us deep into the fjord as his younger assistant, Christoffer Rørvik,
explains the science of fishing, his plans to move to Spitsbergen
and how he trained as a sniper during his military service.
So, in a peaceful corner of the fjord, as the rain abates and the
wind drops, we drop our lines and the fish come. After about 10
minutes of jinking my line and constantly thinking I’ve got a catch
when I haven’t, something bites – something really big. Actually,
it’s not that big, but reeling a 4kg cod in for almost 100m is hard
work on the forearms. In the end, I catch about three cod while
Ann Kristin, our host from 62˚Nord, effortlessly pulls in about four
(
mostly bigger ones than mine), plus a couple of herring and a
pollock. “I’m just always lucky,” she shrugs, only slightly irritatingly.
One of the most fascinating parts of the trip is watching Rørvik
gut the biggest cod onboard (it’s Ann Kristin’s, obviously). He takes
out the guts, giving us an eyeful of bowels and intestines before
moving on to the main event. Nonchalantly cutting out the cod’s
heart, he shows us the still-beating organ on his fingertip before
plopping the tiny piece of flesh into his mouth and swallowing.
“
It’s good luck,” he tells us matter-of-factly.
Our final surprise is less macabre. Captain Tom tells us that he
has a creel that’s a secret in the area, and which contains the best
giant prawns and crab in the whole fjord. There’s much fanfare
as we reel it in – alas, its contents are four cans of Hansa Pilsner,
chilled to a perfect temperature by the sea, which is about 6
o
C.
Like most things when you’re on a fishing boat surrounded by the
Sunnmøre fjords, it seems to taste better.
The final stage of our fishing journey is perhaps the most
memorable. Ole Jonny Hjelmeseth – the seafood fanatic and
venerated chef of Maki – comes to collect our fish straight from the
boat and takes us directly to the kitchen to see what happens when
seafood chef meets sea-fresh fish (most visitors don’t get to do this
bit, though you do get to eat the results).
A former steward at sea, Hjelmeseth opened his first Maki
restaurant in 2001 in his hometown of Fosnavåg, a 90-minute
»
Left page
⁄
The trip on Actin’s
old 15m fishing boat involves lots of
good eating, including fresh-caught
salmon, as Stein Magne Hoff grins
from the captain’s cockpit
This page
⁄
Toby Skinner catches a
cod on 62˚Nord’s trip, then watches
it get gutted onboard and its still-
beating heart eaten. Inevitably, cans
of cold beer are also involved
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