Summer and sea trout

Summer and sea trout

Viking Lars | Saturday, 4 June 2016

Summer has really struck Denmark - this past week we've had temperatures close to 30 degrees C almost every day - and that'll carry on at least through the weekend.

I'm no fan of heat at all, actually - and besides, it's not very good fishing weather. But I really do enjoy early summer mornings and evenings and if there's one positive note to make on these temperatures it's that they usually spark the first larger runs of sea trout up the rivers.

The last few seasons have been fantastisc for most Danish sea trout rivers, so it'll be interesting to follow this one. Summer and sea trout means night fishing - both in the salt and in the rivers, and I really enjoy night fishing.

I rarely fish through the night anymore - I used to, but arriving home with no sleep at all is not conducive to good family life :-). It's often said that the darkest hours are no good, but I think that was said by family fathers who needed to arrive home in the morning with at least a few hours of sleep under the belt. I've often caught sea trout in the middle of the night.

Usually I'll fish until say 1.30am and then, either go home or sleep for a few hours on the beach, fish the last part of the night into first light - and then go home after a quick stopover at the baker's for fresh bread for the family. That works for me and really, there are few spectacles in nature that surpasses sunset and sunrise - and both are free.

Underwater hunting with spear guns has become really popular in Denmark, and to be honest, it can be a real pest. Spear fishermen seek out the same spots as fly fishermen and sometimes, there'll be three or four of them sweeping the coastline with strong lights. I respect everyone's right to the same, natural resources, but there are some issues with night time spear fishing using lights. Many sea trout are apathic during the night and seem to be almost stunned by the strong lights, and then they're easy pickings. And all other hunting activities are illegal at night - even lighting for eels is forbidden, but for some reason, it's legal to hunt sea trout during the night with big lights.


Note thr strong, greenish light on the right? That's an underwater spear fisherman.

Anyway - I get sidetracked...

I'm preparing my summer-sea-trout-river-outfit for action next week. A 9'6" 6-wt rod and a 7-wt of equal length. Floating and intermediate lines for night fishing and big flies - and I mean big. While salmon for some odd reason seems to respind much better to smaller and smaller flies as it gets warmer, sea trout respond best to really big ones. A 15 centimeter black tubefly isn't too large at all. Fish it fast just under the surface and hold on. Also big surface skaters with foam backs, rubberlegs, flash and everything the modern flytyer can throw onto a hook are really effectice. I'll be tying a few this weekend!

Mayfly season is still on (and no, I didn't find a bog fish this week - in fact, I didn't even go fishing), but I'll probably combine both a little dryfly fishing (catching the late evening spinner fall) and some sea trout fishing next week.

Have a great weekend!
Lars