Flyfishing FWSW

Last weekend a work party was planned at the hatchery of the local syndicate.
It was early morning when I was on the road, the weather was fine and I stopped
to watch the sunrise over the nearby hills.

At the hatchery I met the local members of the syndicate.
The woodburning stove of the clubhouse was fired up to provide a warm meeting place.
My friends showed up and quite a bunch of kids where dropped off by their parents to
help with the chores of the day.

The work lasted a little longer than expected, I still had planned to go fishing but judging by the
low position of the sun in the sky I knew time would be limited.
I opted to fish an open section of the stream and noticed on arrival that fish where present.
It was pretty decent weather with the sun shining and quite some insects about.
There where even rising fish and as I did not get any hits on the nymph I soon switched to a dry fly.
As the water was quite shallow my first approaches only scattered the fish but then I managed
to catch a dace on the segde.

In the open section I could not get any other fish to take the fly so I moved further downstream to
try my luck there.
Even in the sheltered part fish where rising and so I could sight cast to another fish.
The fish did take the fly but after a few seconds it managed to throw the fly.
I noticed plenty of fish at some of the submerged shrubs but was unable to present a fly there.
The stream was still quite high from the downpours earlier in the week and some banks where
covered with a very slippery coating of clay deposited by the flooding.

Light faded and since I had not eaten all day I went en route to the pub for dinner.
I made a few stops at the wooded section of the stream capturing the last coloring trees.

At the pub I installed myself in front of the fireplace and enjoyed my meal.
It was pretty amazing to see rising fish so late in the season probably due to the still very mild
temperatures for the time of year.
It would have been nice to catch some more fish but all in all I was pretty content with the day as
good work was done at the hatchery and the attendance of the work party was good.

Another untypical fall day has passed as it was extremely warm for
the time of the year.
Still the trees are shedding their leaves rapidly and the wind made sure that the stream was littered with debris.

My hotspot was not that hot at first but within half an hour the action
picked up and I got solid takes.
All small roach though with such an identical length that I started to wonder if I had caught the same fish over and over again.
Action suddenly died down so I moved on to another location that proved fishless.

Pool number three had fish, I spotted dace and roach at the other bank but due to obstacles in the water
and on the bank I could not reach them.
Fish would take a look when the nymph passed by but there where to many leaves in the water.
I had started out late so when I hit my next target the sun was already setting.

The water had gone down to normal levels but at my usual haunts the fish where not present, again lots of debris in the water.
I had planned to visit the pub but was not sure if it would be open on All souls day.

As I spotted no smoke from the chimney my worst fears came through – pub closed…, bummer …
Allthough I do not recollect that I fished so late in the season at the stream the warm weather
will sooner or later end.

Recently at one of the festivities of our syndicate we got a request to demonstrate our flyfishing skills
as the syndicate manned a booth at a sort of country fair in the village.
The youth department would man the booth and tell the locals and visitors alike that you could
actually catch fish in the local stream and that it was even possible to do it with fly gear.

The chairman of the club mentioned that any costs we made would be covered but I figured
permission to fish in the otherwise off limits mill pool would suffice.
As we where expected to attend late in the afternoon we opted to go fishing first.
Unfortunately on the day we had the event the weather had made an u-turn from balmy late summer
to early fall – on the way to the water it was literally raining cats and dogs added with a strong wind.

We got into our gear amidst the rain and headed past the livingspace of the inhabitants of the mill
who welcomed us as they where en route to church.
My first cast was an instant hit was the pool housed quite a few trout.
Instead of fishing from the bank I opted to wade out in the pool to find a spot out of the wind.
Besides the trout the pool held perch, dace and roach … big ones.

While I was doing pretty well with the trout my friend was into the roach and dace.
For some reason he would just not catch any trout allthough he fished the same spots as I did.

Finally my buddy did catch a trout so the ice was broken as they say.
When the rain stopped curiously the bite did also.
The inhabitants from the mill where in the mean time back from church and offered us coffee
so we sat outside on their patio where they had made a table out of an old mill stone.
The coffee break was a nice interruption in the now slow fishing.
Time was moving fast and soon one of our contacts from the syndicate came out to look for us
and gave us the time and place of the booth we had to man.
There was time though for some more fishing and to my delight I hooked a rather nice brown trout
that had a wonderful golden coloring.

