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There’s a surprising number of fishing podcasts out there, but this one is slightly different than most

I had known Magnus for many years, the fly being a stable fly in my flybox. But it was only later that I met the man Magnus "live".

In principle there's free and unlimited access to all coasts in Denmark. That's what the law says. But in many places reality is different.

A small gallery of images from November and December on the Baltic coast, showing the ambiance during these last months of the year

The Baltic garfish or needlefish appears in colossal numbers each spring and is a great joy to target with a fly - and a delicacy to eat.

The spring gallery this year is a simple collection of pictures of Danish coastlines. It might be simple, but the variation is amazing and almost endless.

Just a week ago my good friend Jens caught what can rightfully be called the fish of a lifetime. Here's the story - and the fly that did it.

Allan is a Danish fly fisher and tyer who loves to fish for large sea run browns in the Danish river Karup.

No, this is not about some novel way of catching sea trout or how to get a large Danish salmon, but about remembering to relax when you fish.

During the last 15 years or so I have joined a group of friends on two annual coastal trips here in Denmark. I wouldn't want to miss these trips for anything. Here are a few pictures from the latest two.

This was one of those days where things just worked out, and I took advantage of it and behaved slightly out of order.

Scientific reports about fish and environment might not seem to be the most exciting to us anglers, but the work done by scientists is extremely important in keeping and eye on and improving our fishing waters.

Yesterday I went and saw a preview of the new videos on coastal sea trout fishing by Danish Niels Vestergaard, and they are pretty exiting to put it mildly

The biennial Danish Fly Festival will take place the weekend March 23rd and 24th in Kolding in southern Denmark. Want to meet there?

This past weekend was the time for the Danish Fly Festival, which takes place every second year.

A set of very good Danish DVD's have been translated into English.

The GFF Summit 2008 is over. And it was great!

The follow up to the "Early Morning" pocasts - with evening and morning fishing and an extra fishing day thrown in.

A beautiful but cold day in February.

A good angler has patience

I attended a nice little fishing show yesterday

The summer in Denmark has been a catastrophe. Fishing is out, fly tying is in.

I had close to 9,000 virus-infected files and three nice rainbows this weekend

That's why it's called fishing and not catching

Ways to fight the cold and ways to catch fish in freezing water

A really fascinating view on a new type of fishing in he Baltic area.

The long beaked fighter

GFF partner Martin Joergensen's annual trip to Bornholm! A highlight in his fishing calendar and always a great trip no matter how lousy the fishing is. This year fishing was fine and the trip a success in spite of troublesome wind and a late and cold spring.

The annual trip to Bornholm is now. Yieeehaaaa!

On the lookout for winter sea trout in a stream near Copenhagen

Join GFF partner Martin Joergensen on the Danish coast on a cold January day

This year has started off very promising on the Danish coast

Always remember that January can surprise!

Martin Joergensen's annual trip to the Danish island Bornholm is coming up. This year without GFF partner Steve Schweitzer by his side. Steve here tells the story of the 2002 trip, where they both indulged in fish, good food and friendship for a week.

Mad dogs and Englishmen go fishing in Denmark in October

Some days - even fishing days - just won't come out right

The first autumn day was a feast!

Read the collected stories about the Danish Fly Festival and the enjoyable fishing, which took place before and after. Tons of pictures and great stories taken and written by contributors from the Netherlands, Slovenia, Wales and Denmark. See it all here.

Pictures from GFF partner Martin Joergensen's trip to the Danish Island Bornholm in March 2001. There isn't much text yet, but a selection of nice pictures from a succesful trip.

Here's where Denmark is on the map of Europe. Denmark is that green blob in the middle (see the detailed map of Denmark).

This year is not the most tempting though, because the fishing has been quite slow until now and the weather has been acting up. The wind has been terrible. We prefer southern winds for several reasons: they bring clear weather both in the summer and in the winter. There are vast areas of stable weather especially east and south east of Denmark and when the wind comes from there it usually means warm spring and summer days and clear, but cold fall and winter days.

Archive of reports, AKA /blog/earlier.htm

Few trout... and many

I've been fishing quite a lot for sea trout lately. I've had a couple of weekends almost fully dedicated for fishing and a few odd days on top of that. Most of these trips have been succesful and only a few of them have been totally blank. Generally the fish are small - less that 2 lbs. - but on the other hand there have been many at times.

