Midsummer Fishing in Alta
Midsummer’s Eve is a big deal in Norway. The day is to celebrate the brightest day of the year. People go camping or have BBQs at the beach. Midsummer’s Eve is about enjoying the endless sunshine.
However, in Alta, shops close early, people leave work before time and the city becomes like a ghost town as everyone has headed to the rivers. Midsummer’s Eve is the last day of free fishing in Alta and all the locals are out in force along the banks to catch some Midsummer’s salmon. The salmon have started making their way back up to their breeding waters. They aren’t hungry at all when they get to the rivers as they have already filled up in the ocean so this makes it very tricky to catch a salmon. At Twelve-midnight, when the sun is high in the sky, the free fishing ends. Alta folk sure know the rules down to the letter – if you hook a fish before midnight, even if it is 11:59pm, then you are allowed to keep it no matter how long it takes you to reel it in.
Onkel Rooney is the (fanatical) fisher of the family. Nearly every weekend he is down by the rivers. He inspires you to fish just from his dedication. Moose reckons the Alta salmon is Onkel Rooney’s ‘Moby Dick’. Well, lets have a look shall we?:
1. Did Onkel Rooney sign up minutes after the office opened to register for the license raffle? – yes.
2. Did he count down the weeks, days, and hours to the fishing license raffle? – uh-huh.
3. Did he wait up until midnight for the drawing of the fishing licenses? – of course.
4. Did he win a fishing license for 2010? – yep, the fish gods smiled down on him this year!
5. Is he crazy-happy with his one day, 24 hours straight, of salmon fishing? – you bet!
6. Did this slow down his free fishing activity – hec, no!
I think Moose might be right.
Next year I might even sign up to do some salmon fishing. But maybe it would be a good idea to learn fly-fishing first?
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Runes were the written language of the Vikings.
This custom is based on a spiritual commitment.
The sun never goes down during this season but the mountains to the East are so high that the sun still has to raise above them in the morning hours and an artificial dawn-effect wakes the city.
A popular Summer activity in Norway is kayaking. The coast of Norway is dotted with thousands of little islands making the perfect conditions for a smooth paddle.
Is it customary to start a bonfire on this day?
One of my relatives from Norway asked me if we build bonfires. I told her no as it’s a fire hazard in Arizona. It’s so hot and dry now.
Blessings,
Debbie
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from L-Jay:
Norway is a very wet country – you can just about build a bonfire anywhere.
Ser helt fantastiskt ut!
Onkel Rooney had a big luck to win the Alta’s lottery! Either you win the lottery or you need to have an angel to assist you to fish the Alta (unless you have tons of money and the right connections). In early august 2008 I fished the Reisa river in the Tromso county and although fishing was very slow (we caught a couple of grilse) I enjoyed the place.Anyway there are other good rivers for salmon fishing in Finnmark, like the Borselva, Lakselva, Reppafjordelva to name a few where fishing is more accessible.
If you have a good instructor you can learn fly casting (fly fishing) easily. I taught fly casting to a couple of women and they learnt the basics after few lessons.
Had I have time I would spend the entire month of july in northern Norway to fish for salmon.As you can see I am infected by the fly fishing virus like Onkel Rooney.
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from L-Jay:
Onkel Rooney has this special technique of whipping the line around sideways if there are trees or people behind him. I haven’t seen him do it yet but I’m looking forward to it!
That is a spey cast , developed on the banks of the Spey river in Scotland.
I read Google news about Norway every week. Usually there is something about Norway and whaling. This week, there was a lot.
I think your post about salmon fishing explaines why Norwegians go whaling.
“At Twelve-midnight, when the sun is high in the sky, the free fishing ends.” you say. Some people do not understand this, but the fishing ENDS. This respect for the law and the accknowlegment of the reasoning behind the law is accepted.
“På lov skal landet bygges på ulov skal det ødes”.
Finnmark has the lowest desity of lawmen in Europe. Still people respect the system for “the highly profitable” salmon fishing. When Norway say we can harvest a limited number of whales, I’m sure we can. It’s a system I belive in. It’s a question of mathematiscs and not about cuteness of spicies.
Sorry to bring this up, but I feel strongly about this right now.