British anglers first began to visit Norway in the early 1830’s, lured by stories of a far off land with an abundance of salmon and easy and relatively cheap land and fishing fees. Fishermen paid small sums to farmers, who owned the section of a river which passed through there land, in return for the exclusive fishing rights and board and lodging in the farmhouse, also with the condition that a majority of the salmon caught were given to the farmer.
Salmon fishing in Norway quickly grew in popularity and the Norwegian angling tourism industry had become well established by the mid-Victorian period, with many of the best rivers entirely in the hands of British sportsmen who were known locally as the ‘salmon lords
Literature was starting to be made available in the form “Two summers in Norway” by William Bilton (1840) and “Forest scenes in Norway and Sweden” both being extracts from the journal of a fisherman.
I took a special interest in “Forest scenes in Norway and Sweden” being written by the Reverend Henry Newland, Rector of Westbourne (1855), with my father being a reverend, this book hooked my interest during my research. These books were not only about fishing, but also acted as travel guides and offered observations and assistance with transport to angling destinations, later there where many specialist "travel agencies" which offered sporting trips to Norway.
Fishing in Norway enjoyed a golden age from the late 1880s until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, attracting large numbers of British anglers annually, either on a seasonal, a monthly or a fortnightly basis. Many ‘all round’ sportsmen, also combined angling with shooting, going out in pursuit of ptarmigan, black grouse, capercaillie, woodcock, hares and other game during the autumn months. They often hunted elk or red deer, too. Great detail of this can be found in a book “Three in Norway, by two of them” the book tells of three young English gentlemen who venture to the wilds of Norway during the Victorian era to fish and hunt. (Skipper, Esau and John), who also appear to be the first to travel with Canadian canoe’s in Norway.
As interest increased specialist letting agents controlled the angling on virtually all of the Norwegian salmon rivers at this time, like the Anglo-Norwegian Fishermen’s Association and Messrs Lumley & Dowell of London, over time this lead to some tension, with a court case in 1935 between the UK and Norway ending with the judge ruling a decree by which it reserved certain fishing rights on the northern coast for the exclusive use of its own fishermen.
In the 1830’s Norway was not too accessible and the journey involved land routes through Netherlands, Germany and Denmark with steamers departing from Kiel or Hamburg. Into the end of the 1800’s and the turn of the century it became easier for anglers and adventurers by steamer, with regular services operating from Hull and Newcastle to ports such as Christiana, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim. This led to an explosion of tourism in Norway, complemented by the special trains which Norwegian State Railways put on at the start of each sporting season to convey anglers and their equipment from many of the principal seaports and towns to the main fishing destinations.
Salmon fishing in Norway seems to have been particularly popular amongst diplomates, businessmen, military general classes and members of the legal profession from the private membership clubs of London, The Norwegian fisheries also attracted ‘destination anglers’ of independent means who usually arrived from late May after fishing the early season on Scottish and English rivers.
Sporting tourism in Norway came to an abrupt end with the declaration of the First World War in 1914. British anglers were no longer able to visit the country due to wartime travel restrictions, while many fisheries where ‘mothballed’ for the duration the local Norwegians found new forms of income and the birth of netting and fish farms started. After the war in 1918, British fishermen started to return to Norway, but rapidly discovered that the salmon stocks had not only been decimated through over fishing, but that the fish were generally much smaller than in the past “The domesday book of giant salmon” by Fred Buller is a testament to this tracing the catches of giant salmon.
A few hardy and more enthusiastic “Brothers of the Rod” they resumed their annual fishing expedition, paying considerably less rentals in return for less prolific catches than in the halcyon days of the pre-war era! As we all continue today to head north in the pursuit of the “silver bars”.
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