The salty sand hoppers are waking up and
starting to mate. Now is the time when it is possible to see
the little males riding around on the big females in the shallow
water. The survival of the species is at stake, and this does
not go off quietly - not even among sand hoppers.
- Brown trout may be in
bad shape this time of year - and should be put back.
- © photo: Steen
Ulnits
The sea trout along the coast are also
fond of sand hoppers - and they do not care about the sex. Sand
hoppers are a delicacy for any sea trout - and sand hoppers make
their flesh nice and red. So the angler who goes fly-fishing
along the coast had better have some good imitations in his box
- and fish deeply and slowly.
Worm hatches in the sea
But March is also the month when it is
possible to experience a major bristle worm party. Typically
this happens in conjunction with the full moon or new moon, which
seems to coordinate the swarming of large bristle worms.
When the water temperature and phase of
the moon are in harmony, the otherwise quite fierce Nereis-species
leave their holes on the bottom to go to the surface to spawn.
Here they circle around until they explode in a giant orgasm
that releases the reproductive organisms - and leaves the bristle
worms themselves as lifeless bodies.
The birds and fish of the coast really
know how to seize the opportunity when the bristle worms are
spawning. It is quite simply the first big meal of the spring
to be had here - a kind of strawberry season for the birds and
fish which have had to languish in the cold all through the winter.
This spawning may be so intense and concentrated
that sometimes the authorities get phone calls from worried people
who think that they have witnessed yet another environmental
disaster!
Trout in the rivers
Finally, March is the month when the "old"
trout premiere in the rivers takes place. There are still many
river-anglers who regard this as the only true start of the season.
But whether it is the true, or the wrong
start of the season, two things are certain: there are rarely
as many shiny Greenlanders in the rivers in March as in January,
and the lean kelts are usually in slightly better condition than
earlier in the year. Which is both good and bad.
The regular inhabitants of the river -
river trout, rainbow trout and grayling - who are very dependent
on the amount of feed in the river, feel both good and bad here
in March. Like its cousin the sea trout, the river trout is a
winter spawner, and it is lean and slender after breeding.
The rainbow trout typically spawns in the
spring, however, and is usually in the best possible condition
- albeit strongly coloured, and therefore not quite as delicious
as otherwise. But the red stripe along the side is brighter than
ever! The rainbow trout has been truly stuffing itself with roe
from the spawning of river and sea trout, and they are more than
ready for the approaching breeding.
The grayling, too, is at the top of its
form. It does not change character to the same extent in the
period preceding spawning, which typically takes place from the
end of March until the beginning of May. The grayling is protected
from 15 March until 15 May, and is thus legal prey in the first
half of this month.
However, the fly-fisher who wants to make
contact with this wonderful fish will have to use a sink line
or weighted flies to get down into the still rather cold water.
© Steen Ulnits
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