Alver Fiskefestival 2025

A festival and a competition had been talked about in Alver Havfiskeklubb ever since the club started in January 2022, but we have also been clear that we wanted to do things our own way and on our own principles. That is, everyone who wants to should be able to take part, regardless of previous experience, tackle or means.

One of our main aims as a club is also to promote the great diversity of our local fishing, so tying ourselves to just a few species and the most kilos of them was never on the cards.

A competition committee was appointed, made up of Frode Berven and Simen Vikdal. In the spring of 2024 a statement of intent was put forward, with the idea of holding the event in early May 2025. Hundreds of voluntary hours at weekends, after work and late into the night went into making it as good as possible.

The word half-hearted does not exist in Simen's vocabulary, so he went ahead and built a catch-reporting system specifically for Alver Fiskefestival. With a species list of more than 40 species with minimum sizes, digital catch reporting during the competition and live score lists everyone could follow, we were able to begin our festival career in a thoroughly forward-looking way. Among other things the system allows catch and release of every species not destined for the table, and weighing only of the fish kept for food.

Eleven teams lined up, around 30 anglers in all, and each boat made up one team. The rules were simply that the team with the most points after ten hours of fishing won. Most species were worth one point, but a few particularly difficult ones gave two. Some extremely difficult ones gave three.

The boats set out at 08.00 from Isdalstø, and the teams spread quickly out across the fjord. Over the course of the day we were visited by most of the seasons: from driving rain and a light breeze, to drizzle and easing wind, to clear skies and flat calm — and finally brilliant sunshine and a north-westerly gale.

After eight hours of fishing the results lists were hidden. At that point Team Seeberg led with 9 species and 10 points, ahead of Team Bomtur and Fnattihattene, both on 9 species and 9 points. During the final two hours Fnattihattene secured one more point, while Team Bomtur coaxed up a tadpole fish just before the finishing signal and secured two. And so Team Bomtur could celebrate victory in the very first Alver Fiskefestival.

In all, 39 fish were approved on the Saturday, across 18 different species. It is worth noting that only one specimen of each species is entered per team, and that the minimum sizes were set high to avoid entries of lots of small fish — 70 cm for tusk, 65 cm for pollack, 70 cm for saithe, 80 cm for ling, 75 cm for hake, 50 cm for haddock and 35 cm for ballan wrasse. Getting a fish that counted was far from straightforward.

Hake, which has in many ways become the signature species of the Osterfjord, was caught by several teams. Otherwise flounder, whiting, poor cod, goldsinny wrasse, greater argentine, lesser argentine, megrim, tadpole fish and rabbit fish were all among the catches.

The volunteers spent Sunday morning laying tables, boiling hot dogs, mixing squash, rigging loan rods and setting up an enormous tank of live fish and other sea creatures. As the clock moved towards 11.00 and the start of the competition, plenty of anglers young and old had turned up on the quay.

In all, 15 teams entered on the Sunday, along with many going solo and a good deal of support crew. The floating jetties quickly became a hive of activity, with colourful life jackets, pink fishing rods, sabiki rigs and goldsinny wrasse shuttling up and down the gangway. A wonderful chaos of proud, smiling children with fish they had caught themselves.

Anyone who wanted could also go out in the boats with Simen, Frode or Endre, and fish deeper water for bigger fish. When people needed a break from the fishing, the club laid on a standing and entirely free buffet of hot dogs and squash.

After four hours the competition day was over. Every child received a medal, regardless of catch, and got to pick a couple of treats from the large selection of lures, shads and rigs. In all, 40 fish across 11 different species were entered.

Around 80 people young and old came by the quay at Isdalstø over the course of the Sunday, and all told around 110 anglers and supporters were involved across Alver Fiskefestival. These are figures we are very pleased with, and we hope everyone who came had a good experience and fine fishing memories.