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The Fishing Lodge: Winsnes Fly Fishing since 1882
The name Winsnes is known from the 13 century. The name probably comes from the water stream Vinda which is "winding" from the lake Vindtjønna. Where the stream Vinda meets Gaula, it makes a headland (a "nes" in Norwegian). Originally it was 1 farm called Winsnes, but now it is actually 6 Winsnes farms. The original Winsnes farm is 1 km north of the place where Storstuu Winsnes Fishing Lodge is located. 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 (known by the Norwegians as ‘salmon lords’), no doubt used the Green Highlander fly extensively and it remains one of the top patterns on the Gaula River to this day.
The modern day green
highlander embodies all the key components of the original fully-dressed salmon fly but has been thoroughly overhauled
by modern Scandinavian fly-fishers to make it a cutting edge pattern – we like to think Winsnes embodies these virtues
too and that is why have such a close affinity to this famous fly.
Today, the Winsnes Fly Fishing Lodge is still owned by the Winsnes family and caters for the modern generation of hardcore
salmon fishers. The lodge is located next to statistically the best salmon fishing river in Europe: 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 sixteen rods each week with ten pools to fish including, of course, the Winsnes pools.
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!