Thought I'd start a separate thread to share my experiences spearfishing in Denmark, as I had difficulty finding much out about it. So here goes:
Licence: You need a permit to fish in Denmark. My mother-in-law (Danish speaker!) bought got one from the tourism office in Assens on Fyn and it cost 112 Kroner (about £10) for the year.
Area: My experience is limited to the south coast of Fyn, where my in laws have a summer house.
Water temps: Very cold in spring and autumn - 10 degrees c and below, in summer it was pleasant enough at about 16 degree c. I wore a 5 mil 2 part suit (long johns and jacket with hood) in summer with no gloves and was if anything too hot. In the spring I was very cold in a 5 mil surf suit (before I bought my spearfishing suit - doh!).
Fish and sealife: The main line fishing target is Sea Trout, which is quite common in the area. They are very hard to spear though - they get spooked very easily and don't seem to be inquisitive fish like bass so aspetto / agachon doesn't seem to work. I saw only a few in all my dives over there, and they were all on the edge of visibility and disappeared very quickly. The one exception to this was when I caught one hiding behind a rock, so keep your eyes peeled. The rod and line guys go after them at night - never went night diving over there, but it would be pretty safe as the currents in general are pretty weak and the sea is shallow for a long way out - maybe that is the way to go, I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows anything about spearing these things...
Otherwise, you're looking at flatfish really. There are mussel beds all over the south coast of Fyn, so there are plenty of plaice there. Also the mussels make good eating if you pick the smaller ones and they are not lying directly on the sand (very gritty!)
There are flounder in the more sheltered fjords and harbours. They are called skrubbe in Danish, and are fished and eaten quite a bit.
I heard there were cod, but haven't seen any - couldn't really find anywhere deep enough I guess.
There are herring out there, but god knows where, I never saw any. Pretty keen targets with a spear though I'd be guessing.
There are also harbour porpoises - not for spearing obviously, but soooooo pretty and graceful to look at. Never saw any diving, but saw a few from the shore. They feed on the flat-fish and cod etc. Keep your eyes peeled.
Spots:
As an island Fyn has got sooooo many option for diving, whatever the weather conditions somewhere will have good viz, and I've only really dived a very few spots, so get out there and try as many as possible and post what you find here. Here's a few I've tried though, going from west to east on the south coast of fyn:
Toro Huse Harbour / Toro Huse
The harbour is dead as dead can be - very silty and murky, with a weird misty haze on the bottom making spotting flatties very difficult as well, so not even good for that. Lots of fish skeletons from by-catch make it quite spooky too. Not one I'd hurry back to. Toro Huse is a peninsula which makes it good for the wind but it's a bit of a hike to get anywhere diveable. I dived the northern side and didn't see much apart from crabs and eel grass. The west and southern sides are supposed to be good for sea trout, but I can't confirm this.
Sonderby Klimt
Really nice spot - sandy beach that holds sand eels (if you're interested in catchiny bait for rod and line fishing) which has rockier patches / mussel beds to the east towards the cliff. Plenty of plaice and skrubbe, and mussels, and apparently a good sea trout spot, although I only was a couple there. Never very deep, with depths of less than 5m even very far off shore. Good visibility in light winds, but got quite choppy and murky quite easily in any wind from the south / west. This goes all the way down to Aa strand, and is very pretty underwater with lots of flatties.
Aa strand
There are apparently lots of skrubbe straight out to sea from the boat launch area at the western end of the beach but I never found any. Very sandy and not much about. Again, shallow even far out to sea.
Brunshuse
Very sheltered bay, but not much sealife down there, probably a few flounder but all I saw was jellyfish, of which there are thousands.
Helnaes spit (west side)
Just where the road on the spit meets the island is a really pretty little beach. I've had a big skrubbe out of here and seen sea trout. Very exposed to west winds but otherwise, a great little spot worth a visit. Rocky close to the beach with sandy patches and mussel beds further out.
Helnaes lighthouse
Deeper water here and stronger currents than elsewhere. Rocky boulders covered with weed dropping off quite steeply into water about 6-10m deep about 50m offshore. I haven't had any luck here but would go again as it was an interesting spot and I'm sure there are fish there - it was always popular with casting fishermen, so there must be something down there.
Helnaes Strand
Around the east side of Helnaes is some very protected water, great for south west / west winds. At the southern end of the beach (where the first car park is) there is a flat sand beach, no more that 1 m deep for about 200 metres, covered in mussels, which drops off suddenly to 3/4 metres. There are some anchorages here for some small fishing boats and yachts which are good for searching for flounder. Good storm spot.
Hope this is useful to someone, although I'm not sure Denmark is on the hitlist for many traveling spearos. Would love to hear from any Danish spearos and compare notes, especially tips on the elusive sea trout!
