All About Trout

In southern Sweden, the most common fish is trout. For me growing up, I thought trout was the most beautiful fish ever. I still think that today. Trout in all the different shapes and colours that you can find, in the smallest rivers to the wide open ocean.

The variety of fishing on offer in the very southern part of Sweden is amazing. Everything from the coastal fishing for sea trout to hitting the big Danica hatch in all these small rivers with incredible brown trout fishing.

Sea trout fishing in the ocean feels endless. Just like salmon fishing, you almost go on repeat – one cast, two steps and look to your right, walking and fishing your way along kilometres of shoreline. Looking at structures in the water, grass beds, rocks – everything that feels ‘fishy’. Covering that kind of area is great for baitfish that lead into bigger sea trout hunting.

A stripping basket is so nice to have, especially an open one – it doesn’t let as much sea water in so it’s less heavy. Otherwise, your line can quickly slide away and get tangled in seaweed – frustrating when you’re loading for the next cast!

Flies are so personal to what you believe in. So since I’m quite new to coastal fly fishing, I was happy to be with a fly fishing machine, Richard Larsson, who grew up on the coast. Here are the flies he uses for fly fishing at this time in the season, mostly in brown.

Everything between a 6-8 weight is great for coastal fishing. Richard’s favourite is the 7X 790 and I brought the ZX 890 and ZX 790 so I could have two fast rods and two different line set-ups. We were fishing in May, where a float to intermediate line usually works just fine but it’s always nice to know I have two different set-ups ready, just in case I want to try a different speed and depth of the fly.

If the coastal fishing is slow, you could always go for a small river in search of a hatch down here. I was fishing a small river with researcher and new friend Anders Persson. He called the river his home water and has fished there for over 30 years – just that kind of human being you want to hang with to learn everything about the hatches, river and the wild fish.

I’ve found myself a new favourite dry fly rod for smaller rivers – the Trak 490 which is perfect for small to medium sized rivers and can really handle bigger flies, like imitations of Danica empherea. And big fish when they appear 🙂

To learn more about my love of trout – and discover the stories of Richard and Anders – check out our latest Wild Fish / Wild Places film on YouTube.