Danish seatrout
Author: Morten Clevin
I will start by telling that, since I made my first cast with a flyrod, I have always prefered to fish in freshwater. I simply love sitting at the bank of a river in northern Scandinavia, watching Grayling and Trout feed on the surface. I love the challenge, to find out what they are feeding on, and then finding the perfect fly in the box. But my favorite rivers is at least 1000 km away, so it is not every day I drop by.
I will start by telling that, since I made my first cast with a flyrod, I have always prefered to fish in freshwater. I simply love sitting at the bank of a river in northern Scandinavia, watching Grayling and Trout feed on the surface. I love the challenge, to find out what they are feeding on, and then finding the perfect fly in the box. But my favorite rivers is at least 1000 km away, so it is not every day I drop by.
Until this year, fishing for seatrout, on the coast of Denmark, was for me the same as just throwing a fly into a big pond with no fish. Endless trips without any contact with the seatrout. Just seeing a trout jumping over hundred yards away was almost a succes.
But this year I decided to do something serious about it. I started I late April, and made my first trip to the coast of Stevns, wich is located about 70 km south of Copenhagen. The exact name of the spot is Bøgeskoven.
The coastline here is very spectacular, because waves destroy the slopes. So you find fallen trees on the beach, and trees with exposed roots on top of the slopes.
I parked the car at a small parkingspot at the entrance of the beautiful beech wood. After rigging the gear, I walked about 500m along the coast, following a path on the slope.
I found a nice spot and started fishing. Here comes my biggest challenge. Since I did not have any well known coastflies in my box, in had to try one of my bonefish flies. I picked a nice big clouser in size 2, since I had heard that small fish, was primary feed for the seatrout.
After an hour of fishing, I decided to move to the right. And after few minutes BANG!! I was standing in my own thoughts, enjoying the weather and the beauty of the place, and the fish just rip the flyline out of my fingers. Of cause the fish was gone when I got control of the line again, and I cursed my self for a minute. But now I did believe that it was possible to catch one.
But I did not catch anyting this evening, and after another bite this one just a little pull in the fly, I decided to head back home. But the trip made me believe that, if I kept on going after the seatrout, I was going to catch some.
Some weeks later I decided to visit a friend called Thomas, on the island of Falster. He moved to Falster some Years ago, and told me several times that the fishing was great.
After leaving the car, we walked about 30 minutes, through the woods. When we came to the coastline, we had a hard time finding a place to enter the beach, since the slopes was high and very steep. As we walked along the slopes I saw a big fish jumping out of the water, about 50 yards out. We quickly found a place to climb down the slope, and rushed out. Thomas kept on seeing a trout in the surface, but It was 50 yards from him, so he had to wait to see if it would move closer.
Finaly I hooked up a nice little seatrout at about 40 cm. It was jumping all over the place in the beginning. After a couple of minutes I asked Thomas to take some photos of it all. As I was passing him my camera the trout got stock under a rock, and it was off seconds later. Again I was cursing what an idiot I was.
The weather now was spectacular, as a fog from the sea, kept moving along the coast. I shot some photos of it before we headed back home.
After a few more weeks a friend and I decided to fish a spot in Roskilde Fjord.
The spot is very shallow, and you have to wade about 500-700 yards. Well out there we started fishing, and I was still using my clouser. After half an hour Søren hooked up a nice trout on a shrimp pattern. After a short fight he landed a nice trout, and of cause I took some photos. I was now in a bit of problems, because I did not have the same fly as Søren. But I found a small brown shrimp pattern in my box. But before I had changed my fly, Søren hooked up another nice trout. This one was a bit larger, and Søren said that it was a new personal record.
After taking some photos we let the trout go, and I moved about 50 yards to the left. And it helped. In a few minutes I had felt a couple of fish, and Søren landed another trout. This one was just 25 cm. Again I moved to the right, and suddenly I hooked a nice fish too. After a short fight, I was trying to lift up the fish to take a photo, but as I got my hand under the fish, the hook gave up, and the fish was off. But after all it was a succesfull trip.
After a fed days I was back, along with a friend called Jesper. After about 30 minutes there was no wind, and it was like casting a fly, on a mirror. There was trout moving in the surface all over. I saw a nice fish about 90 feet out. I placed the fly a few feet short, but after one strip the fish hit the fly, and took off. It stopped after about 25 yards, and after a few minutes I landed a nice seatrout. I was very excited now and started fishing again. There was still trout all over, and after about 10 minutes I hooked up another nice fish. This one was a bit larger that the first one, and it was jumping all over. But after a few minutes it gave up, and we shot some nice photos. After landing a small trout ( about 25 ), we headed for the shore. When we came to the cars, we got attacked by some serious hungry mosquitoes. We had to seek shelter in the car, and do the changing there.
This years trips after seatrout, has really made me head for seatrout in the years to come.