Viking Lars | Saturday, 19 November 2022
Fishing comes in all forms imaginable and I suppose there’s hardly a fish that can’t be caught on rod and line. First class fishing is normally considered a high quality fishery, usually with very good chances of fish, lodges, guides, riverside lunches.
Sometimes you get lucky and get all that - and even in your daily fishing. Last weekend a friend had invited me for a day on his awesome little fishing machine of a boat. Just room for tents, sleeping bags and everything else needed for sleep-over.
So we packed everything, including dinner, made in advance, so it just needed to be warmed up. Morten picked me up early, but still we don’t get a full day on the water this time of year. By 5pm it’s completely dark and we went ashore and set up camp at 4. Still good hours on the water, exceptionally warm for November (12-14 degrees C, both in the air and water).
Boat fishing offers opportunities that wanting can’t (and vice versa, of course). Morten’s boat is fully equipped with sonar, sidescan, two huge screens - one in the cockpit, one on the forward platform. In a boat, it’s of course important to monitor depth to avoid too shallow water, but also some of the huge rocks that are scattered along the Danish coastline. Some of them are the size of a VW van and just inches below the surface. They’re no fun to hit, in fact down right dangerous if you’re at speed.
The most important element on Morten’s boat is the thruster. Morten’s is connected to the sonar- and sidescan systems and of course has GPS. This means that Morten can set a speed and a heading and we can both concentrate on fishing. That’s a really nice feature. He can also set it to adhere to a certain depth, for instance 1,5m, which often puts the boat in a favourable distance from the shore, allowing to us cover both shallow and deeper water.
The thruster also has spot lock, but it has it’s problems. The boat will spin in the wind and currents, and the thruster will take the boat back to GPS-position as fast as it can. It’s doesn’t do so slowly, it’s full speed, full acceleration. And it’s slightly unpredictable, which has it’s problems when you’re on the platform, concentrating on fishing.
In the end, only a small sea trout was landed. The sea was dead calm most of the day and that’s not the best conditions. We didn’t see any fish, which we often do this time of year.
But that really doesn’t matter - a day out fishing, 1st class with personal driver and luxurious conditions, I’ll always enjoy.
Have a great weekend!
Lars
Oh - and I forgot lunch on the boat.