A bunch of images from the infancy of GFF

A favorite season

Usually September is considered the last summer month in regards to fishing. This year is different. The summer has been cold with little sun and lots of NW wind which has kept the ocean from warming as it usually would.

Trout!

So it happened... I have just been browsing the earlier reports in this section, and have read my own stories about the miserable trout fishing the last two years. It seems that things have taken a turn to the better at last.
The fish have been taking flies consistently. They are not big. The largest in the company of friends I fish with being a 4.5 kilo fish. Most have been less than 1 kilo, but on the other hand: there has been many.

Spring at last!

This spring has brought some hope for a season that will look like a normal one. Both 1996 and 1997 have been more than dissapointing to most sea trout fishers. i've had great days and great fun with both garfish and cod, but there are people who go for sea trout only, and they will probably have e good time this spring.
My own outings have been fine until now. We've had trips with more than 20 sea trout per man - not big ones, but still.

Pictures from the Danish coast during the 1998 season taken by GFF partner Martin Joergensen

Many small fish

The autumn still seems to hold strong. Lots of reports are coming in, and there seems to be at least the normal abundance of sea trout - if not more.
The spin fishers seem to be loosing luck compared to fly fishers - either on a fly rod or on a bubble float.
The fish seem to be fairly small, though. Many reports mentions dozens of smaller fish in the 30-35 centimeters range. These will probably be very good fish in the spring, if they survive the winter.

The trout have returned

After a terrible 1996, a dissapointing spring this year and an extremely hot summer, it seems that the sea trout are now returning to the Danish coasts.
There are consistent reports from all our coasts and both fly and spin fishers are catching fish in a respectable number and in good sizes too.

Sea trout and garfish

Spring is reluctant to take over completely, and the weather is still somewhat cold and windy. But the season has taken speed, and there are frequent reports of sea trout. The garfish have certainly arrived - to an extent where most fishers actually are tired of them. They can still be great fun though. Fish them on a light rod and small flies.

A normal season

Everything indicates that this season will be far better than the last one - which was catastrophic.
The spring fishing has been moderately good until now, but it seems that there's a fairly good day time fishing right now. I hear regular reports of good catches - unfortunately I haven't participated myself - too little time and too much to do... you know the story.

The sea trout season has started...

...and then again hasn't. The Bonanza from last year hasn't really repeated, and the fishing in the well known fjord areas is not as excellent as some Danish fishing media want us to think.
This particular kind of spring fishing takes place almost each spring in the deepest parts of the fjords where the sea trout have been tucking away during the coldest part of the winter.

The ice is gone...

After a couple of long months - November and December - with very nice but very cold weather - it seems to be back to the usual Danish winter: dark, moist, not really cold but certainly not warm either.
This means that the ice on the open coasts has gone, but that the fjords are still somewhat covered. The fishing is still slow, even though sporadic stories about good winter days are heard.

A couple of questions from Germany

I recieved an e-mail today and will let that be the first 'Right now' section for a long time:

The first autumn storm

The first autumn storm is sweeping the nation. High velocity winds, rising water and falling leaves mark the move from kind indian summer to rough autumn.
Normally this weather will stimulate fishing. While fishing is almost impossible while it's storming, the storm will leave the water stirred, freshly oxygenated and with lots of life and activity. A classical advice has always been: fish just before or after a storm.

Summertime...

The last 2-3 weeks have been really warm here, and summer is now as summer should be. The water is not as warm as usual this time of year, but it's still getting near 20 deg. Centigrade. This means that the trout - where ever they have been earlier - only will go close to shore when the air is cold - meaning night and morning.

Water is warming up fast

It is a strange spring

There's still no trout worth mentioning in sight. Amazing! We will soon be half way through the year and the days will be getting shorter, and noone I know has experienced any spring fishing worth mentioning.

That #?%&/# wind!

This spring has been a strange one. I have never experienced anything that unstable. We are well into May and it's still very cold and windy. The predominant wind has been North East for almost since new year - and NE is about the worst wind you could want in Denmark. We miss the mild Southern winds that bring up warmth from central Europe and makes water flow the right way.

The garfish are here

Well, the header says it all. As usual in late April and early May, the Danish seas are invaded by garfish. i haven't had any myself, but I had a few very garfish like strikes this weekend - garfish are notoriously hard to hook on large hooks like sea trout flies or lures - and I know people who have caught their first garfish already.