As the pool housed so many trout I figured some might had moved down the outflow into the main stream.
Even though my buddy had fished the spot I wondered if I might still be able to catch fish there.

I pretty soon found out that fish where still there as I caught three dace in a row and hooked
and lost a rainbow trout that was also hiding in the small pool.
The main difference between my setup and that of my buddy was probably that I fished with ligher
tippet and smaller flies.

The increased wind and the rain of the morning had put a lot of foliage of the trees and now the
mill pool was slowly filling up with leaves making fishing difficult.
We had to leave though as we where expected in the village.

My buddy would give casting lessons to the kids and otherwise interested parties while
I answered questions by the public about the local fishing and the gear we used.
The stand was located at the edge of all the festivities so not that many people where stopping at our location but at least
some people where curious enough to ask questions.

I would have taken more pictures of the booth but the current camera I used, a Canon 280HX had some serious malfunctions.
The particular model had a well known error that it would stop to function and display a battery error even when the battery
was full. I just could not get the damn thing working again.

After two hours on the premised we where excused and so we headed back to the mill pool
again where this time my buddy was catching all the trout while I was catching the dace and roach.

The skies had cleared now but it was really blowing.
The water had become a little discolored due to the runoff of the fields and the leaves had massed
into one corner of the mill pool.
Dace where now feeding full in the surface picking up debris in the surface film.
We tried to fish with dries but all the leaves and foam floating on the water made spotting the fly difficult
if not impossible.
As I had no luck with the trout and tried to catch dace in the shallow end of the pool and that worked
pretty well.

When I hooked a small dace I got some surprising visitors, two very big perch wanted to grab the
dace but turned away at the last minute as they saw me.
I quickly changed my setup and fished a small streamer across the mill pool in the hope to catch one
of those lunker perch.
I did get strikes but the only fish I caught was a small brown trout.

The sun was setting and the temperature had dropped notably from what it was in the
early morning.
My buddy was still eagerly fishing the pond as one big rainbow trout had been feeding
in the surface near his position.
He could not get the fish to eat the fly though, I guess he spotted that I was ready to get something to eat.

Fish where off the feed anyway and as the light diminished and the temperature would
drop even further fishing would not improve.
We said goodbye to the inhabitants of the mill and their guard dog and headed to the pub for dinner
to end the day in the style.
The two hours we spend at the village where worth it as we spend most of the day fishing.

As the Harz trip earlier in the year was most enjoyable we decided to go for seconds at the
end of August about a week before the season there closed.
The weather was not exactly according to the predictions with rather cool mornings and
even a full day and night of constant rain.
Still fishing was pretty good and I even managed to catch the largest brown trout of the season
in this location which is more known for the many small brown trout.
The downside to this trip of six days was that I could only fish four days due to knee problems
but I still regarded the trip as highly succsesfull.

Still no black and yellow firesalamanders to be seen but hope springs eternal …

We have come into a weather pattern lately where frequent showers allthough short of
duration dump locally a lot of water on the land.
Before the weekend came it looked like the water in the stream was going down after those
downpours but just before the weekend the whole sequence started a new.

So when I checked the river gage last Saturday I noticed that allthough the stream was receeding
a lot of water was pushing trough.
I took a chance and went fishing on Sunday but when I arrived at the stream my hopes of
catching anything where severely temperered as the stream looked like coffee.

I tried one of the hotspots in the village and fished a slower flowing pocket.
Allthough I had some hits on the fly I could not produce any fish and after an hour or so trying I
gave up and headed upstream hoping for better conditions.

I noticed some familiar cars parked at the local football grounds so I made a stop and found the
local flyfisherman busy with their casting practice.
I chatted for some time with my fellow flyfisherman from the other side of the border and finally
went on my way again.
I figured as it was around midday the best thing to do was to go to the pub and have lunch.
Maybe the water would go down in the mean time.
A check on the river gage however showed that even though I had spotted no rain the stream’s
water was still rising.

