Fishing with nets in Lake Mälaren - a fishing adventure

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Fishing with nets in Lake Mälaren, how does it work? We have tried it with friends who have a summer house on an island in Lake Mälaren. Really exciting! Here is a small report on how it went - and on our catch.

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A fishing adventure in Lake Mälaren

We spent a few days on the island of Ringsö in Lake Mälaren, where our friends Lennart and Beata have a summer house. Lennart has long been keen to fish with nets in Lake Mälaren, and now he had acquired fishing nets.

Peter has been fishing lots with nets in his life. When he was growing up, they set nets every weekend on Blidö in the Stockholm archipelago. So, we decided to go on a little fishing adventure together.

Fishing with nets in Lake Mälaren

There are plenty of fish in Lake Mälaren, and the fishing waters are popular with both recreational and professional fishermen. Which fish are most abundant depends somewhat on was you are in Lake Mälaren, but there are plenty of pike-perch and perch.

Of course, when you go fishing, you have to follow certain rules. These rules are designed to protect and preserve fish stocks and include, for example, restrictions on when and where you can fish, what fishing gear is allowed and minimum fish sizes. You can read more at County Council.

When fishing with nets, there are also rules on the length and depth of the nets and the size of the meshes in the net. Anyone can fish with nets in public waters as long as they follow the rules. We were fishing in an area where residents have fishing rights.

Organising the networks

We started by organising the nets. You don't want them to be tangled (which they were!) so it took a while to sort out the mess. Then we attached ropes with buoys to the ends so that we could lower the nets.

Laying nets

When laying nets, it is practical to use a rowing boat, but you take what you have. So it was a trip with the motorboat to the place where we chose to lay the nets.

Then we laid out the nets, piece by piece. We arrived just before the sun started to set. The days are not so long now.

It was really beautiful and quiet on the lake. When we switched off the engine, it was completely silent.

Weathering the nets

The next day, when we went to clear the nets, the fog was dense and completely milky white. We first decided to wait, but when it didn't clear up, we went out anyway. The nets were in a familiar location relatively close to shore and we had a GPS, so we decided to give it a try.

It was a slow and careful boat ride, until we found our orange buoys. Then it was exciting to smell the nets!

The result? We got three nice big walleye and two burbot. We threw the burbot back into the water and the pike perch were allowed to follow us back to the log cabin.

Taking care of the catch

Then, of course, it was time to take care of the catch. Peter is the one most used to handling fish, so he filleted them.

For dinner we had baked pike-perch with cream and prawns. For this we served homemade mashed potatoes with butter and parmesan. We also tried quick-frying half a lime with honey. Fantastically good, and fun to be able to eat your own catch.

Have you fished with nets in Lake Mälaren?

What a nice and pleasant day it was! Have you fished with nets in Lake Mälaren, or perhaps elsewhere? What are your experiences?

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