October 1998 pictures
A bunch of images from the infancy of GFF
Mark Vagn Hansen with a beautiful 2.2 kilos sea trout taken on a calm friday evening with perfect south wastern wind. We saw the first fish jump as we opened the car door and at least 15 more out of the water during that evening. This one too a small shrimp pattern and the last fish of the evening fell for a Foam Diver in pitch dark around 8 o'clock.
We returned to the same stretch of coast a couple of days after our succesful evening, but the wind was rough and even though it blew in from west - our left side - it was still too much. We didn't see a single fish in that same very productive water. It's me fishing in the background and Johnny in the front.
Photo: Mark Vagn Hansen.
Escaped sea farm Rainbows are very common along the Danish shoreline. This specimen, which was taken on a fly by Johnny Pløk, is a typical representative. Its fat body shape and worn tail and fins reveals its origins: one of the many floating cages in the danish seas. The fish will typically escape in periods with rough weather and waves - sometimes literally in thousands. They are somewhat stupid, fairly easy to catch and put up an extremely good fight.
Photo: Mark Vagn Hansen.
Photographer Mark Vagn Hansen for once caught by his own camera py fishing compadre Johnny Pløk.
Photo: Johnny Pløk.
Photographer Mark Vagn Hansen has caught this fish in two senses: on a fly and on the film. The picture represents Danish autumn fishing very well - dark, threatening, but beautiful sky, the chance of good fish (this was 2+ kilos) and the extremely beautiful Danish coast with stones, sea weed and clear water.
Photo: Mark Vagn Hansen.
Outdoors author Kim Konrad Petersen spin fishing on a beautiful stretch on the coast of Funen.
Editor Ole Wisler of the largest Danish fishing magazine, Sportsfiskeren, waiting for fish to jump over the sea weed close to the shore on Funen.
Ole Wisler watching over the near perfect Funen coast. Barely visible in the water in front of him is the weed covered stones stretching in a band approx 20 meters (60') out along long stretches of the beach. This narrow band will hold most of the coastal sea trout and a coast as this is extremely well suited for sea trout fishing.
A fascinating stone reef stretching south of the Danish island Sejerø. The weather is very rough with a lot of wind and large waves. We are two fly fishers and two spin fishers heading out the long wadable stretch. The reef reaches aprox. 1 kilometer out into the ocean. We wade about half way to the point where the rising water covers the stones.
The wind sweeps in from the east - the left side of the picture - where huge waves break against the shore. On the other side of the reef the water is calm, and just where the water breaks over the reef there's a hefty current. In this back water we find the fish.
The extreme back wind makes casting an effort, but we cover the fairly deep water just off the 'shore', and all of us get contact with the fish waiting for food that gets swept over the stones that we're standing on. Here Mic's got a sea trout on his fly rod.
Staying on your feet and keeping contact with the fish is no easy task in the turbulent water.
As the fish gets closer it intensifies it's fight. The small fish struggles with intensity and vigor as it's reeled in immediately avoing a long and intense fight to no avail.
One sideeffect of the strong wind can be seen here. The loose line is swept free of the water and keeps dangling around your arms and the rod making it difficult to keep it freely running. Mic reaches for the fish...
...and lands it. This was the size of fish that we all caught in the roungh water. These can sometimes be so numerous that it's a pity to keep on fishing with the large flies, heavy tackle and rough handling that's needed in this weather. Lucky for us there were larger fish in other parts of the island, but unfortunately they were few.
Per has fished with different slender spoons and bubble float and fly and has also taken his share of small sea trout in the relativly calm back water.
All photos: Martin Joergensen except where mentioned
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