Catching fish while sailing (Patreon)

Our friends Kuutti and Viiri are visiting, this is Viiri with her first ever fish that she caught. Took us 5 minutes to catch 4 good sized pollock like this.

Catching fishing in Norway (and in the same way in many other places in the north) is quite simple. I should probably make a video about this, but basically all you do is look for a shallower area (10-35 meters or so) next to a deeper area, then you use your rod or handreel to let down a "pilk" (a "svenskepilk" is the most used here) to the bottom or very close to it. Quite often you'll get pollock or cod (or something more exotic) for your efforts. If you're just fishing for food then the type of pilk doesn't really matter, pollock and cod will bite pretty much anything.

But one thing that really helps is a fishfinder! Not many sailboats have fishfinders, but it is something that I'll definitely have permanently installed on my next boat. Currently I have a temporarily installed Raymarine Element, but pretty much any fishfinder will probably do. I turn it on whenever I'm motoring. If I then see a school of fish it's a simple matter stopping for a while. I don't use the fishfinder while sailing, it's too much trouble to take the sails down and stop the boat etc.

Further down south it's possible to catch mackarel and needlefish etc simply by trolling something behind the boat... but that is a completely different topic.