Published Sep 11. 2010 - 14 years ago
Updated or edited Sep 29. 2021

Fishing the Danish coast

Richard Maree, a friend of GFF and an returning participant in the GFF Summits, challenged a demanding calendar and decided to squeeze in a couple of days of fishing in Denmark this autumn. He wrote an email and sent us these photos to inspire others to go.

Gentlemen,

Just returned from a few days fishing at Funen together with two of my fishing buddies, Bram Zanis and Sjef van Kessel.

The weather conditions were perfect of course. Maybe a little bit too sunny for fishing now and then, but it didn't bother the fish that much. Arrived Thursday afternoon after a 7 hour drive from Holland at our favorite Bed & Breakfast. Got our gear and went to Sønderby Klint. Had contact with several fish, but together we caught 4 in a few hours fishing. There were still a lot of garfish, they did follow the fly, but we only managed to catch one of them.

Black dots -
Blue Sky -
Gar-Light -
Richard Maree

Friday we went to Hindsholm. First we went to Fyns Hoved were we quickly caught a few little ones and missed a few bites.
In the afternoon we went to Bøgebjerg. We only caught one small trout over there; it wasn't the place to be that day we soon found out, so we went to Odense to have an early dinner. After that we went back to Sønderby Klint to fish the evening. The wind had picked up, so the fishing wasn't that easy but I quickly hooked a small trout that managed to get rid of the hook after some salto's and back flips.
In the dark I caught a big garfish. After that we decided to go home and get some sleep, we had to be fit for the next day.

Saturday was adventure day, we finally went to Æbelø. I have always wanted to fish there. I can understand why so many people go there by kayak or boat; it's really a very long walk! The island is just fantastic, what a beautiful place. A spin fisher that we met had already a nice sized trout hanging on his belt so we knew the fish was there.
The wind was blowing pretty strong from the North-East, so we decided to fish the calmer West side first and to move up to the Southern point.

I caught a couple of small ones pretty quickly but after that, there was a long time of no activity. I was surprised of the numbers of kayaks and boats there, it was almost busy! More to the south point where the wind picked up it was quieter luckily and the fishing conditions looked more promising.

Two Danish guys saw us nearing the point at the lighthouse and started speed marching to stay ahead of us just to have the best spot there. They went into the water and headed straight for the reef. Unfortunately for them they picked the wrong spot... Left from the reef there was a deeper bathtub was warm and colder water collided and everything was mixed up by the wind that came from the right side. We hooked up fish after fish of all sizes in the murky water and had a lot of miss hits while the two Danish guys just kept thinking what they were doing wrong...

Bram and I both caught a beautiful 50+ centimeters sea trout, both really well fed and strong as hell, they were a chubby couple!

Knowing we had to walk back 7 kilometers again, we stopped fishing around seven o'clock. The two Danish guys, who had gave up fishing for quite some time just to watch us, came up to us the moment we stepped out of the water to compliment us for the fishing we displayed, they didn't had any luck the whole day. We had a very pleasant conversation and gave them a pair of our 'wonder flies' and wished them good luck, the would stay the night there to fish the early morning.

Sunday was memory lane day. In the morning we went to Gamborg fjord, just for old time's sake. Left from the camping i quickly caught a small trout, but after that the vibe was gone. We fished on for half an hour and decided to go to the spot where I caught my first sea trout ever, Wedellsborg.

Friends without feet -
Seatrout on Fyn -
Brown on a pinkie -
Happiness in the sunshine -
Richard Maree

We parked the car in front of the entrance and walked towards the ferry. Seeing the place where we used to park the cars during the Summits brought back a lot of good memories, it's such a special place; to me it feels like walking on holy ground.
No other spot on Funen gives me the feeling i get when walking the shores there. We walked up to the ferry and discussed which side to fish first. My preference was the right side, don't ask me why, so we started there first. My first cast boom..., fish on! Second cast, a follower that turned away at the last moment. Shortly after that i hooked a small trout that got off. I walked 10 meters to the right, first cast, fish on, a nice sized hard fighting trout that already was starting to color a little, getting ready for the big trip upstream. What a spot...

