An old fishing story from 1961

"Grøthølen" Anno 1961 Hembre Gård.

An old fishing story about a 40+ pounder on a "Jock Scott" fly.

In 1960, the magazine Fiske-Sport wrote about a fishing competition in sponsored by O.Mustad & son.The competition involved the largest trout, grayling, sea trout or salmon taken on a Mustad fly during the 1961 season. It was poorly supported, but participation was reported in 2 of the classes - trout on a wet fly and salmon.

In the Salmon class, Ole J Flåum from Hegra in Stjørdal who took the victory.
A salmon of 20,130 kg, taken in the Stjørdalselven June 29 on a Jock Scott Silver no. 1/0.
The salmon was 125 cm long and measured 72 cm around the abdomen. The prize was a Mustad salmon fly collection of 32 flies, (or a similar number in the range the winner preferred.)

Here is the story of the battle with the huge salmon of over 20 kg in "Grøthølen" this June day in 1961. (as described in Fiske-Sport)

One of the eyewitnesses, Aksel Hembre, has given a description of how the catch took place:

"It was June 29, it had been raining for days. The Stjørdals River was soon to flood, as was the norm in those days. Flåum came to see me and I made him go down alone. After the rain, the river had turned a little gray, so Flåum figured he would try a wobbler. He started at the top of "Grøthølen" and made some casts down the pool. It must be added here that Flåum was a very experienced salmon fisher, and he had his equipment in order, 300 m of  0.65mm  line and of course two-handed spinning rod. After a quarter of an hour, he received a heavy pull. He tends to hold tight and after a few seconds the wobbler came back through the air like an arrow, and the fish was gone. When he looked at the wobbler, one of the hooks was straightened out?, Flåum waded ashore, put down the spinning rod to mark where the fish was. He swore that there would be second half, as it is called in the football language.
The fly rod was set up and a Jock Scott from Mustad tied on to the leader. He left and started at the top of "Grøthølen" again. He soon approached the place where the rod was. In the meantime, I was also on the other side of the river. Flåum made a good cast. His two-handed fly rod made a powerful jerk and he had solid line again. A proper fish appeared to be on the end. It surfaced several times, ran up the river and one time I think Flåum had 200 meters line out. I prepared to watch a long fight, but after 15 minutes it was all over and the salmon was lying on the bank. The salmon was a male salmon weighing 20,130 kg and when we looked for it, we saw a hole in the mouth of it, where the wobbler had been an hour before? 

The salmon was not pretty, it had already got the red color under the belly, so it had probably been in the river for 1 ½ months. It was 1.25 m long and measured around the abdomen 72 cm. It wasn't probably Flåum's only salmon this year, but it was his biggest.

All the rooms have a copy from the picture 1961. My Aunt Marit Hembre is the girl next to the Salmon and Ole J Flåum. Picture is taken outside the Main House where the fishing Lodge is.

Some pictures from our farm- Salmon fishing and daily life.

Hope you found this story and old pictures interesting. We do have a plan to write the whole familie historie which goes all the way back to 1520 at Hembre Gård.

Best regards

Aksel and Beate