When I left the pub conditions even got worse as rain began to fall.
I choose a spot in the forest to fish as the leaves would at least provide some shelter from the rain.
The spot I fished held always fish and this was alos true when the water was high and dirty.
Clarity was an issue though as the fish had to see the fly.
I fished a black buzzer type fly on light fluorocarbon tippet and soon got the first bites.

Small buzzer type nymh, Hanak golden jig hook, Tungsten bead, collar made of peacock herl,
body made out of black tying thread ribbed with pearl tinsel and coated with bug-bond.

The first fish I caught was a dace with next in line a roach.
Meanwhile the rain started pouring providing even more water for the rising stream.
My last catch was a small gudgeon showing that the nymph was indeed fished deep
enough to ibe attractive for the fish.

The downpour was so strong that in the end I had to seek shelter.
I waited untill the skies cleared and tried some other spots downstream but nothing was biting.
With all the rain that had fallen conditions would not improve.
If it would stay dry it would take days before the water would clear up and I had no time for that.

The skies eventually cleared but more rainshowers where en route so I called it a day.
The numerous visits to the stream seem to have paid off as you get to know the favorite hangouts
of the fish. If you know where the fish are hiding you can catch them even in the most unfavourable
conditions.

For this Sunday the weather predictions where pretty miserable so it could have been a reason not to go.
The predictions had recently been pretty of the mark so I went anyway.
The first stop on my route was the stream at its headwater where many small ditches from the surrounding
hills formed the stream.
I had not been there for a long time and the main reason was that most of my honey holes had been filled
with sand.

After each season the stream changed its face, deep spots dissappear and new ones are created.
Especially in the shallow upstream waters depth was the keyword for cathing fish.
Two feet was usually enough for sheltering fish.
The only life I spotted was a big fat muskrat that had climbed up the bank to get to the green grass.

The headwaters where not productive so it was off downstream to other hot spots.
At one particular pool I had caught some fish in the past but now I could not even find the entrance
to the spot as the shrubs and grasses had grown tremendously during the last weeks.
When I finally cut my way through the high nettles I immediately noticed some roach fleeing into
the deep section of the pool – fish where present.

Nymphing yielded no fish so I tied on a small zonker streamer to check if any agressive trout would be
present but that approach also failed.
It got me thinking that maybe I was not fishing deep enough as the fish had obviously spotted me
and where hunkering down.
I tied on a very light fluorocarbon tippet and fished the same spots as before with a small beadhead
pheasanttail nymph.
The re-arranged setup worked as my indictor went down and I connected to a fish.
To my surprise it was a brown trout, a very acrobatic one as it went airborne.
I was wondering if I would be able to hold the fish with the light tippet but with some luck and
my forgiving full flex flyrod I could counter all runs of the trout.
The light setup also worked for the resident roach who where holding up beside the main current.

At another pool I spotted a violent surface take confirming to me that another trout was active.
There was however no way to get to that fish as the pool required access from the other bank and
I had no waders with me to make the crossing.
Through a small opening in the brushes I could just drop the nymph in the front end of the pool with
as result a small roach.

Allthough the skies looked threathening it stayed dry for the moment.
At one point it got pretty dark though and from the distance I could see a rainband moving in
so I went for lunch to the local pub where I ran into another member of my syndicate.
When I saw some of the leaving guest running to their cars I knew my timing was perfect as
the rain had started.

After lunch it was back to the stream again.
The rain was light, sort of a drizzle so I fished the stream inside the forrest where the leaves
provided some shelter from the wind and the rain.
The pool in front of me was teeming with roach, dace and probably gudgeons.
As the pool was rather shallow the indicator was again something the fish did not like
but with the rains going on the water had become a little higher and murkier.
There where some good fish mixed in the school and after some small ones I finally hooked
one of the larger specimens.
Soon the fish where on to me so I had to find another spot to try my luck.

