Published Oct 23. 2008 - 15 years ago
Updated or edited Sep 29. 2021

GFF Summit 2008

Swedish Frederik Odelberg thinks back on this year's Global FlyFisher Summit in Denmark, and has penned down a few thoughts on the venue. Read his story and see tonnes of pictures from the successful meeting amongst happy anglers.

Merry pranksters - And yes, that is liquor in the bottle!
North coast - The northern part of the peninsula that we fished
Fantastic fish - A beauty from the Danihs coast
Even small fish - Swedish Janne having his portrait taken by fellow countryman Frederik
Summit imperssions
Martin Joergensen - Henning Eskol

After having travelled all night and been sleeping in the car for forty minutes at the backyard of the hostel in Odense we finally met the welcome committee. It took a while before anyone believed that we had traveled all night, and it took them a couple of more minutes before they believed that we had been sleeping in a couple of race tires in the trunk of Jan's fathers Opel.

After the welcoming

we had breakfast , a breakfast far from the oatmeal and lingon (Cowberry) jam that us Spartan Swedes usually have. This breakfast consisted of a wide range of sausages, bread, cheese, jam, marmalade and juice. This truly was the country of groovy pastry. A much more endorsing country than the bitter north.
Wedellsborg once again welcomed us with good weather and some wind, also with a couple of smaller fish that was caught during the day

Autumn fish - Danish GFF partner Martin Joergensen with a typical autumn sea trout
Enjoying a break - Lithuanian Rolandas and Danish Martin chatting
Kid's day - English Ripley with son Scotte being watched by Swedish Janne
A break - Rods waiting for action
Breathtaking - As always we got away with some beautiful weather during the summit
Front row - Taking a break and watching the water and the anglers in the water
Henning Eskol - Martin Joergensen - Hans Jacob Schou

The night was

initially spent viewing pictures and telling lies to each other. I fell asleep during the movie that Rolandas showed from Argentina, and frankly I'm not sure what was in my dream and what was true. After waking up from that state of being, I quickly made sure to find a better place to sleep.

Shallow water fish - Danish Martin Joergensen with a fish taken in the very shallow water close to the beach
Reel resting - English Law reel resting while Danish Henning Eskol tries to entice a fish
Polar Magnus - A classic
Nice fish - Danish Henning Eskol with a prize
Martin Joergensen - - Henning Eskol

This, this is it!

Was the first thing Martin said after arriving at the beach on Sunday. The water had a gentle ripple caused by a gentle wind and the water was fairly clear in opposite to the day before when it looked more or less like bad coffee.
A short discussion was held of where and with what to fish with, after that we formed into small teams and started the hunt. Jan, Richard and I went downwind and started fishing where the beach met some rocks. I quickly fell into the usual ‘fishing-machine-mode' and let cast after cast roll out towards the horizon.

I can't say

that I was surprised when my fingers registered a hard tug on my fly, the hook was set. After a hard fight on my five weight, I lifted up my first "big" Danish sea trout into my gentle arms and begun posing for the cameras. I then took the hook out and watched it swim back into the big blue where it came from. Not surprised? Is he that confident? No, but sometimes everything is right and you know that it's just a matter of time before you get close contact with a fish.

Just afterwards Richard

caught a slightly colored trout of almost 60 cm that, for me and Jan, marked the end of this year's Danish odyssey, or as we who where present would like to call it: "The Summit".

A trophy trout - Richard Maree with a grand Danish autumn trout
The Prize
Frederik Odelberg
The photographer - GFF partner Martin Joergensen trying to get a group photo
The fishing mob - A group of CzechoSlovaks returning from the water
The coast - The stretch by the ferry - a very popular spot
People, places, GFF partner Martin Joergensen
Hans Jacob Schou - Martin Joergensen
The whole group - Almost everybody attending the Global FlyFisher Summit 2008
The group
Martin Joergensen
Happy face - One of Vanuz' friends with his prize
Ye olde reel - It is actually a rather new reel: a Loop being prepared for the day's work
Eight is a crowd - Being thirtysome anglers in the same location has its price, but still we manage to get both room and fish
Great conditions - GFF partner Martin Joergensen enjoying the Funen coast in almost perfect conditions
Here's looking at you, kid - A sea trout on the way back
Images galore
Martin Joergensen - Ripley Davenport - Kai Nolting
Steve's fish - British Steve with a beauty from the foggy water
On the beach - Danes Martin and Henning and German Kai
Releasing  - A sea trout returns to its right element
Rolandas with a fish - A nice sea trout
Through the forest over the field - Approaching the water
I tell you a story! - Lithuanian Rolandas acting a one man show about a trip to Argentina
Roolis - Never trust a man who doesn't drink
The perfect depth - These fish go very close to the shore
More Summit impressions
Atli Sigurdsson - Les Austin - Kasper Mühlbach - Henning Eskol - Ripley Davenport - Martin Joergensen

More Summit articles

Summit 2006 (announcement)
Summit 2007 (announcement)
Summit 2008 (announcement)
Summit forums

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