Fishing places
Nordic and Baltic
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and the Baltic: cold, clear, deep and, in the Baltic, barely salt at all — which changes which fish are where.
Being listed here is not permission to fish.
Access, fishing rights, seasons, licences, local bylaws and permitted methods vary and can change. Check the current rules and permission for the specific water before fishing. FishingHQ describes what the ground is and names who holds the answer; it does not hold the answer itself, and it does not tell you where to go and catch a fish.
Find the authority for a jurisdiction · What FishingHQ does and does not cover
- 9 fishing regions and destinations
- 24 publicly documented places
Regions and destinations
Each of these is a full guide: what fishing there is like, what dominates, the water available, how the rules are structured and who administers them.
- DenmarkSeven thousand kilometres of coast, nothing more than fifty kilometres from the sea, one national licence covering salt and fresh together — and the most developed coastal sea-trout fishery in Europe.
- IcelandA volcanic island in the north Atlantic with internationally significant salmon and char rivers, no public right to fish anywhere, and a biosecurity requirement that has to be dealt with before leaving home.
- Lake VänernThe largest lake in the European Union, a freshwater inland sea holding Atlantic salmon that complete their whole life cycle without ever reaching salt water — under a public-access tradition that visitors routinely misread.
- Norway and the Nordic coastDeep cold water within reach of the shore, a public right to fish the sea, and a fishing culture built on food rather than on sport.
- SwedenA hundred thousand lakes, two seas of very different salinity, and a public right of access with a boundary drawn precisely enough that knowing where it stops is the whole of the regulatory question.
- The Baltic SeaA sea whose salinity falls from ocean strength at its entrance to almost fresh at its head, so that marine and freshwater fish occupy the same water and swap places along its length. No other European sea does this.
- The Baltic statesThree countries on a brackish, nearly tideless sea, with a sea-trout coast, two of Europe's largest lakes, the Curonian Lagoon behind a sand spit, and a winter in which the fishing moves onto the ice.
- The Finnish lake districtTens of thousands of connected lakes cut into ancient rock and stained brown by peat, frozen for months of the year, with a public right to fish that has no equivalent in most of Europe.
- The Wadden SeaFive hundred kilometres of tidal flat behind a chain of barrier islands, running across three countries: the largest unbroken intertidal system on earth and the nursery for a very large share of the southern North Sea.
Every place, listed
24 publicly documented fishing places, grouped by the area they belong to. This is the complete list — everything plotted on the map above is here, and nothing here needs the map to reach it.
Denmark 5 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Denmark
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Denmark runs a single national fishing licence covering both sea and fresh water for those it applies to, and it is not a permission to fish anywhere: protected zones around river mouths, closed seasons for sea trout in colour, size and quantity measures, and local restrictions all apply and change. Check the current position with the Danish fisheries agency before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The national licence is only half of what an inland angler needs — almost every river and lake also requires a separate day ticket or association membership from whoever holds the fishing right. Seasons and measures change. Check with the Danish fisheries agency and with the association or owner controlling the water before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Denmark runs a single national fishing licence covering both sea and fresh water for those it applies to, and it is not a permission to fish anywhere: protected zones around river mouths, closed seasons for sea trout in colour, size and quantity measures, and local restrictions all apply and change. Check the current position with the Danish fisheries agency before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The national licence is only half of what an inland angler needs — almost every river and lake also requires a separate day ticket or association membership from whoever holds the fishing right. Seasons and measures change. Check with the Danish fisheries agency and with the association or owner controlling the water before going.
Hvide Sande channel
Tidal channel · Brackish water
A cut through the North Sea dune barrier of west Jutland, carrying the controlled exchange between a large shallow brackish lagoon and the open sea through a sluice and a lock, with concrete piers, moles and a harbour on the fjord side.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This is working water-management or navigation infrastructure, operated to a schedule set by its authority rather than by anything happening in the fishing, and access to it is that authority's decision. This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Møns Klint and the Stevns cliffs
Rock mark · Salt water
White chalk cliffs on the Baltic coast of Zealand and Møn, falling to a boulder and flint shore with weed-covered stone reef running out into shallow water, and blocks of fallen chalk in the shallows.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Skagen and Grenen
Sandbank · Salt water
A migrating sand spit at the northern tip of Jutland where the Skagerrak and Kattegat meet, with a shoal running out beyond the visible point, strong opposing currents over it and clean sand throughout.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The Skjern river
River reach · Fresh water
Denmark's largest river by discharge, running west across Jutland to Ringkøbing Fjord, with sand and gravel bed, and a lower course that was straightened for agriculture in the twentieth century and then deliberately restored to a meandering channel and floodplain.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
The south Funen coast
Beach section · Brackish water
A low shore of stone reef, boulder, eelgrass and sand along the southern side of Funen and its archipelago, shallow for a long way out and waded rather than cast from a bank.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Germany 3 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Germany
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here, and Germany's structure surprises visitors more than most. In most of the country a fishing licence is issued only after a formal examination in fish biology, law and welfare — the qualification comes before the paper — and the arrangements for the Baltic and North Sea coasts differ between the coastal states. Species measures, closed seasons and protected areas apply and change. Check the current position with the fisheries authority of the state before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. German inland angling needs two separate things: the state fishing licence, which in most states follows an examination, and a permit for the specific water, which is sold by whoever holds the fishing right — usually a club, a commune or a private owner. Neither substitutes for the other, both differ between the sixteen states, and both change. Check with the state fisheries authority and with the water's rights-holder before going.