Fish early and late

This has been a strange spring. All March was icy and cold, and the usual daytime fishing was almost non-existent. The spring broke with a bang, and fishing exploded yielding dozens and dozens of fish the the fishers on the right spot at the right time. That lasted for one week or so, and the all the suddenly it was over. The best spots in the fjords were overrun by people, and a good time was had by most.

Whadda short spring that was

Just two weeks ago it was still winter. Now it's summer, guys wear shorts - girls even less. The water temperature rose 5-8 deg. C in just one sunny week and fish startede appearing everywhere.
The first good fishing was in the fjords right after the ice had broken and started leaving, but gradually the good fishing would extend to the open coasts.

Denmark is still a cold place

Due to the long and cold winter, the season is only slowly starting. My own fishing has only given a few trout this year, while the cod fishing - from a float tube - has been excellent. This past weekend also gave cod, but no trout. The reports are coming in though. Borth in Jylland (Mariager Fjord and Vejle Fjord) and on Sjaelland (Isefjord) the fishing for trout in the salt is gaining momentum.

Winter pictures are from the island of Als.

Cod and similar species are a much underrated quarry for the fly fisherman. In places where it's very common like Denmark and Norway, they are even sometimes considered an annoying disturbance in the much 'finer' fishing for sea trout.
But cod can be an excellent game for the fisher whose gear and mind is tuned in on it, and the abundance and size of fish can easily justify a more focused fishing for cod.

The garfish is a very common guest in many Northern European countries. It is normally a pelagic fish whose migration pattern is not known in detail. But one thing is for shure: these fish will return to spawn in shallow and rich areas along the coasts many places in Europe.

The key to success in the pursuit of sea trout in salt water on the coasts of the Baltic Sea is understanding some important aspects of the trout's behavior in respect to the seasonal changes. The sea trout i salt water can't be fished the same way all year. Some key factors here are water temperatures, currents, the wind and the trout's migratory patterns.

Part of this section is the manuscript for chapter in a book on fly fishing in salt water in Northern Europe. The subjects covered here are also covered elsewhere on this web site. Each page contains links to all relevant pages on The Global Fly Fisher.

Autumn in the Baltic is ideal for catching top condition sea run brown trout, mornings, days and evenings.

Yes, I actually do cast my flies into the waves! And it's great too, even though I prefer them to be small waves.

Water conditions change from day to day and one location varies from clear, calm water to muddy water with high waves. The fish are there almost no matter what, and often rough weather offer better fishing than a calm surface.

Sometimes you can fish a location where the water is crystal clear and the surface is as a mirror, and sometimes exactly the same location is marred by hard wind, heavy waves and water as hot chocolate with marshmellows (yuck!).

Just for your general orientation I've marked out a few good fishing spots.

When the sea trout is in salt water it's normally 'uncolored' meaning shining silvery with a bluish black back. Also the scales are normally many, but loose, and will fall off when the fish is touched. The fish is in an excellent condition, as it is eating all the time.

There are laws and written rules, but for the benefit of all of us, there are some unwritten common sense and social rules too:

The bottom is a main factor in the ocean. We have no trees, no meandering, no overhanging banks (almost none at least). The water covers it all and above that... the sky.

The bottom is like the beach. This is not always true, but generally the beach can be used to judge the bottom below the surface.

Fish are where they feel good. That is where one or several factors are present: food, shelter, optimum water conditions, other fish ...and more.

There are laws in Denmark too, and some of the deal with fishing. The most important ones are these

The spring means activity in the Baltic where the winter fish start eating and the spawning fish return from the streams to the oceans

"Points" are generally good landmarks to use as a base for the fishing. Not that there are necessarily more fish there, but as they make good mental holding points. Points are good spots to start fishing and from these landmarks you can make 'excursions'

A few tips of efficiently covering the water when fishing for Baltic sea trout

As all other kinds of fishing, the hunt for sea trout varies greatly through the year. But opposite many other fishing, there's no low season or high season.

Denmark is a small country; the size of Pensylvania, and can by no means be compared to the other and far larger Scandinavian countries; Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

Once you have found a place where all these things come together, you still have a lot of water to cover. Luckily you can spot the places that will hold fish on an even smaller scale.

Certain spots provide many positive factors for the fish: exposed coast with mixed bottom, sand and weed covered stones. Variation, shelter and food is here in plenty.

An introduction to fishing on the Danish coast.