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Tovdalselva

The northern part of the watercourse

Nutevatni

The northern part of Tovdalselva is highland and mountain area accessible only by foot. The map of this area shows a lot of lakes, and streams connecting them. When fishing this area in July -96 there seemed to be fish in most of them. The exceptions from this is Mjåvatn and Grøsse (Grønnsetersjø) where the stocks have dissappeared after years of acidification. The liming activities traced at the Nutevatni lakes are probably not enough to restore larger lakes like Grøsse. In the western watersystem from Bærvatn / Heddevatn through Straumsfjorden the trout have survived and seems to be doing fine. To reach Nutevasshytta by foot is easiest by going from Birtedalen in Fyresdal, Telemark. From Birtedalen you must calculate three hours if in good shape and four and a half hours if in bad shape and heavy loaded, like we where.

The Lakes Nutevatni, as shown on the map, counts six if you allow the smallest ponds to be included. As severe winds made casting into the upper lake very difficult we sought shelter at the ponds. The two first was inhabited by a few fish of different sizes. We judged fishing them as a threat to the stock and moved to pond three. Here there was a good amount of reasonably sized trout. We caught four on the Montana fly and a black spinner. When fishing such small pools you must judge yourself on how many to catch and still leave some for reproduction and food for other mountain travellers. Later on we tried the small lake following pond three. This one was crowded with smaller trout. One day while being here we walked up to Mostavtjønnene. The fish rose eagerly to the fly, but sorry to say they where all small. The green route marked on the map is the way we walked back to the hut. The one we walked in are left undiscussed.

To summarize the fishing it was not the biggest to catch, but they are tasty and likely to take a fly. If you like being alone with the mountains, and include some fishing, the area is superb.


updated 24.July 1996
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