Brown Trout on the Baltic Sea

For the second year on the row, "Peach - Fishing and Adventures" was present as an exhibitor in the largest Fly Fishing show in Europe, the EWF, in Fürstenfeldbruck, near Munich.  In my humble opinion, the EWF has the most beautiful venue of all the Fly Fishing shows that I have attended, and to make things better, this year the weather was just fantastic.

Because our attendance to the EWF involved crossing the Atlantic Ocean and flying for many hours, my wife and I thought some vacations were appropriate, so we planned accordingly.  The end of April is a great time to travel within Europe, with temperatures that may vary from cold to mild to hot, in the same day; however; it seemed a little early for me to be able to squeeze in some fishing days, as I usually like to.  Initially, I had thought about wading for Pike in the North of Germany, but the season was not yet open. And, fishing for trout in Germany was out of question, due to the complexity of the local fishing regulations. It was thanks to one of my German clients that the idea to fish for Sea Trout in Denmark started to take shape.  First, I thought we were talking about the same "speckled trout" that we fish in the US shore line; but then, after some research, I learned we were talking about Sea-Run Brown trout. Wow, I thought, I can't miss that!

It may not be a big surprise but Germany can be much bigger than it looks; and a car ride from Munich to Hamburg, for instance, can take more than 10 hours, even with their amazing Autobahns. So, to get from Munich to Denmark as fast and nimble as possible, we had to have a good plan. We decided to return our rental car at the Munich Central Train Station as soon as the EWF was over, then, jump in an overnight fast train to Hamburg, get a new rental car early next morning near the train station, and then head to this nice medieval town called "Middelfart"(no jokes here please), in Denmark. By doing so, next morning we would have a short 40-minute drive to our fishing lodge, where we would spend two nights (fish one day with a guide and DIY for two half days).

Our vacations were planned around that idea. After fishing in Denmark, our itinerary would include a couple of days in Flensburg and then Hamburg, where we would drop-off the car upon our arrival.

I still had a couple of small problems to resolve before going fishing in Denmark. First of all, I needed to make a reservation at the lodge; then, I needed fishing gear (rods, reels, waders, boots, nets, etc.) for the DIY days.  I was coming from a Fly Fishing Show, already fully packed with show material, such as backdrops, banners, brochures, and had no way to pack anything else for this trip.  I sent an email to the contact that was given to me at the lodge and their rooms were unavailable; however, they said they could accommodate us off-premises, in a little house a few minutes away from the lodge.  Regarding fishing gear and accessories, considering my particular situation (coming from the EWF), I was generously offered to borrow their equipment from the lodge (normally, the lodge would have rented the gear to me). That was first class-service, from the beginning to the end! I made the deposit to confirm my booking and was now on-track to hunt these Baltic Sea Trout.

The lodge is located in the island of Fyn. Some interesting facts about this Danish island are that it is the birthplace of the famous fairy taler Hans Christian Andersen (born in Odense), also it has over 100 manor houses and castles; but most importantly for us, it has about 700 miles of shoreline. With innumerous wading points around the entire island, one can find a good spot despite the wind direction on a given day.   Included in the lodge's rate are, a European-style breakfast buffet, dinner (with an Italian flair, as they like to brag) and coffee at any time of the day.  The entire staff is very experienced and customer oriented; if you DIY fishing, they will give you all the intel and point you to a few locations to choose from for a successful day. If you want a guided trip, they will hook you up with one their guides.

Back to our adventure, we left Middelfart after breakfast and headed to Assens to check this little old town out and buy some water. The drive to the lodge was breathtaking; green fields with wild flowers blooming, contrasting with the blue sky and light green Baltic Sea. We arrived around noon at the lodge where Omar was waiting for us to get me geared up for my first DIY fishing in the island. The wind was blowing from NW, so we walked to this map he has on the wall of the lodge, and recommended a beach not far from us.

The next question was, what flies do I use? I had brought a small fly box with Bonefish flies, just in case. Also, during the EWF, I spoke with several vendors and friends and ended up buying a few shrimp patterns and was also given a few other classic sea trout patters to try it out (including the famous Magnus).  Of course, when I got to deciding what to use, Omar told me to forget about all that, and use that one single (weightless) pattern that was developed by them; it's called the Jan Kenobi, if I am not mistaken. I headed to the beach and started my wading, having in mind that it was not needed to go deeper than my shin bone, which often I did.  Also, I followed the strict rule of covering as much water as possible, by making one cast, and stepping to the side for the next one, and so forth. The bottom was mostly filled with tumbling rocks, which were also very slippery, so caution was imperative. At certain points, there was very fine sand, that could easily turn into quick-sand and drag your feet down, if you did not keep moving. Once you get all that in your blood, it is just so peaceful. The water was extremely clear, and there was only one other anglers at my sight, but long ways from me. Once in a while you will see an angler passing by or someone walking the dog, but besides that, it is just you and that vast ocean. At one point, to satiate my curiosity I dipped my finger in the water and took it to my lips; to my surprise the water was not as salty as I was used to. Later, was told that the salt in the Baltic Sea was so low that they didn't even have to rinse the fishing gear, boots and waders after every trip. How convenient, I thought! As I was moving and contemplating that magic scenery, I felt a bump; continued to strip and another bump, then fish on! Wow, it happened, the brown sea run trout took the fly. After a couple of jumps, I got my net out to get the fish out of the hook, the brought the fish close to me to admire this more-silver than expected brown trout, and put it back in the water.  The trout was still full of energy and swam out like a small torpedo. My mission was accomplished, and I was as happy as a dog with two tails.

