Fishing in Stockholm

After a week of festivals and general craziness... I thought I would slow it down with something a bit different! A happy Rival Hotel guest sent me some pictures of the fish he caught while visiting us a couple of weeks ago, which gave me an idea of a good blog article (and he was nice enough to allow me to publish the pictures- thanks!).

Did you know that you can fish right in downtown Stockholm and that you don't need a fishing licence? Fishermen standing along the Stockholm shores, especially along Strömmen, are a common sight year-round. They catch a wide variety of fish... the most common being perch, bream, whitefish, pike, eel, trout and salmon. The largest salmon caught in Stockholm was over 40lbs. The waters around Stockholm are clean which means you can eat your catch. Just please don't bring them back to the hotel for gutting and de-boning! If you are staying at the hotel: do catch & release.

As I mentioned, you don't need a licence which makes it all much easier for visiting fishing enthusiasts. If you don't have your own fishing equipment with you, there are several fishing stores where you can get all you need. One I recommend is Lundgrens Fiskredskap, which is centrally located in Gamla Stan. They can also give you more practical information! If you want to try a bit more advanced fishing (fly-fishing, archipelago trips, packages, etc;), contact the company Catch & Relax. While the most popular place to fish is around Strömmen, where the waters of Lake Mälaren run swiftly between Gamla Stan and the downtown area, there are other good places to try. In fact, our lucky guest caught his fish near Slussen... just a 10 minute walk from the hotel.