Urban Trout Spawning in Oslo

Some weeks ago, I got a call from my friend Lars Nilssen (for those of you who don´t know him, Lars is a fly fishing legend here in Norway, and he currently co-runs a really cool fly fishing blog together with the no-less-legendary Lars Lenth: larsoglars.no).  Anyway, Nilssen sounded pretty excited.  He had been passing through Frognerparken in the centre of Oslo (that´s where I did the Urban Fly Fishing in Oslo-video in May), and seen some really spectacular stuff. The next day, I took my camera and went down to the park. And sure enough, there was some serious action going on!

Check it out:

Lars Nilssen is producing a series of blogvideos about these urban monsters, and the first episode is premiering tonight on Larsoglars.no and dagbladet.no. Be sure to check it out!

7 Comments

Fredrik Rustad

That is so sick. What will happen to this trouts now that everybody knows about them?

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Håvard / Jazz & Fly Fishing

Yep, it´s really something! It´s so cool that these these fish thrive in the heart of Oslo. For those of you who don´t know Oslo, Frognerparken is like Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York – in the middle of the city, surrounded by miles of urban desert. The only difference is that there is a small river flowing through it. And the brown trout population is totally wild, too. It´s probably been there since the ice age, and it seems to be doing just fine.

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet did a story today:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/11/08/nyheter/fiske/innenriks/orret/14197837/

Fredrik: good question.
This spring, there was a huge buzz about the trout in Frognerparken when the first fishing videos were published at this blog, larsoglars.no and dagbladet.no. Obviously, the attention hasn´t hurt the trout population so far. Probably because you have to be quite the exhibitionist to go fishing there: there are lots of people everywhere, pointing and laughing – and I think you would have to be seriously messed up to consider eating a fish from there… It´s not exactly a spring creek! So I really do think it´s gonna be OK. But we discussed this at length before we decided to publish these videos.

Myself, I´ve known about this remarkable trout population since my friend and I jokingly tried fishing there for the first time 13 years ago – and ended up catching some serious trout. But it was only when we started doing the Jazzcam videos on this blog that I considered going fishing there again. I don´t think we will see a lot of fishermen there.

Hopefully, the people of Oslo will be able to appreciate this remarkable urban wildlife phenomenon instead of destroying it. I sincerely hope so, and I also think that the place is so exposed that poachers will think twice. At night, the rats and junkies of Frognerparken will probably scare off any potential evil-doers. Maybe the trout spawning can even become some sort of tourist attraction in the future? Or a place for science excursions for the local schools? Who knows.

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Fredrik Rustad

hehe.. I liked the part with the rats and junkies at night. That makes me think of a park like the one from one of the home alone movies. Anyhow, fun watching you guys and the big trouts.

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Lars

Amazingly beautiful Sight (the Fish and the Water..!).
In my Hometown there’s also great Urban Grayling- and Troutfishing/ -Watching.

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