Fehmarn
Island · Brackish water
A low German Baltic island with a shore of boulder reef, stone, weed and sand, shallow ground extending well out from most of its coast and deeper water in the Belt to its west.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
The Elbe at Hamburg
River reach · Brackish water
The tidal reach of the Elbe through Germany's largest port: a wide dredged navigation channel with quay walls, groynes and side arms, extensive mud and sand banks in the reaches below the city, and a strong tidal influence reaching well upstream.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This is working water-management or navigation infrastructure, operated to a schedule set by its authority rather than by anything happening in the fishing, and access to it is that authority's decision.
The Rügen Bodden
Bay · Brackish water
A complex of shallow, sheltered, partly enclosed brackish lagoons behind the island of Rügen, with reed margins, weed beds, soft bottom and salinity low enough for freshwater fish to live and spawn.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
Iceland 3 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Iceland
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here, and Iceland is the clearest case in Europe of why that sentence matters. There is no state angling licence and no public right to fish: every fishing right on every river and lake belongs to the landowners, who administer it through a fishing association per river, and access is bought as a permit for a named beat on named dates. Salmon rivers are frequently sold years ahead. Disinfection of imported equipment is required. Beats, quotas, seasons and the disinfection arrangements all change. Check with the river's fishing association before travelling.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Recreational sea angling from the Icelandic shore is not generally licensed, but access across land, harbour rules, species measures and conservation designations apply and change — and equipment brought into the country from abroad is subject to a disinfection requirement intended to keep fish disease out of an isolated stock, which is enforced rather than advisory. Check the current position with the Icelandic fisheries directorate and the food and veterinary authority before travelling.
The Laxá í Aðaldal
River reach · Fresh water
A spring-fed river running north from Lake Mývatn over a bed of lava and weed, clear and unusually stable in both flow and temperature because it rises through porous rock rather than from surface runoff, with an exceptional insect production from the lake above.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, fishing alone.
The Reykjanes coast
Rock mark · Salt water
A young lava peninsula in south-west Iceland with a coast of black basalt, boulder and small black sand bays, geothermal ground behind it and deep cold water a short distance offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, moving water and currents, fishing alone.
Þingvallavatn
Lake · Fresh water
Iceland's largest natural lake, sitting in the rift where two tectonic plates are pulling apart, fed almost entirely by spring water filtered through lava rather than by surface runoff, with a bed of lava, fissures and clear cold water of exceptional visibility.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, moving water and currents, fishing alone.
Lake Vänern 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Lake Vänern
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. On the great majority of Swedish inland water the fishing right belongs to a landowner or to a fishery conservation area formed by the owners together, and the document is bought from them. Which waters are treated differently, and the seasons, methods and species measures that apply, all change. Check with the fishery conservation area or the rights-holder before going.
Vänern's western basin
Lake · Fresh water
The western of Vänern's two basins: an inland sea on ancient rock with a rocky, island-strewn shoreline, deep open water in the middle and extensive shallow bays where the rivers enter.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion, boat safety.
Norway and the Nordic coast 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Norway and the Nordic coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Norway permits recreational sea angling broadly, but rules on gear, quantity, export, minimum sizes, protected species and boat registration apply and change, and they differ for residents and visitors. Check the current position with the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Norwegian freshwater fishing generally requires both a local fishing permit and, for salmon, sea trout and char, a separate national licence fee, and disinfection of equipment brought from abroad is required in many catchments to protect against parasite spread. Seasons and rules change. Check with the Norwegian Environment Agency and the local rights-holder before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Norway permits recreational sea angling broadly, but rules on gear, quantity, export, minimum sizes, protected species and boat registration apply and change, and they differ for residents and visitors. Check the current position with the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries before going.
Hardangerfjord
Sea loch · Brackish water
The second-longest fjord in Norway, cut nearly two hundred kilometres into the western mountains, with near-vertical rock walls, glacier-fed rivers entering along its length and exceptionally deep water close to the shore.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Lofoten and Vestfjorden
Sound or strait · Salt water
A chain of steep granite and gabbro islands rising straight out of the sea north of the Arctic Circle, with a deep basin — Vestfjorden — inside them, rock and kelp along every shore and very deep water within a short distance of the land.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, moving water and currents, boat safety.
