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IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:
Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Sea Trout
in the Salt
Our June 2001 contribution from Trout Bum
Saltwater fly fishing is growing in popularity around the world. In his latest article Trout Bum writes about the fun to be had fly fishing for sea trout in the Baltic around the Swedish south and west coasts. Early season perils which include ice flows are soon forgotten in the middle of a warm summer night with fish feeding on or just under the surface when they can be taken on dry flies.
When
I took up fly fishing I thought myself unlucky. I live on the Swedish
West Coast and it is far to the more famous trout and grayling waters
of central and northern Sweden. We do have a few nice trout rivers near
my home but they get quite a bit of fishing pressure. Some friends showed
me a really good alternative though. There is good fishing to be had and
I can get to magnificent trout waters by bus, tram, car or even bike!
All
I have to do is to go for sea trout in the salt instead of brown trout
in rivers. If I'm not too lazy it takes me 25 minutes to bike out to water
where it is not unusual to catch trout that average 15 to 17 inches and
where fish of 22 to 24 aren't too uncommon. I'm talking length here since
weight all depends on the time of year: early season you can get fish
that are still coloured or fairly lean and a 20 inch fish might weigh
2lb, the same fish in July or August could easily go to 4lb or beyond.
So I'll stick to length. Besides that, I measure the length of most of
the fish I catch and since I return a fair number, they don't get weighed.
The season for sea trout here on the West Coast begins on 1 March and
on the South and East Coast it begins on 1 January. The last date of the
season is 14 September everywhere. There is also a difference in minimum
size between the West Coast 40cm (about 16 inches) and South/East Coasts
50cm (about 20 inches).
Many
years I "jumpstart" the season on the Southeast coast. There
is really good fishing there and even though the trout are fewer in numbers
they make up for that in size. When we started fishing the East Coast
many years ago, we fished a lot with spinning gear and what we call "kastdobb"
a weighted float on a sliding rig and a small fly on a 12 to 15 foot leader.
Nowadays I use my flyfishing gear most of the time but I do pack the spinning
rod, just for those days when they stay 90 yards of the beach and I'm
not in the mood for float tubing. A float tube can be a really helpful
thing to have on occasions; I don't use it all that much in the sea, it's
much more fun on large rivers, but it is perfect on the days when the
trout stay out of range. It is not necessary to use a float tube though.
It is necessary to have a good pair of waders, and good boots with felt
soles to go with them. Neoprene or breathable waders are by far the best
as the water can get really cold in the early season. A good waterproof
coat and warm mittens are just as important.
As I said, before I got side-tracked into the inexhaustible area of gear,
I usually start my season a bit early by making the 400-mile round trip
to the East Coast. Really early in the season there tend to be two kinds
of trout caught. Some are fairly slim and still coloured after spawning.
They are often big; it is not uncommon to find fish of between 7 and 12lbs.
Of course we return all of these. The others are sometimes called Greenlanders:
fish that have not spawned and are really fat, trim and silvery. Most
of the time these fish are just around the minimum size of 20 inches but
you do get the occasional really big one and that is what makes it all
worth while. A good January day with the temperature rising a few degrees,
no wind, a warm sun and a promise of spring in the air. To hook and land
a silvery, plump 8lb sea trout on a fly on such a day can really make
the season!
Here
on the West Coast at the start of the season although many fish are not
in the best of condition, there are always nice trout to be found. Even
though they are smaller in size, they are greater in numbers and you still
get the odd really good Greenlander. There are, if the ice isn't still
lying on the sea, always some 4 to 6lb fish caught on the first day. On
this side of Sweden during the early weeks we fish the shallow bays. A
lot of fish are still staying in the shallow water close to the river
mouths and since the shallows warm up faster there is more food to be
had. Ice is an obstacle you can't always avoid when you fish really early;
a friend of mine managed to play and land a 7lb silvery trout between
drifting ice a few years back. That is a bit more excitement than most
people like though.
As soon as the water starts to warm up, the trout seeks areas with more
current and thus more food and oxygen. They still forage into shallow
areas though, especially at dusk and dawn. The food source in the sea
shifts with the season as it does in the river. When the river fisherman
who is a bit interested in matching the hatch shifts from stoneflies to
mayflies to sedges, the saltwater fly fisher goes from small crustaceans
to ragworms to shrimps, to a new sub-species of ragworms and to fish fry.
Of course you can keep it simple, in the sea as well as in rivers. You
can make do with a woolly bugger, a streamer and a hare's ear nymph. But
it's much more fun to change your flies with the season and whatever the
trout is eating. I have been very lucky since some of my friends have
worked really hard on getting to know the seatrout and its food. For me
it has been more about tagging along for the ride! Robert Lai is the one
who has spent most time on fishing for and localising both trout and the
food they prey on and is very knowledgeable. He has also made it possible
for me and a lot of others to enjoy fishing all through the season. Well,
we could have done that before, and some did, but not to the extent we
do now.
A
few years back our season in the sea tended to end in late May, we never
really bothered to look for the trout after that. And when we stumbled
upon them they seemed "hopeless" to catch. Robert found out
that a lot of the trout take up positions similar to freshwater trout,
in areas with currents that transport a lot of food close-in to their
holding stations. And they are mainly active at night. They also have
periods when they specialise in certain food, just as other trout get
"pre-occupied". One of the food sources he found to be important
was the different species and sub-species of ragworms. They come in all
shapes and sizes and all of them spawn or swarm in the surface when certain
conditions are met. Robert has also made some highly successful ragworm
patterns that we use for seatrout.
Night-time fishing during the summer months can be spectacular; you can
spend a warm (hopefully) summer night fishing for rising trout that will
take a dry fly. It is really nice to go out after work, sometimes well
after work, and sit on the still-warm rocks sipping coffee and waiting
for the first rises. Oh yes, they do rise, or at least swirl. Much of
the food seatrout are after tends to come up really close to the surface
and so the trout "announce" themselves. Not all of the fish
are trout though; we get other species as well. Depending on where you
fish you can get all sorts of surprises. One of the guys I fish with caught
a salmon last year of 60+ cm. In a category of its own is the garfish
that every spring come to the Swedish coast in huge numbers and, depending
on your opinion of these mini swordfish, can be seen either as a nuisance
of the highest rank or a nice sportfish. Most years I dedicate a few days
to go after garfish, they are abundant, they are extremely acrobatic,
and, they are normally easy to fool but hard to hook. In short, they are
great fun! The other species we encounter are whitefish and the occasional
mullet.
As
the year moves towards the end of the season fishing shifts from summertime
with its late evenings and really early mornings, towards more decent
hours with good fishing to be had in the late afternoons as the season
winds-up. The food sources for the trout shift as well but late in the
season there tends to be an abundance of everything. They do get picky
though. I was on the 'phone yesterday evening with a friend of mine who
was going to sit down and tie some fish imitations in larger sizes. Apparently
he'd been out and had a few hours before dark when there had been a lot
of fish moving but he had only had one take. The trout had all been into
rather large, one to two inch fish and had just ignored his much smaller
flies.
One thing I have been meaning to do for a couple of years now is to try
out these methods in the UK. I have got friends living in Bridlington
on the Yorkshire coast and the area around there seems to have potential
for trout in the sea. Unfortunately, weather and my own laziness has conspired
into keeping me from trying this. There ought to be a lot of places to
try and the many rivers all along the coast should mean a lot of seatrout
in the coastal waters. Well, as I have said every time I have missed out
on fishing the British coast so far: next time I will do it! If not for
anything else, then because trout in the salt is so much fun!