Swedish sea trout opening:

Not the April's Fools Story

For the first time of my life I was able to get to the sea trout opening on the Swedish west coast 1st of April 2005. Welcome to a fly fisherman's heaven!

Geir runs nice sea trout on his Jiggy in the "Mummi Fjord". Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly.

Our adventure started long time before dawn on the opening day, 1st of April. Stiff, but not grumpy, and with sleepy eyes, we headed out of our cabin to the sea.

After a ten minute drive to a place where we had seen silver glimmering sea trouts jump the night before, we met of a huge pack of fellow Norwegians.

100 years after the liberation of Norway from Swedish rule, one could easilly imagine that a Norwegian takeover of Western Sweden was on it's way. But we had other goals: All of us armed with carbon rods and newly created flies for salty trouts.

With temperatures well under freezing, we stumbled in the dark out into icy waters. Long time after sunrise the slushy surface finally melted away. I must admit that my first "strikes" this morning was by drifting ice flakes, hitting the the fly, with heavy, zoombie-like runs.

But then, our fishing simply exploded.

Even if the waters were crowded with fishermen, mostly Norwegians, we experienced our best sea trout fishing ever.

Sunrise over the frenetic crowd of fishermen at the "Gulf Stream". Later that day the "Sargasso Ocean" held an armada of belly and pontong boats. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly.

From Friday to Sunday me and my fishing buddy Geir got a total of 40 sea trouts, with an average weight over one kilo. An incredible number, when it is said that fishing in the Oslo Fjord normally gives one sea trout per 8 hours of fishing.

Biggest fishes on our trip:

2,6 kg's ( 62 cm )
1,8 kg's ( 54 cm )
1,6 kg's ( 54 cm )
1,6 kg's ( 55 cm )
1,5 kg's ( 53 cm )
1,5 kg's ( 52 cm )

We also, of course, lost some big lunkers!

We were amazed to see so many fish in superb shape after the long winter. Most of them were released, but we took with us some fish to cover our own dinner needs and we gave a couple of fish as gift to our cabin hostess and a Swedish family that gave us permission to park at their lot.

The West Coast of Sweden has much more ideal conditions for sea trout, than we experience in the Oslo Fjord. While our home water is extremely cold (in fact right now covered with thick ice), the Swedish West Coast has a somewhat milder climate.

The coastal region of Western Sweden is also full of narrow and shallow fjord systems, where the tide twice a day is pouring in a wonderful buffet for the sea run trouts - eager to eat anything after the exhausting autumn spawn and dark winter.

Experts we have spoken to, say Swedish sea trout grows bigger and bigger, the more south you get. In Skåne - on the Southern tip of Sweden - the usual average weight of sea trout is 2 kg's!

The Swedes have also regulated the fishing much better than in Norway. While the legal limit to kill fish in Norway is 30 cm's, Sweden has imposed a 45 cm's limit.

For the first time in our life, we actually were encountered by people measuring our catch. A patrol from the Swedish Coastal Police, came on the opening day, to chech wether everybody was following the regulations. Great!

The key to successful sea trout fishing during springtime is first of all to find the fish. It is wise to cover huge stretches by wading the shore. Use many different flies. Retrieve the fly in very fast!

Our experience is that immitations of sandeel/tobis is killer fly number one. If you use a Jiggy or other fly with heavy conehead, the fly will dance up and down in the water, and thus trig fish to hit it.

HERE ARE MORE PICTURES FROM OUR TRIP:

Jan Gunnar Furuly with the biggest sea trout on the trip: 2,6 kg's - 62 cm. Photo: Geir Vasbotten. Morning catch on 25 minutes: 2,6 kg's, 1,5 kg's and 1,1 kg's. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. The fish we caught were full of Chaetopods and tobis/sandeels. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. 1,5 kg's - 54 cm . Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. Geir Vasbotten with catch in the "Mummi Fjord". 1,6 kg's - 55 cm . Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. Killer flies! Up from left: Jiggy with cone head and epoxy head (sunshine fly). Hot orange Danish shrimp fly (for fishing in murky waters). Down left: A tobis immitation, inspired by a fly I got from Vestby fisherman Jan Myhre. We added some sparkling electricity and dubbed it the "Rocket Fly". (Deadly weapon in sunshine!!). Down right: Pål Krogvold's legendary "Dynamite" - used day and night with big success. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. Remember to reel in big fish on long line. Do not beach fish you intend to release! Practice catch and release when you have enough for dinner. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly All the fish we got had full stomachs of Chaetopods, sandeel and small herring. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. Nice afternoon catch in "Mummi Fjord". Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly. Late night fishing in the "Gulf Stream". 3 out of 4 fishermen we met at the Swedish west coast were Norwegians. 60 to 70 percent of all the fishermen used fly rods. Photo: Jan Gunnar Furuly.

 

Read full newspaper article from daily Aftenposten here. (Norwegian text).

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