We had to watch the clock because we had to drive back that day to Holland again so we got out of the water to fish the other side of the ferry as well. The first part still stinks like hell... the smell of the rotting seaweed is really disgusting.

But the promising sight of the weed banks ahead of me makes you forget it all in an instant. Within a few minutes i felt a hard hit on the fly, the fish was here as well. Further down, the beach makes his first hard bend and there the water got more murky ever step I made.
I immediately thought of Æbelø the day before, will these conditions bring the same as yesterday? After a few cast i decided to make a cast along the beachside... boom! There it was again, that massive feeling on the other side of the line, a big sea trout. Bram rushed towards me to net this trout for me and to make some nice pictures afterwards of course.
After doing so, I told him to give it a try to, you never know, maybe there are some more.

Golden autumn -
The Apple Island -
Where it belongs -
The e-Mail Man -
Richard Maree

Still untangling my line from the weeds I heard a loud 'YES' behind me. Bram's rod was bend like a spring and his reel was screaming out loud, this fish was even bigger than the one i just caught a few minutes ago! A massive fish rolled in the surface after this first hard run, it must have been around 65 to 70 centimeters, a real trophy fish. As it came in closer Bram looked worried... the fish took the small dropper fly... it was tied on a small circle hook, so it didn't grab a lot of meat, the hook was hanging just by the skin. The fish took a hard run again and out ripped the fly... @#*@#%&#... that was a hard lesson...

Bram fished on, knowing you shouldn't let these things get to you, and he hooked up again, a very nice fish of 47 centimeters. Within 15 minutes three big fish, again from murky water. By far the biggest lesson for us this trip.

That's so nice about fishing, every day you can learn something, no matter how many hours, days, months, years you have made already. Sea trout is one of my favorite species to fish for and this short, but fantastic trip, made me clear why again.
Unfortunately I couldn't join the Mini Summit this year, but maybe I contributed a little bit to this year's Danish coastal fishing with this story.

I wish you lots of bent rods and of course lots of fun, I hope to see you guys next year.

Regards,
Richard

Typical fish -
The gear fish -
Richard Maree

Comments

Martin Joergensen's picture

Andrew, I have he...

Andrew,

I have heard nothing about problems with the Danish sea trout as you mention it - toxins, bacteria, disease or any such thing. Not from authorities, not from the Danish Sports Fishing union and not from other anglers.
The only problem is that there are too few fish!
Regarding "gravlax" for those who don't know, it's a way of tendering or curing the raw fish using salt, sugar and spices, and as far as I know you can do that as you have always done: use very fresh fish, keep everything clean and enjoy the delicious result. You can freeze your fish first, but that won't cope with bacteria or toxins.

I would personally enjoy a piece of Danish gravlax any day.

Martin

Dear Martin Plannin...

Dear Martin
Planning my spring trip to Denmark, I heard some news about danish seatrouts.Some people , dedicated fishermans say that there is some problem with health and codition of danish seatrots seatruts .Some of them have peoblems with it. is it truth?I And if it so, is it save for the example to prepare some meal like so called " gravlaks"? Best regards,Andrew

Martin Joergensen's picture

Andrew, You might...

Andrew,

You might want to consider Moen (Møn) and Falster, two islands south of Sjaelland, easily accessible by ferry from Germany and known for some good sea trout fishing.

Search the web for information, like this: http://www.ulvscamp.dk/00077/00078/

Martin

Hello Guys . I`m int...

Hello Guys . I`m interested in any alternative destinations for bornholm`s seatrout expeditions as me and my friends used to do for a few last years. .Im mainly intersted in getting big silver fishes. . Could you be so kind and suggest any places to go in eastern part of Denmark ?

Nice story, Great fi...

Nice story, Great fish!!

Nice article, beauti...

Nice article, beautifull pictures and scenery! Like to go with you NeXT time :-))

Patrick siebeling

This was a memorable...

This was a memorable trip, and I enjoyed every second of it.

Thanks for your company guys.

Greetings,

Bram

Olle Bulder's picture

Dude..........if you...

Dude..........if you keep on posting trip reports like this they will close the danish border for you :)

Greets, youre friend from FF-C

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