry were known by the Norwegians as ‘salmon lords’ and the Lodge still contains a few relics from their visit.
Modern day Winsnes, proud of its tradition, is still a lodge for hardcore salmon fishing addicts (though getting to the lodge is easier than it was in 1882!). The Winsnes Fly Fishing Lodge is still owned by the Winsnes family and caters for the modern generation of hardcore salmon fishers. In May 2007, Anne Marit Winsnes married fishing personality Matt Hayes and today they own and run the lodge between them. The lodge is located next to statistically the best salmon fishing river in Europe. The Gaula has always been famous, not just for the sheer numbers of salmon she produces (over 6000 in 2006) but also for big fish (average size around fourteen to sixteen pounds). Every year salmon weighing more than twenty kilos (forty pounds) are hooked on the Gaula.
In addition to offering fishing in the Winsnes fishing area, we are also part of the salmon fishing rotation run by Gaula Fly Fishing Friends. Fishing is exclusively reserved for twenty four rods each week with fourteen pools to fish including, of course, the Winsnes pools.
Winsnes Today – 24 Hour Fishing
In high summer it is possible to fish for salmon 24 hours a day and, while
none of our guests have so far managed a week of 24 hour fishing, a good few have tried! At Winsnes
we expect our guests to come and go at all times of the day and night – we encourage them to do so.
Meal
times are arranged to suit the best fishing times.