Denmark: Fly Fishing for Pike in Shallow Private Waters

DENMARK: FLY FISHING FOR PIKE IN SHALLOW PRIVATE WATERS

Denmark’s lowlands offer plenty of exciting pike waters. Pike populate a multitude of small and medium-sized private and public lakes, canals, rivers and ponds as well as a couple of coastal areas where they thrive because of the low salinity levels. If you’re into visual strikes and close-range bursts of explosive power, Denmark is just the place for you.

By Omar Gade Omar Gade // Photos by Jan “Kenobi”, Morten Valeur, Stephan Dombaj et al.

Poppers are great for targeting areas with lily pads, reeds and weed patches - plus they’re super fun to fish with. Big and lively treamers, however - and particularly preyfish patterns, are safe bets when it comes to choice of fly.

It’s a mid-May morning and I finally have a day off in the wake of a busy first half of an intense season at the lodge, where I’m kept busy guiding for seatrout. While enjoying an excellent cappuccino, Jan and I decide on a day’s worth of fly fishing for pike in one of the small lakes that Denmark Fishing & Outdoor Lodge has been given exclusive rights to.

We mount the boat trailer behind the Jeep with the small aluminum boat on it, and pack lunch boxes, cameras, waders and various tackle bags. We load the Rod Mount Sumo holder with our Scott Tidal 8-weight rods that we’ve come to rely on for our pike fishing (because they load quickly while reserving plenty of feel while casting big pike flies). Our trusty Waterworks-Lamson reels are loaded with floating lines. We are going to be fishing very shallow waters.

Perfect Pike Habitat

It takes about two hours to reach the chosen lake and we arrive at our destination late in the morning. The sun is already perched high in the sky. And the weather is typical of the early summer days in southern Denmark. The sky is mostly clear with drifting clouds and changing light conditions.

The private lake, where we are going to fish, is a lowland body of water with an average depth of 1.0 to 1.5 meters, which makes it the perfect environment for fly-fishing. I sometimes wonder if Mother Nature has designed certain lakes with us fly fishermen in mind. And with this one, I am almost sure.

Almost all Danish pike waters have a certain peat coloured shade not dissimilar to tea, whereas the clarity and depth perception varies from season to season. As we arrive at the lake, I’m relieved to see that the water is very clear. The conditions, overall, look very promising and I’m excited to get started fishing.

Fish in the Shallows

It doesn’t take long before the boat is on the water and we are ready to go. While navigating, in reverent silence, with the electric motor at low speed, we quietly emerge from the rushes that surround the lake’s shoreline zone. While doing so, we try our best to catch a glimpse of resting or ambushing pike on the scattered carpets of sea grass that cover the bottom. Soon, we’ve seen a small handful of medium-sized fish that take off at lightning speeds, once we get too close, leaving clouds of particles and turbidity behind them. It always gets me giggling with excitement!

Slowly, I steer the aluminum boat towards a small bay covered with water lilies – a spot that creates a perfect microcosm for predatory fish. Here, they find both the shadow and shelter needed for ambush attacking unsuspecting preyfish.

Pike like to ambush their prey and they can often be found hovering in shallow bays full of lily pads.

The First Few Casts

Once we have reached our first spot, I keep the boat in position at the edge and set Jan up for casting. Jan, who is my trusted assistant at Denmark Fishing Lodge, is nicknamed “Jan Kenobi” for his almost eerie ability to catch more fish than anybody else – and with an apparent and enviable ease. In spite of his youth, he has great experience!

I sometimes wonder if Mother Nature has designed certain lakes with us fly fishermen in mind

Jan opts for a classic copper flashabou fly, 15 cm long, a very common variant for Danish waters. He makes a short cast of 8 - 10 meters, and makes the fly pulsate and spurt across the small patches of open water between the lily pads. He uses a rather “acrobatic” retrieve aimed at providing the fly with an abrupt jiggy movement pattern.

He retrieves the last 3 meters by jerking the tip of the fly rod from side to side; from the right and to the left, right, left, right, left… and it is just at the end of one of these retrieves that a pike breaks the

surface splashing water on the edge of the boat. The pike, in all its rage and fury, almost hits the side of the boat with its head, but it misses the fly. But that’s part of the game. The fun bit is to see the many different ways these fish react to the fly and how they hunt it down, seemingly, without any perception of danger.

