Angling in
February
February is a dangerous month.
Just as you think that spring is on its way maybe after
a couple of pleasant months in December/January, King Winter
tightens his grip on the small country.
According to statistics, February
is indeed the coldest month. One moment there are pleasant winds
from the south, the next snowflakes are falling, and the waters
are covered with a thin layer of ice which cannot be penetrated
by even the heaviest fly and the fastest sinking fly line. It
can be hard to accept such a turn when you had just started longing
for spring.
Ice fishing on Ravn
Sø near Silkeborg.
© photo: Steen Ulnits
Fortunately, February means the
beginning of a completely new season in the river. If it is sufficiently
cold, shoals of bulging, silvery Greenlanders will have come
up from the sea and fjords to spend the winter - away from the
cold, salty waters that may threaten their lives.
Spawning Cod
February is also the peak season
for the anglers who start chasing the big spawning cod in the
Sound with their stiff rods, heavy lines and heavy jigs. It is
a tough job to keep warm with snowflakes whirling around freezing
ears - usually hidden under a warm fur cap.
Under the tightly packed boats,
the spawning cod are packed just as tightly. It is a kind of
mass wedding, where many cod spawn at the same time. It is questionable
whether it is right to disturb the cod in the middle of spawning,
when they are certainly not interested in food. It is a fact
that almost all the big spawning cod have been wrongly hooked.
Ice fishing
February is also the month that
provides the biggest opportunity for trying ice fishing - something
with is considered quite exotic in this country. This may be
one of the rare few times the ice can bear a man's weight, and
for that it must be at least 10cm thick - preferably 15cm. When
that is the case, get out the old ice drill, if you have got
one. Otherwise you will have to borrow one or invest in one.
Experience shows, by the way, that the best safeguard against
future hard winters is to buy an ice drill!
Once you get through the ice,
it is actually quite funny that a typical warm water fish like
the perch is the quickest deep-frozen catch. It can be difficult
to find the shoals, so it is often necessary to drill several
holes before you get a rise. The periods where you get a rise
are usually quite hectic under the ice but equally very short.
Coastal fishing
Along the coast, February is
definitely the low season. The coastal waters are usually so
cold that neither cod nor sea trout like them. They have therefore
moved to deeper and warmer waters or - in the case of the sea
trout - they have moved into the brackish fjords or maybe even
up to the freshwater rivers to spend the winter.
A quick trip along the coast
should turn into brackish fjords instead of open seacoasts here
in February. And in the protected inlets, there is usually always
something to look at.
And if it should become necessary
- as it has so often before in February - to fight your way back
to the car and a little warmth through a heavy snowstorm from
the east, there is no reason for despair. From the end of February,
springtime is just around the corner - with lots of angling possibilities
and a brand new season waiting ahead!
© Steen Ulnits
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