On my way back, after around 4-5 hours in the water, I realized I had actually gone pretty far, and now had to walk all the way back.  I passed around 5 other anglers during the entire afternoon, and most of them told me they had been skunked. There was one of them; however, that was very excited to tell me about his 60 cm trout, and indeed, by pulling his phone out of the pocket I could witness what was a beautiful big sea run trout. He asked me about the size of my trout and I had to guess it, because I did not even think about it when I caught it; around 30 cm seemed a fair guess, so that's what I told him. One thing that I learned that day, based on the comment made by one of the anglers that I met on the beach was, the wind is a fundamental part of catching sea trout on these waters; when the wind dies down, the visibility increases and the trout gets extremely weary. I was done for the day, finally could check our little home, take a shower and head to the lodge to have dinner. The little house, ended up not being so little; it was a pretty cool old school white house with a sod roof.  As unusual as it may sound, the first room in the house was the bathroom, it was followed by a kitchen and a dining room, then a living room with a TV, and the last room was an spacious bedroom.  Perfect. Time to have dinner and we headed to the lodge. We were the last ones to get there, but still in time to make the order. The menu was Pizza, which had one of the best doughs I ever had. To celebrate the day, we also ordered the locally brewed, Fly Catcher's Ale. And, off to bed we went to get ready for a long day ahead of us.

Next morning we met for breakfast and were introduced to our guide for the day, Jan. He was, by the way, the same person that were serving the pizzas on the previous night, and also the Master Brewer of the beer we had for dinner. I was prepared for a tough day, the sea trout fishing on the Baltic Sea is famous for not being a "20-fish-a-day" kind of a deal, and reports yesterday were pretty gloomy; also because they had a long winter in Fyn, fish were not as active as expected for that time of the year. None of that stopped us, and worst-case scenario my wife (with her spin rod) and myself (with a fly rod) would have a great time hitting different spots of this incredible ocean. To make things even more challenging, the wind was not blowing.  On the bright side, most of the spots that we visited were much easier to wade, compared to what I encountered on the previous day. 

During the trip with Jan, we confirmed my suspicion, that is the tides do not vary much in the island, and that the wind plays a much larger role in pushing the tides in and out. For the entire day, the tide was very low and wind almost absent. Making a long story short, despite the expertise and effort put into catching a trout, it did not happen. We had a great day, nonetheless. The guiding days are pretty long, we started at 9am, with a short break for a sandwich and beer for lunch, and did not give up until around 5:30pm. Unlike most of the experiences that I had before, in-between fishing time, there is quite a lot of hiking involved, and as a result, once the day was over, we had walked about 10 miles. By 6pm we were crushed and returned straight to the lodge to get some dinner, which is served at 7pm.  During dinner we talked with other anglers and learned that some of them did pretty well, catching numbers and sizes, in different fishing spots. The dinner menu of the day was a soup followed by a very fine charcuterie board and dessert - just what we needed!  We got ourselves a bottle of Chianti, drank a glass and took the remaining to finish it up at our nice sod roof house. Going to sleep after that was easy.

On our last day, our last fishing morning before driving to Flensburg, was a repeat of the previous day. The difference was that morning was a bit cloudier, but the air was still not moving. Being pragmatic and with an eye on our travelling schedule, I decided to hit some of the places that we went on the previous days and some new spots nearby. As I got in the car to continue our vacations, I ws very happy with this experience, brand new to me, and all the things we learned. People are not joking when they say Sea Trout is the 1,000-cast fish, but I had the opportunity to get one. It still amazes me that in this vast ocean, these Trout would chase such small streamers. The trip was very enjoyable and I highly recommend the Denmark Fishing Lodge and the island of Fyn to anyone willing to chase some Sea Run Trout in the Baltic Sea.  As matter of fact, during our interaction with some of the guests, we noticed that fishing was just part of the deal; the exercise, the contact with nature, the entire fishing setting, the amicable and yet professional relation between lodge staff and clients, the food, and much more, is what makes some guests to return for the 10th time. This is an experience for the whole family, and there is some much to do and see in that part of Europe it is impossible not to consider staying longer.

In addition to the Sea Trout experience, I was also told that for only 10 weeks per year they also host a Pike fishing program in private lakes that belong to the royal family; this is arguably the best pike fishing in Europe, where catching 3ft Pikes is a very doable target, I was told.

A DIY week trip runs around 4500€, per person, including accommodation and meals. Contact us if you are interested in learning more.