Angling in
March
Along the coasts, lots of things
are happening in March. The air temperature is still a little
lower than that of the water - typically 2-3 degrees - but the
sun is starting to make an impact, and that is clearly felt under
the water.
The sand hoppers are waking up
and starting to mate. Now is the time when it is possible to
see the little males riding around on the big females in the
shallow water. The survival of the species is at stake, and this
does not go off quietly - not even among sand hoppers.
Brown trout from Simested
Å in northern Jutland.
© photo: Steen Ulnits
The sea trout along the coast
are also fond of sand hoppers - and they do not care about the
sex. Sand hoppers are a delicacy for any sea trout - and sand
hoppers make their flesh nice and red. So the angler who goes
fly-fishing along the coast had better have some good imitations
in his box - and fish deeply and slowly.
Worm hatches in the sea
But March is also the month when
it is possible to experience a major bristle worm party. Typically
this happens in conjunction with the full moon or new moon, which
seems to coordinate the swarming of large bristle worms.
When the water temperature and
phase of the moon are in harmony, the otherwise quite fierce
Nereis-species leave their holes on the bottom to go to the surface
to spawn. Here they circle around until they explode in a giant
orgasm that releases the reproductive organisms - and leaves
the bristle worms themselves as lifeless bodies.
The birds and fish of the coast
really know how to seize the opportunity when the bristle worms
are spawning. It is quite simply the first big meal of the spring
to be had here - a kind of strawberry season for the birds and
fish which have had to languish in the cold all through the winter.
This spawning may be so intense
and concentrated that sometimes the authorities get phone calls
from worried people who think that they have witnessed yet another
environmental disaster!
Trout in the rivers
Finally, March is the month when
the "old" trout premiere in the rivers takes place.
There are still many river-anglers who regard this as the only
true start of the season.
But whether it is the true, or
the wrong start of the season, two things are certain: there
are rarely as many shiny Greenlanders in the rivers in March
as in January, and the lean kelts are usually in slightly better
condition than earlier in the year. Which is both good and bad.
The regular inhabitants of the
river - river trout, rainbow trout and grayling - who are very
dependent on the amount of feed in the river, feel both good
and bad here in March. Like its cousin the sea trout, the river
trout is a winter spawner, and it is lean and slender after breeding.
The rainbow trout typically spawns
in the spring, however, and is usually in the best possible condition
- albeit strongly coloured, and therefore not quite as delicious
as otherwise. But the red stripe along the side is brighter than
ever! The rainbow trout has been truly stuffing itself with roe
from the spawning of river and sea trout, and they are more than
ready for the approaching breeding.
The grayling, too, is at the
top of its form. It does not change character to the same extent
in the period preceding spawning, which typically takes place
from the end of March until the beginning of May. The grayling
is protected from 15 March until 15 May, and is thus legal prey
in the first half of this month.
However, the fly-fisher who wants
to make contact with this wonderful fish will have to use a sink
line or weighted flies to get down into the still rather cold
water.
© Steen Ulnits
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