European Eel

The eel was once the most important eating fish in the fjord, and there was extensive commercial eel fishing. Today there are almost no commercial fishermen left, and eel fishing has now more or less become the domain of amateur fishermen, who bring a lot of eels home in their nets - and get masses of fresh air. There are now only a very few pound-nets in the fjord.


Pound-net at Hyldeholm in Lejre Vig.

Setting the pound-nets out and taking them in again every year is very labour-intensive and this is one of the reasons why the industry no longer pays. Eel numbers have now declined so far, both nationally and internationally, that eel-fishing is now forbidden for hobby fishers with nets from 10th May to 31st July, and with lines from 1st May to 30th September.


The turbine house at Kattinge Værk, where they used to catch elver.

There used at one time to be an unusual elver catch at Kattinge Værk. Inside the turbine house there was a ladder made of straw mats and old fishing nets, which the pencil-sized elver would climb up, ending up in Per Jensen’s big fibre glass tubs. The tubs, with an extra oxygen supply, were then driven at dead of night to release sites around the country. In good years they could catch up to 5 tons of elver in the course of a season. Now this practice has come to an end, and the eels decide for themselves where they will grow.

Eels are a very popular delicacy, and there is an annual eel festival in Jyllinge. A pan of fried eel with potatoes in white sauce, with beer and schnapps, might well be accompanied by Hasse Havgaard’s eel song:

Now here we sit and grease our gums with eel – skol
An eel that has come so far it deserves a skol – skol
And shame on the ass who won’t raise his glass to the eel – skol
For now it has finally come to its goal – skol