Licence: You need a permit to fish in Denmark. My mother-in-law (Danish speaker!) bought got one from the tourism office in Assens on Fyn and it cost 112 Kroner (about £10) for the year.
Area: My experience is limited to the south coast of Fyn, where my in laws have a summer house.
Water temps: Very cold in spring and autumn - 10 degrees c and below, in summer it was pleasant enough at about 16 degree c. I wore a 5 mil 2 part suit (long johns and jacket with hood) in summer with no gloves and was if anything too hot. In the spring I was very cold in a 5 mil surf suit (before I bought my spearfishing suit - doh!).
Fish and sealife: The main line fishing target is Sea Trout, which is quite common in the area. They are very hard to spear though - they get spooked very easily and don't seem to be inquisitive fish like bass so aspetto / agachon doesn't seem to work. I saw only a few in all my dives over there, and they were all on the edge of visibility and disappeared very quickly. The one exception to this was when I caught one hiding behind a rock, so keep your eyes peeled. The rod and line guys go after them at night - never went night diving over there, but it would be pretty safe as the currents in general are pretty weak and the sea is shallow for a long way out - maybe that is the way to go, I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows anything about spearing these things...
Otherwise, you're looking at flatfish really. There are mussel beds all over the south coast of Fyn, so there are plenty of plaice there. Also the mussels make good eating if you pick the smaller ones and they are not lying directly on the sand (very gritty!)
There are flounder in the more sheltered fjords and harbours. They are called skrubbe in Danish, and are fished and eaten quite a bit.
I heard there were cod, but haven't seen any - couldn't really find anywhere deep enough I guess.
There are herring out there, but god knows where, I never saw any. Pretty keen targets with a spear though I'd be guessing.
There are also harbour porpoises - not for spearing obviously, but soooooo pretty and graceful to look at. Never saw any diving, but saw a few from the shore. They feed on the flat-fish and cod etc. Keep your eyes peeled.
Spots:
As an island Fyn has got sooooo many option for diving, whatever the weather conditions somewhere will have good viz, and I've only really dived a very few spots, so get out there and try as many as possible and post what you find here. Here's a few I've tried though, going from west to east on the south coast of fyn:
Toro Huse Harbour / Toro Huse
The harbour is dead as dead can be - very silty and murky, with a weird misty haze on the bottom making spotting flatties very difficult as well, so not even good for that. Lots of fish skeletons from by-catch make it quite spooky too. Not one I'd hurry back to. Toro Huse is a peninsula which makes it good for the wind but it's a bit of a hike to get anywhere diveable. I dived the northern side and didn't see much apart from crabs and eel grass. The west and southern sides are supposed to be good for sea trout, but I can't confirm this.
Sonderby Klimt
Really nice spot - sandy beach that holds sand eels (if you're interested in catchiny bait for rod and line fishing) which has rockier patches / mussel beds to the east towards the cliff. Plenty of plaice and skrubbe, and mussels, and apparently a good sea trout spot, although I only was a couple there. Never very deep, with depths of less than 5m even very far off shore. Good visibility in light winds, but got quite choppy and murky quite easily in any wind from the south / west. This goes all the way down to Aa strand, and is very pretty underwater with lots of flatties.
Aa strand
There are apparently lots of skrubbe straight out to sea from the boat launch area at the western end of the beach but I never found any. Very sandy and not much about. Again, shallow even far out to sea.
Brunshuse
Very sheltered bay, but not much sealife down there, probably a few flounder but all I saw was jellyfish, of which there are thousands.
Helnaes spit (west side)
Just where the road on the spit meets the island is a really pretty little beach. I've had a big skrubbe out of here and seen sea trout. Very exposed to west winds but otherwise, a great little spot worth a visit. Rocky close to the beach with sandy patches and mussel beds further out.
Helnaes lighthouse
Deeper water here and stronger currents than elsewhere. Rocky boulders covered with weed dropping off quite steeply into water about 6-10m deep about 50m offshore. I haven't had any luck here but would go again as it was an interesting spot and I'm sure there are fish there - it was always popular with casting fishermen, so there must be something down there.
Helnaes Strand
Around the east side of Helnaes is some very protected water, great for south west / west winds. At the southern end of the beach (where the first car park is) there is a flat sand beach, no more that 1 m deep for about 200 metres, covered in mussels, which drops off suddenly to 3/4 metres. There are some anchorages here for some small fishing boats and yachts which are good for searching for flounder. Good storm spot.
Hope this is useful to someone, although I'm not sure Denmark is on the hitlist for many traveling spearos. Would love to hear from any Danish spearos and compare notes, especially tips on the elusive sea trout!
