Vi steger fisk over bålet, og min onkel tager sin fiskestang med ned til søen.

Danish usually uses the simple present for both ideas.

So vi steger fisk can mean:

• we fry fish
• we are frying fish

The exact meaning comes from context. Danish does not have a separate everyday tense like the English present continuous.

If you really want to stress that something is happening right now, Danish can use a longer expression such as vi er ved at stege fisk.

Because Danish often uses a bare noun when talking about food or an unspecified amount/plural.

Here fisk is naturally understood as:

• fish as food, or
• some fish in a general, non-specific sense

Compare:

• Vi steger fisk. = We are frying fish.
• Vi steger en fisk. = We are frying one fish.
• Vi steger nogle fisk. = We are frying some fish.

So the version without an article sounds very normal here.

Over means over / above, and that fits the image of cooking fish above a fire.

So:

• over bålet = over the fire / above the campfire

If you said på bålet, it would sound more like the fish is physically on the fire, which is usually not what you mean.

Also, bålet is the definite form of bål:

• et bål = a fire / bonfire / campfire
• bålet = the fire

The ending -et is the definite ending for a neuter singular noun.

After a possessive like min, din, hans, sin, and so on, Danish normally uses the noun in the indefinite form.

So:

• min onkel = my uncle
• not min onklen

This is different from English only in form, not in meaning. It is the normal Danish pattern:

• min bil = my car
• hendes hus = her house
• vores venner = our friends

Because sin refers back to the subject of the same clause.

In min onkel tager sin fiskestang med, the subject is min onkel, so sin means that it is his own fishing rod.

This is a very important Danish distinction:

• Min onkel tager sin fiskestang med. = My uncle takes his own fishing rod.
• Min onkel tager hans fiskestang med. = My uncle takes another male person's fishing rod.

Also, sin / sit / sine agree with the thing owned:

• sin fiskestang because fiskestang is a common-gender singular noun

This is because tage med is a fixed verb expression, often meaning take along or bring along.

In Danish main clauses, the particle such as med is often placed later in the clause, especially after the object:

• Min onkel tager sin fiskestang med.

So med is not just an extra word meaning with here. It is part of the whole verbal idea:

• tage med = take/bring along

This kind of split is very common in Danish.

It means something like down to the lake.

The parts are:

• ned = down
• til = to / toward
• søen = the lake

So med ned til søen means along down to the lake.

Even when there is no dramatic downward movement, Danish often uses ned with places like the shore, the water, town, the beach, and similar destinations. It can sound very natural and idiomatic.

Also, søen is the definite form of sø:

• en sø = a lake
• søen = the lake

Yes. Danish very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

So:

• fisk = fish
• stang = rod/pole
• fiskestang = fishing rod

This is completely normal in Danish. English sometimes writes similar ideas as two words, but Danish usually prefers one compound word.

A useful rule is that the last part is the main noun:

• fiskestang is a kind of stang

That is also why its gender follows stang:

• en stang
• en fiskestang

Yes, but Danish main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

In the original sentence, the subject comes first:

• Vi steger fisk over bålet
• min onkel tager sin fiskestang med ned til søen

That is the most neutral order.

But you can move another element to the front for emphasis, and then the verb still has to stay in second position:

• Over bålet steger vi fisk.
• Ned til søen tager min onkel sin fiskestang med.

So Danish word order is flexible, but not random.

They have different jobs.

• over bålet tells you where the fish is being cooked
• til søen tells you the destination of the movement

So:

• over describes position relative to the fire
• til describes motion toward the lake

This is very typical Danish: one part of the sentence can describe location, while another describes direction or destination.