Rügen - October 5 to 12, 2025
This year we were early and stayed longer than before. Driving the German highway for 750km can be a pain (due to truck traffic) during workdays. Therefore we decided to drive on Sundays. No trucks on the road and an easy drive to Europe's fly fishing for pike paradise. That choice of driving on Sundays meant 6 fishing days in between. 😃
My box full of small Rügen pike flies
Returning to Rügen means also returning to previous hot spots. Although that never is a guarantee on Rügen this year the first spot produced right away.
Lots of action and both me and my buddy Marty Maas ran into double figures during the day. Lots of small pike but also a few decent ones. Knee deep water produced the most strikes and even in shallow water the pikes jumped like crazy after setting the hook. I caught my pike on small black gobies and Marty his on red so I added some red gobies to the shop.
The second day the fishing was tougher. The weather was slowly changing and I think that had all to do with the dropping action. We still managed to get several pike on the fly and enjoyed the conditions.
On our third day Ad Hulshoff had joined us and the wind started blowing a 5bft from the west. That limited the number of spots we could fish. It would stay that way for the rest of the week. Rügen is a big place and there is plenty of water so we had no problem finding good spots and pike but we were not able to fish some of our hot spots from previous trips. Nevertheless we also found a few new spots that were very fishy. We waded knee to hip deep. Stripped medium to fast to extra fast. Every now and then a stop in the middle and I personally rested the fly for about 5 seconds on the hang at the end of stripping in the small black goby. That resulted in a lot of hart stopping takes just two rod lengths away. Some pike jumped out of the water when taking on the hang. Some I looked into their eyes before the engulfed the fly on the hang. I simply love those takes. Setting the hook at close range also results into a lot of jumps. Absolutely fabulous!
Last fish of the trip was for Ad. A pike that didn't hook up on the first two casts but did on the third. What a way to end the trip!
Fly fishing for pike on Rügen is an adventure. It can also be a challenge. The pike are not everywhere so look at google earth and find spots. Walk, cast, vary in stripping and fish on the hang. If you do that sooner or later you will find them.
No question, we will be back!
Tight lines,
Peter
My Rügen 2025 gear-list:
- Airflo Elbi Greentooth 9ft #7/8
- Airflo V3 Reel 7/8
- Airflo Elbi Pike WF7/8F
- Airflo Polyleaders (several sink rates and 5 to 8ft long)
- Stroft FC2 40/00 and 45/00
- Single strand titanium leader with and without Stonfo wirelink clip 10kg
- Black gobies (fished those 95% of the time)
- Jenzi Neoprene waders
- Søndergaard Creek stripping basket
- Patagonia SST wading jacket (and a range of Patagonia clothing 😍)
