Our Savage Gear consultant, Mikkel Matzen, has just returned from Havöysund in Norway. The boat he was on landed 165 halibut in 6.5 days fishing. An incredible trip that set new camp records. This is his story of how they had so much success. 

My body is still soar a week after I returned from, what I consider one of my most successful trip to date. The fishing we had was completely unreal, insane and utterly incredible! 

We have been fishing in Havöysund the past couple of years. Last year we had, what we considered then to be the limit for what we could expect of a week of halibut fishing, catching a total of 68 halibut in a week of fishing. We could never in our wildest dreams, hope for better fishing than that. 

In the past the weather has been a little restrictive, limiting our fishing time and areas we could venture too. This year however, the weather gods shined their light upon us, and we were blessed with the best fishing conditions we could hope for. Now, we had the opportunity to go to spots that before had been unreachable, spots we dreamed about and we took full advantage of this!

Savage Gear Sandeel in pink, had a tendency to catch the bigger fish.

We have been preparing many hours for this, putting past experiences together and preparing our gear to perfection. Our kit is not the common gear that is normally used for fishing for big halibut, instead of using heavy sea gear and multiplier reels, we are using gear that normally would be used for pike fishing and braided line not much thicker than 0,20 mm. This might sound completely crazy to some, when considering that we are targeting fish that easy get to around 150 cm. But we wanted to be casting for halibut, it was much more fun staying act as well as being VERY effective. Our go to lure was the Savage Gear Sandeel in 100 or 150 gr. We have tried other lures from the Savage Gear range and other brands, but this lure was completely superior to others we tried. Our most productive colours were Motor Oil, Lemon Back and Pink. Pink was not always the one catching the most fish, but it definitely had a tendency to catch the biggest fish. I am not sure why, but I have experienced this before and the halibut love sandeels. 

Having spent a lot of fishing hours in the boat with the crew, we could now land halibut singlehandedly and safely, but on a couple of occasions we hooked up on 3 halibuts at the same time. This is not recommended, it is complete chaos, but also fun and double hooks ups happened very often, when the fishing was hot.

I am now sitting and reflecting on the trip and we have never fished harder, been as soar or deprived of sleep as much as we were, but the rewards were immense! 165 halibut in 6.5 days fishing. 23 of the fish were over 130 cm with the biggest ones coming in at 162 and 164 cm. The last day of fishing was the cherry on the top of the cake and devastated our body and minds. We had 51 halibut in the boat. 51!!! The true reason for this incredible reason is my fishing buddies. Their dedication, pushing us to fish all the hours available during the day and finetuning the techniques made a colossal difference. We worked hard for every single fish!

My team and I will be back next year to try again, its safe to say I was addicted to this fishing before, but the obsession just got so much stronger.  

Thanks to: Mads Grosell, Hans Hagerup, Norway Guide fishing, Michael Mortensen, Jan Krutz, Kritian Kjær, Molle, Jan Weber, Claus Stryg. 

163 cm of a beautiful beast. Trying to get this 163 cm fish into the boat is not clever, so the fish is safely kept in the water. Both to protect the angler, but also very much the halibut. 

Savage Gear Sandeel in the color Motor Oil was Mikkel Matzen’ favorite lure.

Looking into the deep. Fishing with an echo sounder makes every so much more exciting. Following the action underneath and paying attention to the fish will bring you an advantage. 

Collateral damage. 165 halibut will beat you and your tackle box up! This is the sandeel tails that took a beating during the adventure. 

Whales and eagles. Norway is beautiful, rugged and filled with nature experiences. During their trip, they had a glimpse of whales and almost handfed an eagle. 

Mikkel Matzen is normally to be found in the Danish tackle shop Effektlageret in Horsens, Denmark, where is sells fishing tackle, but also hosts trip like these with anglers. 

Perfect camo. White on the bottom and camo on the top. The halibut is perfect camouflaged, which makes it an effective predator.