There’s something exiting about uncorking a brand new season. New trips are in the pipeline. New flies. And new opportunities. Right now this season has the potential to be your best ever… or the worst ;0)
Anyway, great things can happen when you are out there on the waters – and they probably will. Around here in the Southern part of Scandinavia the season starts pretty cold. Strong winds and temperatures bouncing up over and down below freezing.
There’s nothing unusual in that. Most days we have open water to fish somewhere along the coastline, the lakes and the rivers. And a few days we don’t.
The saltwater season has come off to a good start in Denmark and Southern Sweden so far, though – with some beautiful silver armoured brown trout grabbing our flies.
Slow and deep
Even though there are plenty of trout along the coastline, they can play hard to get. The cold water slows everything down. Trout, as well as their prey, are on low metabolism – and they don’t move fast. So a slow and deep retrieve can be the way to go – often letting the fly hoover motionless above the bottom.
Imitative and not
Often a bit of experimentation pays off. I normally start out with close imitations of scuds, shrimps or sculpins. If that doesn’t turn heads down there, I serve a more flashy offering. For some reasons, that no one really is able to explain, pink is the hottest colour for winter fishing in Denmark. Downsizing can be a strategy as well, when meaty offerings don’t pay off.
When you find the fish, there’s usually more than one. Sea trout travels in packs this time of year. In Denmark only the silvery fish are legal prey right now. Any coloured trout should be released as fast as possible.
When everything freezes up
If things go bad – and hell freezes over – there’s allways fly tying to get you through the winter. I have selected a couple of videos with some cool winter flies. Check out our range of Nordic Salt hooks and our video section for salt water flies for more inspiration.
I have also thrown in a bunch of images of winter coastal fishing in Scandinavia.
Photo credits: Morten Valeur, Jon Hansson, Henrik Kure Nielsen
Flies tied by: Jon Hansson, Henrik Kure Nielsen, Mathias Ibsen, Agne Sjöberg
Hope you enjoy!
Have a nice weekend :0)
Michael