Sea, wind, a little bit of cold and fatigue, but you are still in move, in move with only one aim – to land a silver bullet. What for or what it is all about? I would say it is about ability to face the sea with a small rod in your hands and a big hope that your efforts will be rewarded. And when it happens you know the feeling…

So, last few days together with Lithuanian friends I was back in Sweden – this time to chase see trout or Havsöring as they name it. Besides main mission – this fishing story was also filmed for Lithuanian TV. Originally we were planning to visit Swedish cost early at April, but, because of several obstacles, dates where changed. Little bit too late one may say. Yes, but better late than never. Last year, in mid April, there was quite a nice fishes landed in region we where visiting, so the hopes was quite high… 5 kilo is a some kind of a dream, but 3 kilo sounds little bit more realistic. Before the trip I have prepared some versions of famous Grey Frede, also I tied different Sand Eel imitations with and without epoxy heads. Yeaah, there was a psycho type fly`s and classical Magnus too. So, a few reasons to expect a nice takes…

In general, fishing was quite tough in terms of casts needed to get the take and this story is about fishing impressions and conclusions. One is for sure – I will be back again.

Before we started our friends from Scandinavia mentioned that sea trout fishing at coast in this season was not so good. A good sign, especially if you keep in mind that you must succeed, because otherwise weekly TV fishing story will be about… Hmmm, about how good is to fish with the fly rod even if there is no fish landed. Quite wearily…

At the first evening, when we where looking for the possible places, I noticed that sea is quite warm and it was a disappointment. In other terms it means that fish can also find food far from shore and we can’t expect a lot of takes. On the other hand, there was good news too – amount of net fishing was decreased this season, at least I heard such a rumor, that may be can be proved with a bulky net collection that we founded all around the coast we where fishing. And only one net in the sea – usually it is opposite.

First few days I was fishing mainly with famous Grey Frede size 4 and 6. Because of the fact that this part of shore was new for as, it was necessary to move all the time to find a perfect spot – so this fly was a nice choice – you can fish it in shallower waters with immediate retrieve after presentation. If you fish a little bit deeper spot – just wait a while when fly sunk and retrieve a little slower. In terms of weather first day was the best one – a little wind from sea and cloudy fogy conditions where perfect for fish to come closer to shore. I noticed that in the small bay there was a quite high concentration of baby sea trout feeding at the surface, and almost immediately landed two of them – so if there is good food source there must be bigger ones too. Around 12 I felt sudden take and first sea trout around 1 kilo jumped out of the water. Almost 20 minutes later I landed another one – this time it was recovered kelt silver yet slim one. Not a bad start – all the fish was cought with Grey Frede – the classical sea trout fly. Evening was even better – landed only one, but hooked another that escaped almost at my knees and had another two ore three nice takes.

So in spite of the fact that size was 1-2 kilos we expected that following days fishing would be even better. But, the weather changed into the Palm Beach style – bright sun during the morning and daytime, with a chance to land a sea trout only at the late evening or at early morning. In all following days I had a fish but not a lot more than one. Besides sea trout there were countless garfish takes – some times these fishes was so many, that more less all the casts resulted in a take. Of course after landing we released all of them because they where here for spawning.

At the end I had a feeling, that sea trout shamed to come closer to the shore, and all the takes was in deeper spots than before. My opinion is, that in these deeper spots classical Grey Fred is good yet not the best choice – especially if there is bigger waves. In such a conditions I had a success with orange legged fredy that was equipped with heavy eyes. Next evening because of the even bigger waves, I turned to sand eel imitation with a massive head to penetrate the water surface immediately. Fortunately after few casts I hooked a nice seatrout around 3 kilos that escaped close to my knees. Even more after some half an hour I landed a small cod around 1 kilo on the same fly. During the trip our TV friend spin fishermen Paulius all five fishes landed on 20 gram Toby`s and it seems that bigger flies would be my choice next year. At least I will use them more frequent than this year. Sea trout are avid hunters and are not suffering from shame to eat a bigger sand eel if they see one.

Few words about tackle. Nice stripping basket is a must as well as wading stuff – stones are slippery and waves are strong. Prepare same flies in different weight range. Use 6 or 7 weight 9-10 ft fast action fly rod equipped with floating shooting head. In this trip I was using LOOP Opti Coast 6-93` – a new rod that was suiting the situation and my casting style perfectly. It is strong rod yet with a good feeling in it. I would recommend to use big large arbor reels for fast line retrieving – after the strike you must spool all the line from your basket meanwhile controlling the fish– time here is everything. And of course polarizing glasses and landing net are necessary too.

So about conclusions?

#1 It is better to come earlier – let say in middle of April.

#2 I would use bigger flies more often – especially in deeper spots.

#3 Use as long leaders as possible – sea trout are spooky; I was using 9,5 to 11 ft fluorocarbon leaders all the time in spite of windy conditions.

#4 Find a place where wind is blowing to the shore – it means higher water temperatures and more food at this time.

#5 Spots where are stones and sudden depth changes are best ones – especially good close to horns.

#6 Be patient and trust your fly .

#7 Play with different retrieve speeds and types until you find one that works. Maybe that was the reason why I was more successful this year than others.

Here are some pictures from described flies and whole trip,

hope to see you in Ogre,

Reinis

Tags: Sea trout

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 00:48 and is filed under Fly fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.