Norway '94

I served for a while in the Royal Engineers and one of my postings was in an outfit designed to terrify the Soviet Block from daring to invade through Scandinavia and break out into the North Sea. In order to do this we used to hold big multi national exercises every winter. As a return for hosting us during the winter we used to return in the summer on a construction tour. In the summer of 1994 we were based at Kongsberg and my recce sergeant had brought along some pike gear. The REME fitter who was working with us came back from a vehicle test run and told us that he'd found a lake on the Norwegianarmy range and the edge of the lake was full of small, long, green fish. We went for a wander to investigate and he was right, it was secluded lake that I doubt had ever been fished and looked to contain a good head of pike and perch. I managed to scounge some tackle and a small group of us headed over to the lake, we had to find some worms to catch some perch to use as live bait. It was a long process but we managed to put a few jacks on the bank and lost some better fish. It is entirely possible that no one has fished to lake since we left. In a slight side show I was fishing one evening when a huge moose appeared out of the trees on to the bank, I was amazed how big those creatures are. It was a lesson of taking the opportunities as they present themselves.