Norwegian Trolling Masters

Norwegian Trolling Masters

It is with great pride the Executive Committee of the Shark Pro Staff Team is able to announce the appointment of the "A-Team trolling" from Norway to the Shark Cannonballs International Pro Staff Team. The "A-Team trolling" has the distinction of being the current National Trolling Champions (NM) of Norway. Over the years the Shark Pro Staff Team has become an elite collection of the best downrigger sports fishermen in the world; their common bond is their love for fishing and their high regard for Shark Cannonballs. The credo of team is to promote good sportsmanship in the fishing community and to share knowledge with other fishers. "A-Team",

Frank Ronny Johansen, Roy Idar Brandlistuen and Leif Johansen won top honors at the Norwegian Trolling Masters Tournament (NM) this past summer in a hard fought contest where the difference between first place and second was only 170 gm. This year over 200 boat s competed in the 2009 Trolling Masters in Norway, the "A-Team" took first place with a total weight of 16.57 kg. At the same time they also took the biggest trout of 7.68 kg. "A-Team trolling" used 2 fifteen pound Chrome Sharks to attract their winning fish.

Frank Ronny and Roy Idar have been best friends since they were six years old, they are neighbours now at the age 37. The two friends started trolling back in 1995, it was Roy who got Frank interested in trolling. Roy Idar had the boat and the equipment back then. Now its the opposite way. They have always fished together, their main advantage is they are well organized and are very patient. In the early years, the two friends did not participate in any tournaments, they just fished for the love of the sport. Some years later in 2007 Roy Idar was compelled to sell his boat, Frank Ronny enlisted the help of his father Leif Johansen to purchase their current team boat; an Ocquiteau 540 wac, 2003 model with a Suzuki 70 hp four stroke. The boat is equipped with: Lowrance Broadband radar, Lowrance HDS-8, Lowrance Structure Scan, Raymarine Sportspilot and Wallas 1800watts heater, and of course Shark Cannonballs.

At the same time the two friends officially started the "A-Team" . They documented their trips and events in their blog .Frank Ronny originally came from a fishing family, his grandfather and uncle were professional fishermen up north in Norway. The "A-Team" is mostly interested in trolling, but both Frank Ronny and Roy Idar are experienced fly fishermen as well. Frank has family in Milwaukee Wisconsin, one of the great trolling destinations on the Great Lakes in North America. Frank visited his relatives in 2004 and again in 2008, he got to do some quality downrigging on Lake Michigan, catching at least 10 salmon and trout on both trips. Next trip to USA will be in 2012, every 4th year.

For the most part, it is Frank Ronny and Roy Idar who do most of the fishing, but Leif, Franks father is an equal member of "A-Team". In 2008 they participated in several tournaments ( They did not use Shark Cannonballs back then). The "A-Team trolling" won the Mjøsa Ørretfestival (Lake Mjøsa Trout festival) 208 boats competed in the competition. They caught 7 trout for a total weight of 13,5 kg. The "A-Team" placed fourth in the Nordic Championship on Lake Vänern in Sweden. 80 boats competed. Interestingly in 2008 the team lost faith using downriggers. They just could not get the fish to hit the downriggers. They were only able to catch two small trout the entire year on the riggers, so in many of the competitions the "A-Team trolling" fished mostly on the surface.In 2009 the "A-Team" participated in several tournaments, they bought their first Sharks while competing in the Trolling Masters Tournament in Bornholm Denmark.

They placed 40th in a field of 240 boats, but they started to see the benefits of using the Shark downrigger weights, Things started to improve using downriggers from that point on. Both the salmon they took (10.4kg & 5.4kg) at Bornholm were caught on the downriggers using Shark Cannonballs. NM ( Norway Championship) 214 boats competed. In this competition there are two parts # 1: Most fish and # 2: The biggest fish. The "A-Team" won both categories of the competitions. They caught 4 trout weighing 16,57 kg . The second best team got 16,4 kg. Their biggest trout weighed 7,68 kg. The second biggest trout weighed 7,54 kg. They won the contest by 170 grams of total fish, and 140 grams on the biggest trout. Two of their fish were caught on the riggers using Shark downrigger weights. The "A-Team" placed 16th in a field of 55 boats in the Nordic Championship on Lake Vänern, Sweden.

They took a nice trout weighing 6,9 kg on the riggers, again using Shark Cannonballs to attract the fish to the spread. The team developed more confidence using the downriggers with Shark weights on the pre-fish day before the competition taking a nice 7.1 kg salmon. In 2008 they placed 4th in a field of 80 boats.In contrast to the 2008 season they rekindled their faith using downriggers, the Sharks played a major role in the process.. In 2008 they only caught 2 fish on the riggers, this year was a major turnaround; they used the downriggers every time they went out and started catching lots of fish. The Sharks played a major role in their winning strategy.

ProNav, Norway's biggest distributor of marine electronics was quick to notice the emerging success of the "A-Team" and signed them up for their pro staff program. We consider it to be a great honour for the "A-Team" to join our Pro Staff program and look forward to many years of exciting tournaments and fishing stories. Welcome aboard gentlemen!