With catches such as these, it is no wonder that the salmon fishing in Vosso has been a world attraction and given large economic benefits for the landowners along the river and Bolstad Fjord. At the most, foreign investors have paid more than a million kroner for fishing rights.
But as with so many other rivers in western Norway, the return of the salmon has collapsed the past ten years - In Vosso to such a degree that the salmon has been protected since 1991. Salmon lice must take a large part of the blame, even if there are several reasons for their decline. Even though spawn has been set out in the river for a long time, it is completely unknown when the salmon stocks will improve. Sea trout has also been protected in the Vosso, but for this fish, there have been good enough stocks since 1997 to have granted some fishing licences.
The river network has three main branches above Lake Vangsvatnet: the Strandaelvi, Raundalselvi and Bordalselvi rivers. These rivers were protected forever against hydropower in 1986. Vangsvatnet and the stretch of river downstream are not included in the protection area. The salmon comes naturally up the Vosso to the Voss hatchery in the Strandelvi and to Palmafossen in the Raundalselvi river. At Palmafossen a salmon ladder was built in the 1950s, but proof is still lacking that salmon have managed to come by here.
The Vosso river runs through rich agricultural communities, some places also over nutrient rich bedrock. Nonetheless, the water system has been affected by pollution, though not as much as in other rivers. In consideration of the salmon stocks liming has been carried out since 1994 by the power station at Evanger. Why is the salmon in Vosso originally so large? That it comes from a big river is of course important. In addition, the Vosso salmon spends more time in the sea than most other strains of salmon. But why it does that, nobody knows.
