My stripping basket – Linekurv.dk

 

 

Welcome to my blog where you can read about my fishing and about my stripping basket.

 Read about my stripping basket on Linekurv.dk or in the category “about my stripping basket“

Tange Sø 26/5 2012

We ( Caspar, Henrik and Jan ) started early in the morning on a drift trip to Tange Sø.

Henrik hooked the first pike almost before we had started so the expectations were high.

We did catch fish. Here is Caspar with a typical pike of the day. We did not get any big ones but as the weather was like hot summer it was a nice day. I better correct myself, when I write “we” I mean they did catch fish – as I had five pikes that grabbed the fly but I did not land a single one. So not my day but still a good day.

Striper Cape Cod

Scott sent this photo of a striper he got a few days ago, just to wet our appetite for the trip to Cape Cod next friday.

Mariager Fjord, 22/5 – 2012

An evening trip with Michael wadefishing in Mariager. Fantastic weather and beautiful surroundings so everything you hope for when leaving home. We saw and felt some garfish but did not manage to catch any. Michael caught two trouts  below the minimum size and I also go two with one nice fish.

The trout made a small splash behind me close to the bank and grabbed the fly only with the leader outside to tip guide.

Here presented with a nice background. It is a typical Mariager trout with many spots and in good condition. 20 inches and more than 3 lbs.

Udbyhøj, 13/5 2012

An evening trip wadefishing with Michael at Udbyhøj on the southern bank. It was very windy and quite cold. We caught quite a lot of VERY small trouts and a few just a bit too small trouts but no keepers. We had many contacts with garfish but only succeeded to land one each.

Russioan video + blog

From Yarik - a russian Linekurv user – I received a mail with links to his blog with some very nicely made videos and photos. I do not speak Russian but I can still enjoy a nice fishing video.

Here is an example of a video with some flyfishing for pike.

Tange sø 2/5 2012

Jan and I drifted from Kongensbro to Tange sø the second day in the new pike season. Others took the trip the day before and they had not experienced much in the stream but had reasonable fishing when the lake started. We have to admit that we had a slow start as well but after 1½ hour Jan hooked a fish and on my way to him for taking a photo I hooked one as well. We decided to fish this stretch one more time and this time I had a really good take but I lost the contact.

Not the largest of the day but the first.

We had contact to fish now and then but it was not one of the big days. I hooked 8-9 pikes but only landed four and the largest was around the 9 pound mark. The weather was fantastic with lots of sun, temporatures around 19 degrees and not much wind – who can ask for more

Udbyhøj 28/4 2012

A pontoon trip alone from Udbyhøj. When I arrived I could see 5 other pontoon boats heading into the fjord so I decided to go the other way. I haf plenty of action as trouts took my fly 13 times and 6 of the times I hooked them but every time I lost the fish halfway so I decided to stop as it was not going to be my day. The fish I hooked were all smaller fish up to 45 cm, but I would like to land at least one.

I met a fellow fly fisher in his Hobie kayak or what it shall be called as he moved forward using his feet and this movement were transformed into a fin like action that was quite efficient. I have never seen such one before but it was definitely a boat that can be used to flyfish from.

Knebel Vig 22/4 2012

An afternoon trip with Thomas wadefishing in Knebel Vig. The weather was good and we were not alone fishing here as the wind from south made it hard to fish many of the usual spots in this area. After a couple of hours Thomas got a trout just on the minimum size. As Thomas needed a fish for sushi and as the trout was hooked in the gills and was bleeding, the fish was taken. Ten minutes later we saw a fish jump out of the water and went for it. We had several fish just touching the fly but no hookups until I got a fish sized as the first one. This one was easy to unhook and as I have fish in the freezer it was released.

Udbyhøj 21/4 2012

An early morning trip with Henrik from Udbyhøj in pontoon boats. There was a VERY cold wind and efter a couple of hours I had to take a break as I could not hold the rod properly so I was not able to cast.