Cast Again…!

I urge Jan to cast immediately in the same direction again… 2 strips and “bang”, “strike! The fish is a solid pike around 85 cm that we carefully release after a short but hectic fight. After another couple of casts in the same area, Jan shouts out with a big bend in his fly rod: “Big fish!” (It’s only to be expected with Mr. Kenobi in the boat, I reckon).

The water explodes and droplets are sprayed across the surface as the pike thrashes about. The Tidal rod bends and convulses but then, suddenly, it jerks back abruptly as the fish comes untied. We both cast again several times, aware that there is still a probable chance that the fish will strike again. Unfortunately, however, this time around it doesn’t happen.

As the day progresses, we catch a number of small- and medium-sized pike in various areas of the lake, mostly on black and purple flies. Before we know it, it’s afternoon and

I take a brief moment to quietly observe the magnificent body of water. It is a beautiful and atmospheric little spot in the middle of a private hunting reserve populated by ungulates. With us on the water there are a few pairs of swans, flocks of ducks and, (dear me!), a few cormorants.

Targeting the Shallows

April marks the beginning of the conservation period for pike in all Danish waters. The conservation period ends in May, but – after the spawning – lots of pike still linger in the shallows and in the weeds. We decide to go look for a big one along the rushes…

The line cuts sideways and everything comes tight

While we slowly putter along the shallows, I tie on a green/ chartreuse foam diver and then proceed to make a series of short cast covering every meter of the water radially. I do my best to land the fly as close to the rushes as possible – to cast with absolute precision. But nothing happens.

No reaction from the pike. Then all of a sudden - from the opposite side of the boat, towards the middle of the lake, we hear a big explosion on the surface. We turn around and see baitfish skirting across the surface in all directions. I retrieve the fly swiftly and set up to cast in that direction. I know from experience that when pike hunt actively for preyfish they are more likely to strike an imitation of a baitfish rather than a diver or a popper - and sometimes they might even become a bit selective as to size and colors.

In order to leave nothing to chance, I immediately replace my fly with a silver one. (The baitfish that we’ve seen jumping are probably small rudds or roaches). After a single cast, the water comes alive and a “V”-wake forms behind the fly. I put renewed effort into the retrieve and after a few endless seconds, I feel a sudden but solid stop. The streamer, which up until now, has been clearly visible below the surface, disappears right in from my eyes. I wait for a short moment, then proceed to set the hook by pulling the line with my left hand and, simultaneously, lifting the rod.

Fish On!

The line cuts sideways, and everything comes tight. The fish is on: And what a beautiful and solid fish it is. The fight begins and, after some escape attempts towards the weeds along the bottom, I start pulling the big mama towards the boat. It’s a fish of around a meter – one for the books and one to remember, especially because it was sight-fished after having seen it hunt in the surface film.

When the water is hot and the oxygen levels in the water are relatively low, we try to release our fish without even taking them out of the water. We don’t want to stress them too much. We use a big knotless landing net and try to handle the fish, remove the hook and release the fish in the water. In these private waters, we pay particular attention to sustainable practices and we limit the number of fishing days to a few days a year. We look after our customers, and by limiting the fishing pressure, we make sure they are able to make the most of their time on the water.

After releasing the fish, we take a break and enjoy an excellent and well-deserved sandwich. We exchange opinionated words about what we’ve experienced throughout the day and sum up. Till now, we have caught about ten pike on different flies in different colors such as copper, chartreuse, and black/purple. The latter has produced particularly well today, perhaps because of the water clarity and the bright and sunny conditions.

It’s a magical day. We are more than satisfied with the results this far and, for a while, we just sit in silence and enjoy the view of the lake. We’re secretly waiting, though, and hoping that with dusk, and the imminent change of light, we’ll have a final window of half an hour with some hectic fishing. We’ve experienced it before - a sudden period of twilight mayhem when all the pike seem to join together in a simultaneous hunting craze across the whole lake. Who knows, it might happen again. Time will tell…

Denmarks has a surprising amount of wildlife - and pike can be fished with great succes all over the country. (Martin Arusalu)

(Markus Winkler)

Spring and early summer is a truly beautiful time of year to visit Denmark and, besides pike fishing, there are plenty of other species to target with a fly rod. (Andreas Dress)