The Danish MacNab - Terkel Broe Christensen 24 Hours to mission it

Terkel Broe Christensen

Photos: Bo Fomsgaard and the Author.

Catch a salmon in the River Skjern and a sea trout in the River Karup – and do so within the same day. This challenge has become known as the Danish MacNab. The requirements are stringent indeed, because both fish have to be caught on the same day between 00:00 and 24:00 – and not just within 24 hours. This does not make the challenge any less demanding. Kenny Frost

The original MacNab is a Scottish tradition. Some have called it the “hunter’s triathlon” because between dawn and dusk the hunter has to shoot not only a deer and two grouse but also catch a salmon.

As an angler, it can be interesting to set goals too. And the dream of bagging that very big catch can certainly be a long-term goal. But then there are other challenges which have nothing to do with size. The Danish MacNab is one such challenge.

It is a goal which, although it certainly doesn’t preclude a little dreaming, will test even the most experienced river angler to the extreme – no doubt about that. On top of that, you need a solid portion of good oldfashioned luck! Otherwise there is no way you will land a salmon in the River Skjern and a sea trout from the River Karup – on the same day.

Close, but no cigar!

I have tried this challenge myself but never quite succeeded, although on one occasion

Absolutely nothing happened until just around midnight when, all of a sudden, a bow-wave rose up behind my surface-fished tube fly, then accelerated and inhaled it. Fish on! Although it was by no means a giant fish, I was electrified with excitement when a sea trout of about two pounds came to the net. I had a special feeling of relief and gratitude as I gave the fish its freedom after a quick picture.

I knew it was a bit late, but I just felt an irresistible urge to share my joy and called Bo Fomsgaard, the man who coined the phrase Danish MacNab.

Bo loves to set, and meet, self-imposed challenges and he has successfully met the ultimate challenge of catching a salmon in the River Skjern and a sea trout in the River Karup on no less than six occasions!

Luckily, he answered the phone and listened patiently as I told him how I would like to join the exclusive club of anglers to have bagged a Danish MacNab.

Then Bo asked me a question I didn’t quite understand.

“You say you caught it only a moment ago?”

“Yeah, I released it less than a few minutes ago.” the sea trout on the same day – it’s a quarter past midnight!

Confused, I desperately pleaded my case:

“Oh, more than two minutes may actually have passed. I mean, I had to fight the fish for a while before it came to the net. The time does count from the moment the fish takes the fly, doesn’t it?”

Bo was not in the least responsive to my manufactured excuse. The rules were strict and he took pains to enforce them.

“I’ll acknowledge that if you had caught that sea trout 15 minutes earlier, you would indeed have been a full member of the club by now. You may of course be lucky to hook and land another salmon during the next 23 hours and 45 minutes…”

I thanked him with reverence for this bonus information. But, unfortunately, I had no opportunity to get to the river to try my luck the next day. And the MacNab trophy, which I had believed to be within my reach, remained something almost unattainable.

Pharyngeal teeth of a grass carp

Interview with Bo Fomsgaard

stretch of river in the town of Karup.

The ultimate test of sporting prowess

Bo Fomsgaard has been fishing the rivers of the Jutland peninsula since childhood and has caught more salmon and sea trout than most in his home waters, the rivers Skjern and Karup. Read how Bo got started – and how he got the idea of the Danish MacNab.

When did you start fishing the rivers Skjern and Karup?

Since the first summer sea trout took my fly there back in the early 1990s, I have caught fish in Karup every season, and my capture of the first River Karup sea trout of the season still means a lot to me.

A few years later, I was invited to join a local angler’s club which had at its disposal a stretch of fishing on the River Skjern. I caught my first salmon there at the end of that same decade.

When angling for trout and grayling started to decline back in the late 1980s, stories started circulating about big bright sea trout being caught in the River Karup. It was back then, that I started taking the bus to what was then the Herning Angler’s Association’s

The dream of the big fish. When I started fishing the River Skjern, very few salmon were being caught. It was before we saw the positive effects of the tremendous task of restoring the river’s stock of wild salmon.

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Then, in the years after 2000, more and more salmon started returning to spawn. From then on, anglers could go to the river with a realistic hope of hooking a salmon.

Today, as more and more anglers experience, you can hook the fish of your life in this river.

So far, my biggest fish from the River Karup was a sea trout weighing 11 kilos (24 lb). My largest salmon from the River Skjern were in the 12-13 kilo (27-28 lb) range.

And then there were the significantly larger fish that were hooked and lost: the ones that got away…

The idea of the Danish MacNab “How did you actually come to coin the phrase angler’s MacNab?”

The idea came about by chance more than 10 years ago. Back then, you could wait longer to report fish caught in the rivers than you can today. Catches now have to be reported within 24 hours.

I used to wait until the end of a week and then reported the fish caught during that period.

On one occasion, I reported two fish, a salmon and a sea trout, caught the same day but in two different rivers. This probably doesn’t happen that often, I thought, so perhaps I should see if I could repeat the feat.

In the years that followed, I sometimes made it so that when I caught a salmon in Skjern, I went home to the family, had dinner and put the kids to bed before heading off for a late evening’s fishing in the River Karup.

An exceptional feat “Is bagging a Danish MacNab something you expect to do every season?”

No, far from it. It’s not something I do every season, nor is that the intention, as it is a difficult exercise, although the fishing is getting better and better every year.For someone like me who loves angling in those two rivers, it’s nothing but a fun, noobligation little challenge.

The earliest time of year I have achieved a MacNab was in June, but August and September would probably be the best months to make a MacNab attempt because this is the peak of the fishing season in the two rivers.

The sea trout won. My job only allows me to fish in the afternoons and evenings, so it’s not always possible for me to fish in both rivers on the same day.

But when I am able to do so, it gives the trip I have tried my luck a few times this season, though without success. I was close on one occasion: I managed to land a salmon and headed off to River Karup where a sea trout took my fly. Unfortunately, though, I lost the fish with the gold medal on its neck because it fell off my hook!

An extra pleasure

It’s important to emphasize that I don’t get obsessive about the MacNab challenge. I just get that extra bit of pleasure when my angling skills are recognised and my winning number comes up.

Setting and meeting a self-imposed challenge like this is also a way of making angling less formal and more fun at a time when a good many anglers have allowed themselves to be convinced that the size and number of fish is what it is all about.

So in this spirit I hope that other anglers will pursue the ultimate test of sporting prowess that is the Danish MacNab.