Allthough it was late and about to become dark I wanted to check out some further spots downstream.
When I finally arrived at the intended fishing locations the stream had become murky and carried
more water than usual.
I could not spot fish anymore and blindcasting a nymph along the good spots did not yield a single
take so I called it a day.

It seems the days of high summer are over and a more fall like weather pattern has set.
Hopefully we can enjoy some more nice days before the season really ends.

As my first attempt to catch chub was a failure due to the fact that I could not find any
feeding chub I tried again a couple of days later.
At one of the new spots I had visited I tried again and since the stream at the new spot
was shallow and without any cover I had to find a proper ambush spot.

Some scouting on satellite imagery made me conclude that a small weir would be
the best spot to catch any fish.
Unfortunately when I walked up to the weir I could not spot any fish at all.
The type of weir was what I call a bad one.
The first was the drop off from the higher level, the second was a row of concrete poles
several feet after the weir.
Allthough there was deep water right under the weir the concrete poles caused a
strong countercurrent towards the weir, very arkward to fish.
Fortunately the stream is still being improved so maybe they will do some work on
the remaining old type weirs.

As the weir was an obvious barrier I concluded that any kind of fish would be located downstream and
that is exactly where I found them.
Now I could have sworn that I had seen chub on the previous session but all the fish I encountered
where bream.
When it comes to bream I am no good as I only caught one till now on the fly and allthough I caught
that fish on sight any later attempts failed.

The trick to catch bream was to actually spot the feeding ones, the majority of fish I saw where just
cruising and alarmed by my presence.
Still I found one or two tailing fish but whatever fly I tried they just would not have it.
In the end I had to leave the bream alone and move downstream below the hydroelectrical powerplant
in the stream that still functioned as a fish barrier preventing any exchange of fish from the upper
sections of the stream.

At one of the small feeder stream I noticed a lot of fish moving about and feeding on the surface.
When I took a closer look it turned out that they where all chub, mostly small ones but also some
larger fish.
I think the feeder was off limits for me license wise but I sneaked in anyway and tried to toss a
dry fly amongst the rising fish.
The small size of the feeder, steep banks and bushes prevented me from making a presentation
that did not scare the fish so I gave up and tried my luck elsewhere.

The next stop was at a junction of another feeder and the main stream.
I head never fished there but when I came at the junction I saw big bream moving in and also
plenty of small roach or dace.
A friend had told me of this spot and mentioned that it was also good for perch.
A closer look into the water indeep yielded a few of a good speciment.
I managed a small dace and perch but could not get into any good fish.

I left the spot mentioned before when on two occasions cormorants came swimming out of the feeder
stream. The feeder stream was small and heavily overgrown but contrary to folklore not a hindrance to
these black bandits.

All and all it was not going that swell so to save the day I headed back to the upstream sections of the
stream where I had more expirience in finding the fish.
The regular haunts where teeming with fish be it all in the small department.
I caught small roach on nymphs and dace on the dry fly.
I spotted one trout but could not reach it with the fly due to all the shrubs and debris in the water.

As it was late in the day and I had not eaten anything all day I made a stop at the pub.
After my dinner I made a final attempt at getting some larger fish or maybe even a trout by fishing
the stream in the forest.
From a high vantage point I spotted a large school of dace and roach and did my utmost best
to hook any fish.
Curiously the fish where terrified of my strike indicator which doubled as a means to control the
depth of the nymph in the shallow water.
Every time the indcator flowed towards the fish they would back away.
With some tinkering I caught one larger roach and that would be the last catch of the day.

So fishing is not that easy in these August days.
I noticed that the weather pattern is changing and that there is a feeling of all in the air.
We will see how the lower temperatures effect in the fishing in the coming weeks.

My intention was to sight fish for chub with dry flies at my chub hotspots but I had not taken into account
the flooding that had occurred locally over the border.
My hot spots carried a lot of murky water so I could not see any fish and also did not spot rising fish.
To make it al worse I did not even manage to catch a tiddler.

And it all started so promising when I started the day and visited a new spot I had never fished before.
It was a weir near a village that had as constant guardian a baitfisherman … not today.
I checked the weir out and allthough I spotted two carp and a pike
I could not see chub, roach or dace.