Sørøya
Island · Salt water
A large bare island in western Finnmark, well inside the Arctic, with rock and boulder shores, kelp forest, and a shelf edge and deep fjord channels within a short distance of the coast.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Trondheimsfjord
Sea loch · Brackish water
Norway's third-longest fjord, running some 130 kilometres inland with a shallow sill at its mouth and very deep water behind it, fed by several substantial salmon rivers and fringed by farmland rather than by mountain for much of its length.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Sweden 3 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Sweden
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sweden separates the right to BE somewhere from the right to take fish, and the arrangements governing each are different, bounded by water, method and species, and subject to change — so neither settles what may be done at this place today. Check the current position with the Swedish agency for marine and water management, and with the local fishery conservation area, before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. On the great majority of Swedish inland water the fishing right belongs to a landowner or to a fishery conservation area formed by the owners together, and the document is bought from them. Which waters are treated differently, and the seasons, methods and species measures that apply, all change. Check with the fishery conservation area or the rights-holder before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sweden separates the right to BE somewhere from the right to take fish, and the arrangements governing each are different, bounded by water, method and species, and subject to change — so neither settles what may be done at this place today. Check the current position with the Swedish agency for marine and water management, and with the local fishery conservation area, before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. On the great majority of Swedish inland water the fishing right belongs to a landowner or to a fishery conservation area formed by the owners together, and the document is bought from them. Which waters are treated differently, and the seasons, methods and species measures that apply, all change. Check with the fishery conservation area or the rights-holder before going.
The Bohuslän coast
Rock mark · Salt water
A coast of bare rounded granite, skerries and narrow sounds running north from Gothenburg to the Norwegian border, with deep water close in, kelp and boulder below the surface and almost no sand anywhere.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
The Kalix river
River reach · Fresh water
One of the last large unregulated rivers in Europe, running some 450 kilometres from the mountains to the Gulf of Bothnia without a single hydroelectric dam, over gravel, boulder and rapids, with a very large spring flood from snowmelt.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
The Stockholm archipelago
Island · Brackish water
Tens of thousands of granite islands, islets and skerries scattered across a hundred kilometres of coast east of Stockholm, with shallow sheltered bays, weed beds, boulder reefs and deeper channels between, in water brackish enough for freshwater fish to live in.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
The Baltic Sea 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Baltic Sea
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sweden separates the right to BE somewhere from the right to take fish, and the arrangements governing each are different, bounded by water, method and species, and subject to change — so neither settles what may be done at this place today. Check the current position with the Swedish agency for marine and water management, and with the local fishery conservation area, before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. On the great majority of Swedish inland water the fishing right belongs to a landowner or to a fishery conservation area formed by the owners together, and the document is bought from them. Which waters are treated differently, and the seasons, methods and species measures that apply, all change. Check with the fishery conservation area or the rights-holder before going.
The east coast of Gotland
Rock mark · Brackish water
A limestone coast on the eastern side of the largest Baltic island, with flat wave-cut shelves, sea stacks left standing by an older shoreline, boulder reef and shallow brackish water extending well out.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock.
The Finnish lake district 2 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Finnish lake district
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The same structure applies inland and matters more: the public angling right is narrow, the national fisheries management fee covers ordinary lure fishing in most waters for those it applies to, and a great many waters — particularly salmonid rivers and the best pike and perch water — additionally require a permit from the owner or the fisheries area. Everything changes. Check with the fisheries area and the water's owner before going.
Päijänne
Lake · Fresh water
Finland's second-largest lake: a long deep basin running north to south with clear water by Finnish standards, rocky shores and islands, and steep drop-offs where the ice-scoured rock falls away.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock, hypothermia.
Saimaa
Lake · Fresh water
Europe's fourth-largest lake and the core of the Finnish lake district: an enormous branching system of connected basins on ancient rock, with thousands of islands, water stained brown by peat, and narrow straits between basins where the flow concentrates.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock, hypothermia.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
The Wadden Sea 2 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Wadden Sea
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Denmark runs a single national fishing licence covering both sea and fresh water for those it applies to, and it is not a permission to fish anywhere: protected zones around river mouths, closed seasons for sea trout in colour, size and quantity measures, and local restrictions all apply and change. Check the current position with the Danish fisheries agency before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The national licence is only half of what an inland angler needs — almost every river and lake also requires a separate day ticket or association membership from whoever holds the fishing right. Seasons and measures change. Check with the Danish fisheries agency and with the association or owner controlling the water before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here, and Germany's structure surprises visitors more than most. In most of the country a fishing licence is issued only after a formal examination in fish biology, law and welfare — the qualification comes before the paper — and the arrangements for the Baltic and North Sea coasts differ between the coastal states. Species measures, closed seasons and protected areas apply and change. Check the current position with the fisheries authority of the state before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. German inland angling needs two separate things: the state fishing licence, which in most states follows an examination, and a permit for the specific water, which is sold by whoever holds the fishing right — usually a club, a commune or a private owner. Neither substitutes for the other, both differ between the sixteen states, and both change. Check with the state fisheries authority and with the water's rights-holder before going.
Fanø
Island · Brackish water
A Danish Wadden barrier island with a very wide flat sand beach on its seaward side, dunes behind it, and drying mud and sand flats between the island and the mainland cut by tidal channels.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, drowning and immersion, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water. Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
Sylt
Island · Brackish water
A long narrow German Wadden barrier island with a straight open North Sea beach and groyne field on its western side, dunes and cliff behind, and drying mud and sand flats with tidal channels on the landward side.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, drowning and immersion, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.