Henrik got the first garfish of the year and it was a good-sized fish. The first one is good fun but soon they will be quite annoying. Despite good effort we did not have much success. Henrik started with 3 hooked fish but lost all of them. After lunch we each caught two trouts but none of them were above the minimum size.

We saw several seals and a porpoise with a cub circled around Henrik at a distance about 5 meter and we also saw an osprey which is quite rare in Denmark – so we saw plenty of wild life.

Ystad 11/4 – 14/4 2012

A delayed Eastern trip to the southern part of Sweden where we would fish for searun brown trout from pontoon boats. We were this time only three: me and Henrik and Lars

We fished at Svarte, Skillinge, Vik and Ystad and we caught fish at all spots. The weather was better than predicted so almost no rain.

Normally at this time of the year most fish are kelps – fish that has spawned – and they may be blank but still not in good condition. The average size is normally around 60 cm and statistically you need to catch between 10 and 20 fish to get a Blänkere as the locals call the fish that skip a spawning season and they what we always hope for.

The first day we got a handful of small blank fish in the 40 – 45 cm range and that is not normal.

This was the largest fish on the trip. A trout around 85 cm but as it needs several pounds to be fit it was released.

 

This is also a big fish and close to good condition but it had been up spawning this winter.

 

I was lucky to get two blänkere. The biggest was 60 cm and they were both on top condition. This is superb sushi material.

 

The largest of the fish I brought back home had meat with an extremely dark  red colour. The stomach content showed that it had a preference for shrimps so there was an explanation.

Four days of fishing and we ended catching 17 fish evenly divided between Henrik and I. Lars was out luck on this trip but I am sure he will come back for a better round next year.

 

 

Knebel Vig, 25/3 2012

An afternoon trip with a bit of a hangover from my birthday yesterday. I fished with Rene and the weather was fantastic – lots of sun and almost no wind. This made it easy to spot the fish at the surface but it was not that easy to hook them. We ended up having landed 5 trouts with Rene catching most of them. All were too small and the only decent fish we hooked were long distance released Many other fishermen but only small fish – still it was a nice day.

Djursland 16/3 2012

An afternoon trip with Michael on Djursland. The weather was very nice with lots of sun. We started near Dragsmur where we fished for 2 hours without any luck except for a nice lunch packet with a Wheat beer. Than we decided to try in Begtrup vig where I have had some success earlier this year. In my first cast I got a sea-trout just above the minimum size. As my sister-in-law would come for dinner this fish was turned into a starter and my sea trout seasin had started.

Gudenåen, 11/3 2012

A pontoon trip with Claus, Caspar, Lars and Thomas. Quite windy but as long as we were in the stream that was not a problem but when we came to the lake people start to complaint. I thought it was a walk in the park compared to last trip.

I started out with this pike around 17-18 lbs and 1 meter and then the trip was succesfully for me.

Soon after Thomas lost a good-sized fish and then got this one. After this nothing happened for quite a while and that was typically for the day. Short periods of action and then a long time with nothing. In the end the first fish was the largest  but we got several nice fish today so despite we only got 16 pikes all together everyone caught fish and it was a good day.

Gudenåen, 24/2-2012

A drift trip for pikes with 2 x Henrik, Sten, Kim and Klaus. It was VERY windy, so a loft of hard work especially for two fishing from belly boat.

Sten was man of the day. Here he is fighting the biggest pike of the day.

It was a pike in the 7-8 lbs range. Most of the pikes were 3-4 lbs so no big ones today. Sten caught 10 pikes out our total of 17 so he did very well. I got 3 and lost one so it could have been better but also worse.

When Tange sø looks like this then it is hard work to go into the wind. One man gave up half way and the rest do not have to worry about the fitness center today as we have had our work out.

Los Roques february 2012

As the temperatures in Denmark was well below the freezing point (actually down to -20 degrees below) it was nice to go back to Los Roques once again with warm weather, sun and plenty of fast swimming fish.

The Danish Los Roques team was Rene, Ib, Eigil, Niels, Niels and myself. Christian and Berit that lived in a posada a few blocks away from the Plaza was also present but not at the moment of this photo. Eigil and Niels travelled by themselves but were at LR in the same period as the rest.

