Hönö – a fishing paradise in the archipelago
You’ll really feel like you’re in the archipelago on Hönö, where fishing is at the heart of it all. Charming fishing boats bob up and down in the sea around the island, on the hunt for mackerel, crab, lobster and other delicacies.
Fish rich waters going back thousands of years
Hönö is just an hour from Gothenburg’s Central Station – one of the largest islands in Gothenburg’s archipelago and more or less the cradle of the Swedish fishing industry. The Öckerö islands’ fishing history goes back thousands of years. These rich fishing waters were created when ice from the last Ice Age retreated, and the islands rose out of the sea, creating favourable conditions for people to settle around here.
Photographer: Jonas Ingman @ Bruksbild
Experience fishing with real professionals
Saying that fishing on Hönö is a genuine tradition aren’t just empty words – they can be backed up by facts! Did you know for instance that every tenth professional fishermen in Sweden lives in the municipality of Öckerö? And that these, together with colleagues in Fiskebäck in south west Gothenburg supply 75% of all fish that is caught in Sweden? Not bad eh!
Photographer: Jonas Ingman @ Bruksbild
Would you like to try your luck at fishing in the rich waters out in the southernmost parts of the Bohuslän archipelago? No problem! You can fish with Marine Event in their state of the art catamarans, go out on Kastor Boat Trips charming old fishing boats or go to sea with Hönö Båtturer and fish with a professional on a GG 100 fishing boat.
The waters around Hönö are full of crab, langoustine and mackerel, but also the most luxurious of all ingredients – lobster. If you ask a local what the best day of the year is it’s not unusual if the answer – after Christmas and Midsummer – is the Lobster Premiere. It’s always on the first Monday after 20 September, and more or less everyone who has a boat goes out into the salty waters of the archipelago on the hunt for this treasure, often described as the black gold of the sea. Find your seafood experience here.
Fiskemuseet - The Fishing Museum
Are you interested in the fishing industry and its history? Or are you a total novice and would like to learn more? Whichever you are we can recommend a visit to Fiskemuseet while you are on Hönö. It has everything from model boats and fishing equipment, to photographic exhibitions about the history of fishing.
Learn all about the four great herring periods for instance. Want to know what beach seine or purse seine netting is, or drift or gill netting? Or how the fishing industry has moved on from these older fishing methods to modern motorised trawlers? Don’t worry! The museum will satisfy anyone with an enquiring mind’s thirst for knowledge, and remind fishing experts of things they thought they’d forgotten.
