Rügen is an island on the northern part of Germany at the Baltic sea. It is plenty of lagoons an peninsulas with sandy beaches and as well muddy meadows. The Strelasund, a 2km wide estuary, splits the island from the mainland Germany. It is also very well known for its huge chalk cliffs raising high over the Baltic sea.

So what makes this Island so special. It is the hearing that has been eaten by the mighty pike who grows here to record sizes. There is so far no place in Europe that has a greater population of big pikes. If you want to catch a really big pike it is Rügen you have to aim for. Off course they don’t jump you directly on the rod but the chance is higher then elsewhere.

And there is something else that makes this place so interesting for especially the pike fly fisherman. You don’t need a boat. Many interesting spots can be reached by wading, and this very easily since the ground is sand. And this is very unique. Of coure in Sweden you can also fly fish by wading but you have to struggle always with big slippery stones. But you have to walk a lot. It is not uncommon that you wade half a kilometer out on the sea for a good spot. On good weather conditions this is also easy but on bad weather days you have to be careful. The wind can raise very fast, that creates waves, that blur the water and the way back to shore becomes a lottery because not always the water is shallow. So when wading, check the weather and remember the way back.

This year we have been already a second time there. Last year i followed the invitation of a guide from Germany that offered me the pike of my dreams. And on the fist day i caught it, a 113cm pike, and the next day offered me a 98cm pike followed by many pikes in the 70 to 80cm range. Really not bad but it can be even better. Stories from catches of a up to 10 pikes a day over the 1meter milestone are not uncommon. But also this became rare. 20 Years ago when the German border collapsed this was for sure the best pike water in the world.

But lets come to the fishery. This year we booked a self operated house for 12 days of pure pike fishing. On board was also my guide from last year for a few days, for some learning. On the first arrival we hit the water and tried our best. The difference to last year was that the temperatures were not really cold, actually it was quite warm, too warm for the big once. They come close to shore through the deep cannels when the water gets cold. Nevertheless we had instant success with some pikes on the very well known spots. Not the big mamas but good size fish.

This year we also planned, supported by the long time, also explore some not so very well known spots in the hope to have some magic moments on the water on some ingenuous pikes. That not an easy task since a Rügen is well settled and you have to cross private lands, some waters are in hand or even more worse are nature reserve and protected. Latest was the most in in our behalf. One of that spots we found with Google Earth. It was located at the outer point of a nature and military reserve.
On Google Earth this spot appeared like a black whole. A lot of people knew that whole but nobody ever fished before there.

It took us 3 hours to get there over a 8km long beach wearing the wading stuff. It was a horror, fully sweated we reached there, and was it worth? Yes, the spot was a jewel. A deep black whole, enclosed by reed, 3 meter high. Relaxed casting is different. It was almost impossible. Only with roll casts and clumsy overhead casts we could reached some distance. But far not enough to cover the whole spot. But also close to the shore the spot was a jackpot. At the end of the day we counted not less than 100 strikes. This whole will stay in my memory for long time. Fantastic!!

The rest of our Rügen expedition was a lot of driving to spots. The biggest problem was the wind. Every day, all time, full blowing wind. And when you think it can’t get worse, the next day showed that even a strong wind can become to a storm. On 12 days of fishing we had only 1 day with a low blowing wind. So we concentrated on the spots where the wind came from behind which made our casting easier. In general we had always success, every day we caught pike, but not the wanted big ones. They seemed to be still swimming in the open Baltic sea. Few days we left we got reports from pikes being caught up to 120cm. Bad luck for us!.

Marvelous was also the food. Self catering and good food. Yeah! We met a lot of commercial fishermen where we bought cod and flounder. Especially the cod was so good, not comparable with the ones you get in the supermarket. We survived mainly on fish, extra ordinary good fish. We planned to eat also some pikes but compared to that cod we let them alive.

There was one funny happening. The wind was on one day that much strong blowing that it pushed the water out to the sea and one shallow lagoon was completely emptied from water. Only 5cm left and a lot of small fish got trapped. For us very comfortable because we could obtain walking through the forest. And there we found small pikes, hundreds that try to hide in the collapsed ground vegetation. The birds were feeding on them so we decided to rescue them. We filled water in our stripping baskets and caught them by hand. 2 hours we were running after them and caught somehow hundred of fish and released them. Nice!

All in all this was an excellent trip with 3 mates only thinking about pike fishing. Heaven can it be better?. I hardly believe.

Exploring an old submarine