Yepp, bit late, but its better now than never. Here is the report from our seatrout trip! You can never know… Last year we where bit late, so we have planed our seatrout trip few weeks earlier this year. It is allways hard to predict when to come, because weather can change pretty fast. In the best case we expected that whater will be arround 6 degrees at arrival and will warm up constantly during the trip. From the wery begginig, actually it was friday’s evening, things seemed pretty good.

Instead of pesimistic spin fishermen, who have not cought anything during the last days, four guys, who where drifting in pontoon boats, landed some moderete size sea trout, during the day time. So we where after to land some silvery fish too! Located in the well known spot, actually last years most productive one, we started fishing with best hopes!  First casts are always most excitatory – you are styripping your line in with the feeling that take is around the corner! One strip then another! But this time it was not so… During the next two hours, that we had, I lost only one fish. After the genttle take my leader came apart in a few seconds, and unfortunattely without any fight.  I hooked this sea trout on a dark orange eyed sandeel with the moderate strip speed. After strike, fish made few turns on the surface and was gone. That’s it – my 8 lb 3X Varivas fluorocarbon apparently was not strong enough, and what was even more interesting, I can not say that fight was tought? So, quite a mystery I supposed at that time, and was quite uppset, because it was the only take that we had at that evening.  Even more it is allways bad if you loose the fish because of the tackle! Mikus measured water tempereture – with the on shore wind it was around 4.5 degrees, that was so not too bad for beggining. Few weeks erlier we where not shure about the ice – this year it was quite cold in our reagion. So, these news where prommising.

Next morning started brilliantly in the terms of  feeling – small lasy waves, light breeze from the sea and… When I just approached my spot I recognized nice seatrout tale on the surface. I decided that it just have arrived, and made a cast in between the fish and the bank. First strip then another one – hands where waiting while hurt was beating faster and faster… I was fishing with rag worm at that time, and either the fish was away, ore my slimshape wormy was not impressive enough. After the second cast even closer to the shore, I checked some deeper spots, but again with out any luck! F..k! This was the chance, and I missed it! During the next two hours I have not seen anything except, one fish, that passed next to my knees. All other guys also blanked except Mikus, who landed  45 cm Kelt, on pinky Grey Frede, that was fished on intermediate line. At least something. After the lunch we proceeded in the same manner, withut changing the location. Around 18:00 I finally had a take. Yes, I even shouted, but… Same story than yesterday’s evening. Second take and second time my leader came a part. I was… Hm, I don’t know how to express this without a bunch of damn words. Anyway – it was my mistake, because I have not checked the leader. After this second incident I emediattelly changed my leader to 1x 12 ft with 12 lbs test. This one was strong enough for almost any fish we can expect here! Keep on working – saltwater fly fishing in Baltics sometimes is like a hard work, when you need hundreds of casts for just a one take. But not this time! Casting was useless and we had no takes during the following hours and apparently fishing was not at its best! Ok, you can always be more or less succesifull, but even if locals „who know the things“ fail it meens sometning. Mikus told us that that temperature decreesed to 2.5 degrees, what was a result of the wind change. Here are the true example how big influence wind has on sea trouting – especially in the cold spring days. Apparently that’s thrue – wind meens a lot!

Mmmmmm… Its serious… I mean waves! Next morning on shore wind provided good weather for surfing! I even had no chance to reach the nearest stones from where we where fishing day before, and, even more, they where within easy reach yeasterday! Apparently water was a bit colored too. Two hours of fishing with out any takes and even any sign of fish led us to decition – we should move on and check the closer coastal line! Just to look for another spots and to learn this area better. At the evening, when it was allready quite dark, we where trying our luck in the perspective spot full with large boulders in sothtern part of our reagion. Wind was down a bit so we faced not so strong waves and it was possible to settle down on the large boulders closer to the shore. Meanwhile wind still was unpleasant for casting, and because of that, Ansis, a newcommer to our team, moved a bit north to the spot where he was able to cast over the right shoulder. The place was perfect for fishing too – large quiet pools in between big boulders was hiding apparently some deeper holes. After half an hour another newcommer, Eriks, a great gentlmen by the way , brought some fast food for us, so it was time for a break befor finnal battle. Ansis – who was still in the water, refused to come out and Eriks told that he’s enough… Hmmm, it was quite a surprice, because we had nothing during the day time. Only after an hour we realised that Ansis was showning that he is standing to deep to get out fast, and that’s actuaslly the only reasson why we finished his burger too.  „He will have a fish“ , I stated. By the way Ansis was quite ill at that time: high temperature, strong cough cured with the Latvian balsam, strong cigarettes and temperature killing Coldrex was his halmarks during the whole trip. When we where comming back for last half an hour to the sea, I recognized that Ansis forgot his landing net on the bank! „It will be tricky“, I thought at that time. And it was not log after…

Heyyyyyyy! Heeeyyyyy! Youhoooooo! I turned around and recognizd, that his rod had a deep bend and I was shure that fish is above average. Kristaps, who was standing closer, immediattelly jumped off his boulder and was in the rush to help Ansis with his monster of the dark. Yep, it was not easy to see anything at that time at all! I only recognize that Kristaps was down to elbow in the water, and it took some 10 minutes to land this sea trout. To me honest not to land, but to squeeze in betwwen landing net and chest – yest, the fish was much larger than Kristaps landing net! First sea trout for Ansis and 86 cm – isn‘t bad, even if it is a kelt. If I remember correctly it was arround 4 kilos! Such a long salmo trutta should weight around 7 or even 8 kilos before spawning. It is interesting, that Ansis had a shrimp pattern on the other end of the line, while we where fishing with sand eels at that time. Also the retriewe was slower, and who knows, may be this was the kee to success. One can always say that it is luck, but in this case Ansis was pushing hard, and sooner ore later it shoud pay off.

During the last day weather was a bit better so where the results. At the morning Ansis landed another one, yet bit smaller, but still beautifull kelt (you can watch how he releases it in video part), and during the afternoon I had a fish on for few minutes, but lost it and finally Kristaps landed his first sea trout in the sea! Congrats – he deserved it also because he helped a lot with landing yesterday!

Of course, after all, this was not the trip we where dreeming about in terms of fish landed, especially for me, but I know that 2 local groups blanked during the same week in the Danmark. And there where goood fishermen with the best local guides… So, maybe, and most propobblly, low water temperature was the reason for such a low fish activity, but anyway we had a lot of fun and some experience two.  My conclusions from this trip:

1. I will never use thinner tippet as 2x or 1x for spring seatrouting.
2. We should not miss a chance if we have one.
3. Never give up!

We will be back!

Tags: Sea trout

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 16:09 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.