We stayed at posada Doña Magalys which is in the budget end but we were very satisfied with the hospitality and the food. Magalys is apparently a big fan of Hugo Chavez – why I don´t know.

Lorenzo is the name of the posadas pet parrot which was very fond of Rene.

Our primary target fish was the bonefish which can be caught blindfishing with minnow patterns in deeper waters or sight fished on the flats. I definitely prefer the sight fishing despite that it often not is a productive, but it is better fun.

When unhooking a bonefish it often makes the fish much calmer if you put it upside down.

Rene with a nice bonefish. The average size on Los Roques is quite good app. 4 lbs. This year I did not catch any big ones but even fish in the 4 -6 lbs. range can produce spectacular runs when hooked. Actually all kinds of fish down here are much stronger and faster than what we are used to back home.

We fished some days on our own and other days with guides. With our first guide Jesus we had several double hookups on the flats but every time one of us lost a fish during the fight. This was the first time we succeeded landing two fish at a time but from the boat. We did it later again with our other guide Alet.

One day fishing with Alet we fished for fish hunting at the surface. This is always very intense and I really like the action of this fishing. We kept the fish so we could have it for lunch as Alet promised to cook it. As you can see we got to lobsters not by fishing but by exchanging some of our fish.

Here Alet prepares our lobster and fish lunch on some Venezuelan design furniture including both chair and table in one.

A bonefish in its right element just before landing. It was hooked at this depth as well so one of my favourite hookups on the trip.

We caught also other species than bonefish – here a snapper

And a carite - a spanish mackerel. You need luck or a wire leader to land this fish and a plier to unhook it. They have incredible sharp teeth.

a small tuna

a blue runner

a pompano looks like a permit but never grows big. An austrian flyfisher got a 14 kg permit one of the days, a very impressive fish.

Eigil with a false albacore

Rene with a yellow tail snapper

A lady fish. Also called poor mans tarpon. They jump like tarpon but don´t grow big. I caught 3 ladyfish in 3 casts and then Rene tried for 20 20 minutes without any luck – I could not get my arms down

Rene he caught a tarpon on the main island. That is really an achievement as we almost did not see any and even when you see many it can be very hard to catch one. Rene fished most af the time with a head cam and he got all of his tarpon fight on video. I hope and expect that I later can put some of his video on the blog.

Gudenåen, 29/1-2012

Tried for the second time to flyfish for pikes in Gudenåen just below Tange sø at winter time. But as the first time without success. I met four other fly fishers and only one of them had caught two small pikes, so this was not the perfect day for fishing here.

 Every ten minutes you had to remove ice from the guides on the rod. But despite the poor result and the cold weather it was a good day as Denmark won the european championship in team handball and in a week I will be in Venezuela fishing for bonefish

Djursland 15/1 2012

A trip with Thomas, Peter and Niels to Djursland for sea-trout. We started at Kobberhagen where we fished for a couple of hours and the only thing we saw was this curious seal. We stopped when nine more fishermen came to the spot. No one had experienced any luck during the day which I think is typically for a calm, sunny, cold winter day. We then tried an hour in Begtrup Vig with more luck. I got a trout just below the minimum size and Niels got a smaller fish. Here the we fished in a head wind so it soon became too cold. When we drove home we could see ice on the water in the shallow inlets in the inner part of the bay. I definitely prefer to fish in warmer conditions so I look forward to the Los Roques trip in three weeks time

Cape Cod week 43 2011

Last year a kind Linekurv.dk user from USA wrote that if I ever wanted to fish striped bass on Cape Cod he would be glad to help. As I have wanted to fly fish for stripers for many years I wrote back that I would very much like to try that and so this year Thomas and I went to Cape Cod for a week. Scott (the kind man) told us that we were a bit late but as the flight tickets were bought we would come anyway.

We rented this 4WD Kia which in our world is a quite big car but many times it actually looked small parked next to the standard 4WD here in the States.

