The Baltic Sea is a strange anomaly. Bottled up by the Danish islands that crowd its mouth into the infamous Skagerrak, it is very much like a giant inland lake. It has little tide and little by way of salt either. The upper layers of this shallow sea have a salinity of just 0.3 to 0.9%. As such, it plays host to not only cod, herring, and flatfish, but also to huge shoals of bream and roach. Fed by these limitless whitefish stocks, a host of bristling perch and zander, and to my mind, the jewel in its crown, some truly spectacular pike that are just waiting for the adventurous angler. In winter, the pike are galvanised into feeding hard prior to spawning. On Rügen’s shallow flats, they are a perfect fly rod quarry, and well worth facing the icy winds and frigid water. But where to start? There are hundreds of miles of shallow sandy flats all around Rügen and knowing where to find the fish is a daunting proposition. You can “Do-it-Yourself” but I would strongly advise against it – there is every chance that you will go home empty-handed. Instead, find yourself a guide. THE guide. My friend Bernd Ziesche. Let me tell you a little about Bernd: I rarely run into a flyfisher who possesses the same degree of passion for the sport as I, but Bernd Ziesche is one such man. To give you an idea of just how keen he is, Bernd reckons that he will rack up 350 days of fly-fishing this year. 350 days! Think on that!
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The pike of Rügen hunt in packs, and if you can locate them, you have every chance of a field day
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Needless to say, Bernd is an absolutely obsessive fly fisherman and, in the true German tradition, he is relentlessly analytical and ultra-technical. His exhaustive studies involving slow-motion cameras have left him with controversial but very persuasive theories on the physics of fly-casting, and he doesn’t just talk the talk: his excellent casting technique is testament to the veracity of his ideas.
His attention to detail extends to his kit and terminal tackle, and if you are interested in pike fishing with a fly rod, a few days with Bernd are an absolute education. Crucially, Bernd also knows where the pike are. Years of experience Having fished Rügen for nearly twenty years, Bernd knows this vast fishery backwards. He has befriended many of the locals, and the tips that he receives from his friends on the ground prove invaluable. The pike of Rügen hunt in packs, and if you can locate them, you have every chance of a field day. They move around frequently, and every year – indeed every day – can be different. As a result of his long years on the island, Bernd’s guiding services are hugely successful – this year every last one of his guests caught at least one pike, and he and his guests rattled up well over 1600 pike – a remarkable figure given the short, 2-month season. The tackle for Rügen Bernd will tell you that the trick with this fishing is to travel light. So, what do you need? A steely fast-actioned nine weight rod is perfect. Couple it with a solid reel, preferably featuring quick change spools. FLYFISH EUROPE - SPRING 2020
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