My obsession with sea trout has lured me across the Baltic
Sea to the craggy shorelines of Bornholm on several occasions.
And revisiting Bornholm’s amazing and varied coastline always
makes me tingle expectantly within. I have that exact feeling
inside on this day in March, having flown from Oslo to Copen-
hagen, then driven from Copenhagen to Ystad in Sweden to
catch the high-speed ferry from Ystad to Rønne, Bornholm. Not
even escalating southwesterly winds forecast to reach gale force
around 24m/s within 24 hours is enough to dampen my spirit.
Less than half an hour after my good friend Gordon and I
have gotten off the ferry we’re on the shore of a beautiful coastal
stretch with our fly rods firmly gripped, ready to battle the
elements and look for trout. We fish one promising stretch and
then another, but without seeing any fish. It doesn’t deter us
because Bornholm’s sea trout have a tendency to school up in
certain areas and once we find them we know that we’re in for
a good time. Arriving at the third fishing spot, which goes by
the local name Klympen, we’re still fully motivated and stoked
to be fishing. And we now start to work our way down the
shoreline, methodically and with great focus.
I send another expectant cast towards the edge of a dark
patch that stretches out into the ocean below the lead-grey
horizon, while desperately probing for traction across the rocks
that are so carelessly strewn here – rocks that are greedily licked
by unyielding and turbulent waves. The water is turbid and the
southwesterly tears at the frothing wave crests flinging myriads
of water drops into the air. It’s not the most comfortable
weather for fishing. It’s more like an inferno of water, wind and
whirling foam, but it doesn’t really matter. I don’t mind being
thrown around in the waves on this chilly spring day, hectically
waving my fly rod in the howling winds as long as I believe in
the dream of catching a solid piece of Bornholm silver. I firmly
do and every cast is laden with the greatest of expectations
and the assurance that Bornholm is capable of delivering fish
in regular trophy sizes.I retrieve the fly – a small but eye-catching pink shrimp
pattern – with slow strips without ever losing contact with it in
the big swells. At the end of the retrieve I lift the line partially
off the water, roll cast and execute an overhead cast with
maximum power, making the line cut surgically through the40 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF
“I DON’T MIND BEING THROWN AROUND
IN THE WAVES ON THIS CHILLY SPRING DAY,
HECTICALLY WAVING MY FLY ROD IN
THE HOWLING WINDS...”