Rügen bound
I'll be leaving for the first real spring fishing tomorrow - four days on German Rügen
A bunch of the German anglers that I know sometimes fish on the Baltic coast of Germany, and the name Rügen has popped up a few times.
Rügen is an island in the northern part of Germany located close to the mainland in the Baltic, and to a coastal angler as me it looks like a paradise. It's full of little nooks and crannies and has shelter for almost any wind direction and an endless variation in its coastal line with beaches, cliffs, rocks and whatnot.
So when my good friend Hans-Jacob (known by GFF Summit participants) called and asked whether we should plan a spring trip down there, I was all ears. So tomorrow morning we leave for Germany and four days of fishing. The weather seems to be agreeable and the timing is fine regarding the progression of the season.
So hopefully - knock on wood - I'll be having a ball with the Baltic sea trout the coming weekend. Rügen is usually known for its pike fishing, but the pikes are protected in April, so we can't target them. We have on the other hand rented a boat Sunday and might target some cod. We'll see.
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Comments
This is probably an
This is probably an old post but man if thats not history in a nutshell on a page i dont know what. Thanx for those that kept it online.... big kudos
Great info since iam going up north before returning to Alaska
Thomas, Thanks fo
Thomas,
Thanks for your very thorough advice. I returned now, and caught a single fish and hooked one.
Martin
Hello, please! at f
Hello,
please! at first - excuse my english ... bad and painfully :^)
Okay Rügen - i caught my first seatrout on the island in the year 1995 end of february with my spinning rod.
The place was near the campground Drewoldke not so far from Kap Arkona in the north of the island.
The fish was a female, dark brown colored may be on the way to spawn and huge with 89 cm and 5.5 kg ... and
shame, shame ... i killed the fish, sad but true.
At that time only a few anglers/insiders were fishing for seatrout. I guess the most anglers, who grow up
in the GDR (German Democratic Republic), don't know anything about shore fishing and the shore was also
strictly controled through the army called NVA (Nationale Volksarmee).
For example it wasn't allowed to fish in the dark.
As a young boy in the early 80th i cought some nice rainbows which escaped from fish farms in the Wismarer Bucht, the only experiences from this period.
After the change in 1989 and the union of the two german states ... we all bought ... like craszy ...
new fishing equipment, read a lot of books and magazines and saw lots of videos.
One of the videos was a promotion for the Fyn seatrout project, i'm not sure but i believe made by Jens Ploug Hansen.
And a dream was born .. to catch a seatrout ... in the beginning was the idea to fish on the island Fehmarn, which was well known for shore fishing.
But some facts from the video, especially the look of the coast and the sea ground was my motivation to start the experiment Rügen ... equipped with plastic waders, a cheap short (2.40 m) spinning rod and ... yes! ... on a warm sunny winter day ... it was the 25th february 1995 ... after 3 hours casting my rod was bend :^) ...
Since these time i spent every year a few days on the island, but my first seat trout on the fly i caught in the early autumn 1999 near Vejlby Fed on the island Fyn.
Two years later (2001) my good friend Marco, who lives and works on Rügen, guided me 10 days in order two
catch sea trouts on the fly ... this was a difficult experience, because my friend caught the incredible number from 23 trouts up to 76 cm (all the trouts were released!) and i ... puh ... only three.
Nowadays there is a different situation ... many anglers and flyfishers, lots of nets close to the shore,
beach walkers much as possible ... but you can catch sea trouts ... and with a bit of luck in a serious size.
Here some hints:
1. best time in the year in my opinion, is the late winter and early spring, because there are thousands of thousands of herings which spawn in the Fjords (called Bodden - looks like big lakes with brackish water famous for the big pikes) surrounded by the island.
2. you need a license ... such things could be in germany ... sophisticated and very bureaucratically. Luckely there is a license for visitors/tourist you can order the license there:
- http://www.lallf.de/Touristenfischereischein.284.0.html unfortunately the side is only in german (but .. i hope ... one of the next hints will help you :^) ...)
3. there are some regularities ... you can only catch 3 trouts per day (with the fly? difficult enough) with a minimum size of 50 cm. A long closed saison ... i guess .. from the 1th august until the 14th december
5. fishing strongly depends from the wind, there are a lot of chalk cliffs like on the danish island Møn and strong wind from east and north means the water looks like milk coffe, check the following links:
- http://de.windfinder.com/forecast/arkona
- http://www.bsh.de/aktdat/bm/KapArkona.htm
a good idea is to check the wave hight ("Wellen aus Richtung .. Höhe m").
6. Here you can order a small printed guide (only in german) for the island
- http://www.der-angelfuehrer.de
7. Last but not least follow this link: www.first-cast.de/ ... okay the site is in german, but the man behind the side Bernd Ziesche speaks very well english (much better than i) and he is a professionell guide for the island.
- http://www.first-cast.de/Kontakt.html
Furthermore he is a certificated fly casting instructor and believe me ... he is the distinguished expert for seatrout fishing i know.
I'm sure he will give you all informations/support for license, equipment, flies, accomodation ... and many more.
Best regards Thomas