I decided to check out the open section of the stream which was uniformly shallow in depth and had pretty clear water.
When I noticed surface movement near a bunch of damselflies my thought where chub so I rushed to the spot.
The chub spotted me first though and moved off with a huge bowwave through the stream.
I hoped for a second chance and moved further upstream but every fish I encountered came racing downstream.
There where a lot of fish … chub and bream and all big … and all unwilling to pause or look at the fly.
When I finally had a more or less decent shot at a chub (at least I thought it was a chub due to the mouth)
a small dace rushed forward and ate the dryfly.

Other spots where probed for fish but nothing happened – not a single bite.
At least the fruit trees along the road yielded something.

In the end I opted to leave the chub alone.
I figured that one of these days conditions would return to normal.
With all the damselflies around I had hoped that at least some fish would show themselves when
they attempted to grab them … it did not happen.

At my regular haunts I caught some small roach on nymphs and a dace on the dry fly – lots of fish around but mostly small ones.
The heat finally got to me so I ended up at my favorite pub for a meal and a couple of cold ones – best moment of the day 🙂
If the weather permits (thunderstorms are predicted) I might give the chub another go.

Hot as hell that is how you could describe yesterdays weather with temps around the 30 degrees+.
The only comfort was the wind and where possible shade.

Fish where very active though and I started catching small roach quickly.
Even more interesting was the fact that fish where surface feeding so I eventually switched from small nymphs to small sedge patterns.

Some of the rises where so agressive that I suspected trout where the culprit but these where at locations I could not reach.
My first catch on the dry was rather surprisingly a small roach.

Then the dace came and I caught quite a few of them.
In one section of the stream that was shallow and wide the fish where everywhere with some pretty big dace mixed in.
At first I thought it would be easy pickings but as my little segde landed on the water the fish spooked and headed in every direction.
With a little more care I managed to catch one of the big ones but the sun got to me so I moved on.

I made a stop at the pub for lunch and opted to leave the (empty) beergarden for what it was and at inside.
I had expected to see a lot of people on bikes today but it was just too darn hot.
The afternoon session was spent under the canopy of the forest which made fishing bareble.

Roach on a buzzer type fly, golden jig hook – tungsten bead – peacock herl –
body of black thread ribbed with pear tinsel and finally coated with bug bond.

At one of my hotspots the fish where teeming, from my vantage point high above the water I spotted roach, dace and gudgeons moving about in a frenzy.
When another fish moved in and the small one dispersed with lightning speed I knew it was a trout and as luck will have it I caught it in the end.

I ended the day pretty late with a stop at the hatchery as I wanted to see if anybody was around and hear the latest news about the syndicate.
The place was packed by coincidence as our chairman was throwing a family party so I hung around for a couple of cold beers before heading home.

I spend another day at the stream yesterday.
Weatherwise it started out overcast with a fresh breeze and decent temperatures.

Allthough the stream had receeded from the flash floods of last week my hotspot was muddy,
the culprit was however a fat carp that was ploughing the floor of the stream.
I got lots of bites at the start and starting catching small roach.
When the action stopped I changed from a small PT nymph to a buzzer type nymph and bites came back again.

Further upstream the roach where also in numbers but still only small fish.
Managed one large dace and as a surprise a rather skinny brown trout.

After my lunchbreak late in the afternoon I figured the best option would be to fish the dry fly.
The cloud cover had diminished somewhat allowing more sunshine to come through.
With the low water and all the debris in the stream fishing a segde made sense.

The goal was to catch a trout but first I had a go at a couple of lightning fast dace, managed two of them.
At a spot where I suspected trout the dry fly had no succses, at first.
There where not many insects about and no rising fish untill I noticed one rise near a sunken tree.
It took two casts before I had the fly exactly on the right spot and off course the trout nailed the fly
instantly as it appeared in front of the fish.

The sun was already low in the sky but I could have continued fishing.
I opted to call it a day and sat down and looked at the setting sun, perfect day.