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!
That’s amazing!
That is so sick. What will happen to this trouts now that everybody knows about them?
Supercooll!
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.
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.
Nice stuff!!
Amazingly beautiful Sight (the Fish and the Water..!).
In my Hometown there’s also great Urban Grayling- and Troutfishing/ -Watching.