Flyfishing Denmark - April 22nd-25th.

[Marcel_Karssies]

Fishing Fyn Island Denmark, April 22nd-25th.

Another spring trip to Denmark has ended.
My fear of going home skunked did not materialize although in my opinion the fishing was very tough.
The long cold winter in Europe had surely left its mark
on nature as the Baltic sea was still cold and life in the sea was only slowly developing.

On April 22nd we left the Netherlands at 06.00 hrs to make the journey to the island of
Fyn in Denmark. We cleared main bottleneck on our route (the Elbe river tunnel in Hamburg)pretty easy with just some slow traffic at the outgoing side of the tunnel.
The rest of the tour through Southern Jutland and on to the Island was pretty uneventful.
Instead of making a fishing stop along the way we decided to pick up the keys of our rental cottage and have something to eat first.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3270.jpg
The cottage, a very luxury place this time.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3272.jpg
Rain and hail showers in the distance.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3276.jpg
My setup, Orvis T3 6-weight plus a clear intermediate line.

After settling in we headed to the beach to try and get our first fish.
It was windy, chilly and sometimes rain and hail blasted us.
From the six guys on the trip only Tom caught fish, two searun browns from whom the largest measured 57 cm.
I ended up with two takes but could not materialize the fish.
I developed cold feet near sunset, after returning to the cottage I noticed that my waders where leaking. Not pleasant in cold water conditions.

On the 23rd we would hit Odense Fjord on the northern shore of Fyn.
Since Odense boasted a very nice tackle shop we went there first so I could get a pair of waders to continue my fishing spree with more or less dry feet.
Since tackle was expensive in Denmark I asked for the cheap stuff and by chance they had bough a container load of waders from a well known English manufacturer.
The two layer fabric did not boast my confidence but I figured it would last at least the remainder of this trip.
At the shop we asked for some tips and with the intel we got we decided to change our plans and head for the southern coast.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3283.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3285.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3290NEF.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3292.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3294.jpg
The southern coast and my first couple of seatrout.

There was a stiff breeze blowing at the southern shores but still manageable to fish my 6-weight rod.
After a long wait I was finally rewarded with my first seatrout of the
trip, a 47 cm specimen caught on a pink ep sparkle shrimp.
In short order I managed to land two more fish, respectively 55 and 45cm all on the pink shrimp pattern.

On day three some of the guys wanted to fish a freshwater river on mainland Jutland.
It was way to early to go there and this was after all a saltwater fishing trip.
The infidels left for the Omme A river, the diehards went to fish the Little Belt sound.
Due to the cold weather the seagrass field had not developed yet so large parts of the place where barren and void of life.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3308.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3311.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3319-1.jpg
The Little Belt sound.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3322.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3325.jpg
Marsvin aka harbor porpoise in the distance.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3332.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3335.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/IMG_3847.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3330.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3344.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3348.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3357.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3358.jpg
At the Little Belt.

We concentrated on a boulder field and spotted
schools of sandeels running out with the tide.
Trout where actively hunting on the outer side of the boulder reef but where out of casting Range.
I was lucky enough to get a stray fish that hunted over the boulders.
The fish was yet again caught on a pink shrimp pattern and put up a pretty good fisht.
The fish measured 52 cm and was my fourth fish of the trip.
One of my buddies decided to switch to the dark side and headed up the cliff to get his spinning rod in order to reach the far away trout.
When he came back the trout where gone but he also managed one smaller searun trout.

On the last day we had breakfast and cleaned out the cottage first.
After delivering the keys of the cottage we fished the local beach until 15.30 hours.
One of us managed to catch one smaller fish on a ragworm fly.
The rest of the guys Blanked.
I did have two fish chase a brown shrimp made with EP shrimp brush but they
did not take the hook solidly and escaped.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3374.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3375.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Marcel_Karssies/2010/Fyn%202010/DSC_3378.jpg
Getting ready to go home.

We left around 16.00 hours on our 6 hour returned trip to the Netherlands.
It was fun as usual but tough fishing in the chilly and windy conditions.
I once again left as the guy with the most fish, four to be exactly due to pure luck and persistence, Tom had the Largest trout of the trip nd ended with three fish.
Joop en Alfons both avoided skunk by catching one fish, Hans and Wiebe blanked.
I had tons of fun though I look forward to another trip to the Baltic coast.

[saltfly]

Marcel great pictures as usual:yes:. Looks like you guys had a good timedancedance. Glad to see you stuck with the diehards and stayed in the salt.:amen:

[chrisdetweiler]

Great report Marcel. Looks like a fun trip. Are these searun trout stocked fingerlings that head to sea or streambred fish (or a combination of both)? We have some searun brookies and browns in the northatlantic, but I'm not sure it is a viable fishery. Of course, we have searun steelhead and cuts on the westcoast. How big can those fish get? I know the searun trout in south america get HUGE!

[Marcel_Karssies]

The trout are a mix of stocked fish and naturally bred ones.
Every freshwater ditch, small river etc. around the Baltic coasts of Denmark, Germany and other countries hold stocks of the searuns.
The fish run up the rivers in fall to spawn and head back to the salt in spring.
Some fish skip a year of spawning and remain in the sea instead attaining quite some weight.

When the fish get into spawning mode they change colors and get a bronze hue, the loose scales get firm. The so called brown fish have to be returned during the spawning period and are generally returned by anglers during other times as they are spawning fish.
When the fish return to the sea they are in a rather bad condition = skinny, after a couple of months in the sea they return to their old state = bright silver with loose scales.

There have been a lot of conservation efforts restoring streams so fish can head upriver to spawn and it has paid off.
Around Fyn Island a whole industry has risen around this kind of fishing, this includes an extensive hatchery and stream recovery program.

There is also a chance to catch escaped rainbow trout that live in the open sea, these fish are escapees from pens in the open sea or fugitives from rivers.
These fish are called steelheads because they tend to grow large and get all silvery when they have spend a long time in the sea.
I have never caught one myself but heard plenty reports about them.

My personal best in seatrout fishing was I beileve 71 cm.
I have seen reports of fish up to 86 cm - weighing 7,6 kgs.
Legal size is 40 cm, most fish are in the 50-60 cm range.

[saltfly]

Marcel that sound like some nice fish:bigfish:. When the fish are really in strong. What would be the averge numbers excepted?

Chris their is a good fisherey up north for those fish. From Maine to Nova Scotia.:thumbup:

[Marcel_Karssies]

The fish tend to run in small schools, the bigger fish are more solitary.
Seatrout are also known as the fish of the thousand casts so you can figure that you
will not get many even on a good day.
One word of warning: my expirience fishing for them is limited to roughly 3 days a year so I am
not exactly an expert :)

The good thing about is that the fish that are searun a lot larger in size than the
average brown trout we encounter on the inland rivers so I will have rather one
searun fish of 70cm than a dozen of small river fish.

[saltfly]

Marcel I don't know how you could have ever answered my question:eek2:. I reread my post and couldn't even understand myself.doh:help:So I had to edit it. bwahahaha

[Marcel_Karssies]

Before I forget, my buddies actually taped me white catching fish
A first for me to use video in a forum message, maybe it even works


http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1361102359456&ref=mf