FishTwits Blog

07-16-09

That’s not a fish…this is a fish!

It’s 4.30am and I’m greeted by the all too familiar sound of my Swedish Sony Ericsson phone alarm, I open the curtains to see the all too familiar grey Swedish clouds dispensing the all too familiar Swedish rain.  However, none of this bothered me as I chugged down a quick coffee before jumping on my bike and cycling down to the station to catch the first train from Lund to Helsingborg where we will meet a Chinese friend to take her out on a boat into the Oresund for her first ever fishing experience, I had a feeling it was going to be a great day.

Stormy Oresund

A donut and a bus ride and we were at the dock staring at the boat were had booked and noticing a distinct lack of crew… luckily, the boat next door had a few extra places and we were welcomed aboard the Wittskar (white knife in English).  This particular Swedish fishing charter was a bit different to the ones I have been on in Australia.  It is a converted commercial fishing boats which can take up to 50 people, today there are about 25 of us all eager to pull in a trophy Torsk (Atlantic Cod), which have been reported up to 96kg!

As we set out into the Oresund, it becomes pretty clear to all of us (Eric, YanZhuo and I) that the coffees we’d downed in the morning would not see us through the mornings fishing and we are tempted by the food like smells emanating from below deck, minutes later we are biting down into what can only be described as the most horrible tasting hotdogs we have ever encountered and hoping that the Torsk are as easy to fool as we had been.

The sound of a fog horn (which we quickly discovered meant that we had reached a suitable fishing spot) lured us back up stairs into what had emerged to be a beautiful Swedish summer’s day (Sweden in the sunshine is one of the most beautiful countries in the world).  No sooner than our jigs had touched the water the Swedes next to us were hooking up Vitling (Whiting) sometimes up to four on the one line.  The more experienced Swedes were using a leader with a series of four or five squid hooks above their fish jig.

As Eric and I continued to work our jigs undaunted, the sea was rhythmically working the hot dog around in poor Yan Zhuo’s stomach managing to land her on the deck before any of us could land a fish.  Being the trooper that she is, she retired to a seat in the sunshine to contemplate tactics whilst Eric and I continued to try to copy the tactics of our thus far more successful Swedish counterparts.

It wasn’t until the third location that I finally hooked up with my first Vitling, landing a second on the very next cast.

Two Vitling

As I posed for a photo I was met by a jeer from a Swede who had spent the last 10 minutes struggling with what he initially thought was Eric’s line but turned out to be a 5kg Torsk.

‘That’s not a fish…this is a fish’

This is a fish!

I’m not sure how he knew I was an Aussie (maybe my bushman’s beard which I have been proudly growing since graduation having not fancied trying my skills at a Crocodile Dundee style knife shave) but there was nothing for me to do but shake his hand and take a photo (wondering how easy it would be to photoshop myself in later).

As I pulled my fourth Vitling in and began gloatingly to explain the finer points of jig technique to Eric, the tables turned as Eric’s line pull tight bending his rod to a far greater extent than any of the Vitling had pulled mine.  Eric pulled in a pretty decent sized Torsk, not quite as big as our Swedish friends but respectable nonetheless.  The very next cast and he was pulling in another Torsk and explaining to me the finer points of his Torsk targeting Jig technique.

As the day wore on the hook-ups became more frequent and the now recovered Yan Zhuo even pulled in a couple of Vitling.

After four great hours fishing we set sail for home and Yan Zhuo set about ensuring that none of the fish heads went to waste as we cleaned the fish we had kept (she even managed to bag the head of the Big Torsk), promising to cook us a delicious Chinese fish head soup – which will definitely be the subject of another blog post.

To cap off a great mornings fishing we met a few friends in Helsingborg to celebrate Ernst’s Birthday with a BBQ of fresh fish by the beach and a few beers.  Perfect.