Last Saturday I went on a fishing trip
to the Lenne river.
It was a hot sunny day and the stream carried
little water.
Fishing was tough but we did catch a few fish.
Allthough it was nice the price for the permits
and the long drive made us decide it was the
first and last visit on this section.
Early morning on a bright sunny summers day we stood on the
banks of our stream.
Once again we fished the upper reaches of the stream due to recent
successful trips to that section.
Water levels had dropped even more than on the previous visit, some
of the sandbars where now exposed to the air.
There where a lot of flying insects about, most notably the big mayflies.
The mayfly action did not go unnoticed with the fish so many times
loud splashes where heard.
In one of the deeper pools I tried to nail a trout but instead kept catching
Rudd and Roach.
Roach on the Copper John.
Rudd on the San Juan worm.
A trip to one of the feeders was disappointing, I did not manage to catch
A single fish there.
Footsteps on the muddy banks probably meant that someone had cleaned
Out the trout from that section.
I returned to the main stream again to tangle with the fish.
One fish continuously rose under the same tree, almost impossible to reach.
Still I tied on a large mayfly that made a nice drift under the tree, just before
the current would drag the fly the fish pounded the fly.
I had expected a trout but it turned out to be a rudd.
Rudd on the mayfly.
Normally rudd where pretty scarce in the stream but this section had a lot of
them, this species was a surface feeder so perfectly suited for dry fly fishing.
Just before we left I had to catch a trout so I tied on a small zonker streamer
and probed some of the undercut banks.
Icing on the cake, rainbow trout at the end of the session.
The streamer did the trick and at the end of the fishing session I managed to
land a pretty rainbow trout.
I went fishing again on this wet Sunday morning.
This time I crawled trough the woodwork to get to
the good spots on a small feeder stream.
I almost went for a swim due to the silt from last weeks
flooding but managed to keep my balance.
Plenty of rainbow trout where present to intercept
streamers and nymphs.
I could conclude the morning with 6 rainbow trout, missed
a few fish also.
The brown trout stayed put allthough I am sure they are out
there.
Trout on the “flammen” streamer
Spring flowers like windflower and cowslip
More fish.
A good day to be outside.
With a weather forecast boasting temps of 73F I just
had to skip work today.
I took the train into Germany and checked out the river
to see if anything was going on.
The river bathing in sunlight.
I started fishing at the lower section of the river.
It was a place in the open landscape and had been never good
to me but I just had to check it out.
No fish action was to be seen so I left the open fields and
headed for the first small village where the stream ran though
a small parklike landscape.
Tools.
Streamerfishing yielded no trout, if the local club had stocked them it would surely have resulted in some following fish.
Off course the bright sunshine and the absence of leaf cover was not
beneficial for fishing.
Shiners on the run.
It had been a week or two since my last visit to the river but the warmer weather had
triggered some fish species into action.
The schools of shiners had come out of their hibernation and where roaming the stream.
I tied on a nymph and behold one of the fish grabbed it, my first Dace of the season was a fact.
Dace.
Off course I had still had to expect my favourite deep pools with a streamer to check if trout where
there but the only result was that the fly was chased by a tiny yellow perch.
The trout where either absent or in hiding.
Clear water.
Roach in the surface.
One of my German friends was also in town drowing worms and as I walked towards him I noticed
large Roach in the surface at a slow flowing part of the river.
To my surprise even a quite large goldfish passed by, weird to see such fish in a more or less natural stream.
When talking to my friends from the dark side I learned that a recent catch at the part we visited was a 52cm brook trout.
So there still where fish left over from last years stock.
I continued sight casting to the schools of shiners and managed yet another Dace on the nymph.
Dace nr. 2
In the afternoon I called it quits, at this section there would be no trout for me.
When I backtracked I noticed the large schools of Dace and was surprised that a few fish
where feeding on the surface.
I had not expected to see rising fish so my flybox only boasted a foam beetle.
I tried the pattern on the Dace but they would not fall for it.
My target fish species would not cooperate today but it was good to see the schools
of shiners back in the river, season has started for real.
At work we got notice that next friday would be a day off for everybody.
I used that opportunity to book some tickets for a real trout stream so if the weather stays like this
I might get the first brown- and brook trout for this season.
Today was my first second visit to our stream in Germany.
The stream had been open just a week now and we wondered if we could get any fish to bite so early in the year.
We made our usual pit stop at the bakery along the way for coffee and cheese bread.
Our starting point was a location where we had not fished for over a year.
It was overcast and light rain fell, the stream looked good with clear water.
We would fish for an hour and return to the car for a coffee break to discuss the fishing.
The water looked good but fish could not be located.
A heron at the waters edge however was an obvious sign that something was going on.
Snowdrop
My fishingbuddy had other commitments later in the day so our time was limited.
The next stop would be way upstream in a small village.
From past experience we knew that we would have the chance to get some shiners on nymphs if we where lucky.
The stream was very small up there so fishing was limited to the deeper pools that formed in bends or near trees.
I fished a nymph deep through the pool but nothing happened.
My buddy decided he would fish the same pool with a streamer.
That streamer was actually made from some everglow tubing I gave him recently in preparation for an upcoming searun brown fishing trip to the Baltic sea in Denmark.
That streamer was the ticket to success because in a minute a rainbow trout shot up from the pool to nail the streamer.
Joop with rainbow
So it was goodbye to the nymph and the so called “Flammen” was tied on.
At the next pool It was obvious that this was the right choice since I immediately had a fish following the streamer.
Over the next hour I had fish after fish attacking the streamer. Most fish managed to shake the hook but at least two stayed connected.
Add water, add a flammen and voila, rainbow trout.
Since all the trout had an uniform size it was obvious that the place had been stocked recently.
The trout where not big but with the light trout bum rod I had a blast catching them.
Rainbow trout
I wondered how far up the trout where located.
Our little stream originated at the junction of two even smaller streams just a short walk ahead so I went fishing the feeders.
Even there I had various hits at places where any fisherman I know would not even think to fish because it looks so shallow and fishless.
We had a field day with the trout, we can use more of such days.
Last friday I went fishing for the first time this year.
Due to hard water aka ice we could not harass the local pike
so we had to go elsewhere to fish.
Now over the border in Germany almost all rivers are closed due to the spawning season of trout.
Only rivers that have sufficient Grayling stocks are open and those rivers are far far away.
One of the trout rivers we frequented had however started a stocking program for Grayling.
This year was the first time the rivers season was extended to February for a Grayling only fishery.
So my friends and I gambled on the Grayling and early morning we stood at the river in freezing temperatures.
The weather was nice and sunny but in the morning we where quite busy with de-icing the rods.
We did not catch a fish all day – we scared the hell out of some fish but nothing was interested at our deep fished nymphs.
The signs of life I saw was one fish and a couply of bloody cormorants.
It sure is different to fish in wintertime, allthough I was tempted to drag a streamer through the dephts I stayed with nymph fishing untill sunset.
So no fish caught but it was good to hear the sound of flowing water again.
Hopefully we will break this cold weather pattern this month for a rematch with the Grayling.
Below some pics of the river.