The first place we visited together with Scott I got this hook-up….

soon after I cold land this striper on the beach

and present it before the release. I think that Scott was more relieved  than we were after this catch because due to the late season he was afraid that we wouldn´t catch anything at all on our trip.

Later there was a small blitz outside Scott and he got this mackerel which was his first ever on a fly rod.

In the evening we also got a couple of very small pollacks which was nice as the stripers feed on those.

Scott and his friends Dick and Bruce really helped us a lot as they both fished with us and gave us tips on where to fish and when to do it. As the tidal difference was up to 12 feet the fishing is very tide depending and therefore local help is crucial. Besides the help they were all very nice people as almost all fellow fly fishers are and they also supplied us with some very nice flies (flat wings) which we now try to duplicate here in Denmark. We fished in very different environments as we fished in estuaries, rivers, sand beaches, sand bars, canals, jetties etc.

One day we came to some sea gulls that dived and we could see that there fish chasing in the shallow water as well. Here Thomas started to hook this fish.

Which he also landed. As you can see the fish are nice but not that big, they are what the locals call schoolies but still good fun especially when you’re on your first trip for stripers.

The action was pretty intense and several times we were both hooked up simultaneously.

Here I got the biggest fish on our trip a fish around the 26 inches mark but it has to be 28 inches to be a keeper.

We fished early in the mornings and during the day and late in the evening. Due to the tide many times each trip was only a few hours but this gives a lot of variations.

This morning Scott got a schoolie as well.

I can´t remember the name of these ancient creatures but you found them on all beaches.

On one of the trips I got two bluefish. They were not big ones but I was surprised that they did not bite the line as I have heard that they normally do that when you do not fish with a wire leader. Thomas lost one due to this.

If you wade out at low tide you shall remember to come back in time. This time we were a bit late and Scott had to swim while Thomas and I just made it with only a bit of water in our waders.

When you are on a fishing holiday you fish in weather that no normal person would leave the house in. we did that one evening with heavy rain and more or less a storm.  This is one of the fish we got that evening and we thought that we really deserved those fish.

At the hotel we every night had a beer with the fly tying and the talk of the day to come and we tried different american micro brewed stuff. Some were quite disappointing but these two which Thomas grabbed because of their fish motives were actually very much to be recommended. Later we checked on ratebeer.com and found that we were not the only ones that found them very good.

Despite the fog in Frankfurt that delayed us 24 hours and the storm that prevented us from going in kayaks and that we never got a keeper we had a terrific trip. We got fish on every trip we made except one morning trip when two duck hunters had taken our hot spot and some times we got more than just one or two (up to 8 fish). We met some new fishing friends and tried some interesting fishing and had a wonderful dinner at Scott and Grace´s place so as the Terminator says: ” I will be back”.

Tange Sø 13/11 2011

A 3 hour trip to Tange Sø fishing for pike on my own. Almost no wind and sunny when I started it was a nice trip. But as clouds came it really got cold. The water is contrary to earlier years very clear but there was not much action.

After a couple of hours fishing a pike took the fly.

 

this 3 pound pike was all for me today but nice afternoon at the lake despite tho cold weather

Mariager Fjord 14/10 2011

Due to a bad casting arm I had not been out for some time, but when Michael asked if I would join him on an afternoon trip and the weather was beautiful I did not hesitate. My casting was still severely hampered but I could fish though my arm tiered quickly and I had to rest it on a regular basis. We went to Mariager and we had a nice afternoon. Often you see many fish in Mariager but this day it took quite some time to see fish but that is OK if you catch them.

Michael started with a small blank trout and that was his destiny of the day as he ended up with five trouts but all were too small.

After 30 minutes I got this 50 cm trout, It was well conditioned but coloured so it was released like all the fish today. Apparently we were not in the killing mode.

 

After a break I spotted some activity a new place,  moved there and after three casts I got this +50 cm trout that gave a very good fight before its release. I could only be pleased with three nice trouts on a sunny, cold afternoon despite my casting problems.

Just before the sun set there was no wind and you can see why Mariager Fjord is called the mots beautiful fjord in Denmark