Flyfishing FWSW

With the opening of the trout season I just had to take a little visit to the stream.
I spotted the black Luftwaffe aka cormorants making a flyby.
The black birds in turn where being overtaken by geese presumably heading north.
Trout where plenty but I just could not get to them, not much cover right now so
the stockies where very wary.

I expected a circus like usual but maybe the strong wind and overcast skies
tempered the enthiousasm of the meat fisherman a bit.
Unlike previous trout openers I spotted only one other guy tossing a small
spinner under the embankment – which was directly intercepted by a stockie.

I did well at one of my hotspots with the dace, I could spot them in the current and they
respondend well to the nymphs I fed them.

With some fish caught and midday arriving I thought it was the ideal time to head to the pub and so I had (as usual)
a couple of cold ones and a meal in front of the fireplace – outside temp. was 12 degrees C.
The remaining task for the rest of the day was to get one of these trout as there where plenty of them so I should at least catch one.

As mentioned earlier it was windy outside, the forecast mentioned something about a break in the cloud
in the afternoon but the windflowers where mostly in their bad weather mode ie closed.
The rains of the previous night had stained the water somewhat which was postive as the levels had
steadily gone lower due to lack of rain.

To get a trout I figured I knew just which spot to hit and tossed a nymph first.
When the nymphs did not yield any response it was time to try a lure, a small beadhead zonker would
have more result for these recently stocked trout.
The lure raised interest as it was hit twice by a trout, the fish missed on both occasions.
Next I see a little brownie race after the lure but again a miss.
Finally I positioned myself at the front of the pool and used a fast sinking polyleader to get the lure deep.
That did the trick as a trout grabbed the fly and put a pretty bend in the 4-weight.

Mission achieved, on the way home I probed a spot where I had seen several trout earlier that day but guessing
by the footsteps around the spot I figured the most stupid stockies have left for the eternal hunting fields.

The day ended with a magical encounter as I ran across a deer in a small forest path.
I stopped and so did the deer, we just stared.
I had the chance to get the camera out and document this rare encounter.

The break in the weather eventually came along but the skies only cleared near sunset.
All in all not a bad day for an early season trout opnener.

With the weather service predicting lousy weather and a temperature drop for this Saturday
I decided to skip work and chartered one of my friends to explore some new waters.
The bad thing about today was that the fog stayed put for a long time, when we hit the water
the air temperature was +1 degrees C.

As you can figure action was slow but I was pretty soon into a small Dace and a Roach.
The new section was costly on the equipment though as I
lost several nymphs to debris on the floor of the stream.

We headed to our regular haunts in the afternoon and the sun came out and temperatures rose.
I spotted plenty of fish but for some reason they where not biting.
With some luck a deep pool yielded one nice Dace out of the fast flowing water.

It was pretty frustrating to toss nymphs amongst 20+ roach and not having a single fish take the fly.
I spotted some very fat dace in shallow water but was not able to present the fly without
scaring the hell out of them.
My collegue came across two trout which he spooked so I guess somebody has been stocking for
the upcoming trout season.

Fish are plenty but they have lockjaw for the moment.
Water is still clear but the surface is now cluttered with debris from the flowering Alder and Hazel trees.

Saturday

The vice chairman of my angling syndicate requested me to shoot some pics of the water of one of
the neighboring syndicates who had recently jointed our collective.
The purpose of this collective was to be able to fish our stream past the sections we had leased
from the landowners.

While I took pictures at every bridge and feature I could find I was on the keen lookout for fish but
I could not spot any live in the water.
Even though the winter had been very mild and the temperatures of this day reached spring values
it did not result in fish activity.
On land it was a whole different story, the migratory lapwings had returned for some time now and I
even spotted the first butterflies of the season.
The elusive white herons that probably overwintered here where still around and I finally got close
enough to take at least a blurry shot.

When I doubled back from my photoshoot and followed the river I noticed that something had
changed.  With the sun now high in the sky I spotted  a lot of silvery shapes in the water at a spot
that was lifeless earlier in the day.
It turned out that the shallow water was inhabited by tons of dace.
Allthough it might have sounded easy to catch it was not, due to the shallow water the fish where
very wary – even the landing of a strike indicator would let the fish scatter in all directions.
In the end I did manage to catch one though – skunk avoided.

I returned to my home waters and fished one of my honeyholes where I landed one roach.
Further upstreams tons of roach had come out from nowhere and where hovering in the current,
none of them was interested in taking my offerings.

A few very big dace where rising at a spot where it was virtually impossible to get a fly served.
I attempted to catch one anyway by letting a segde drift downstream.
The fish hit but came off and the rest of the school dissappeared.

At one of the faster flowing sections I tossed in a heavy nymph that was immediately intercepted by a big fish.
The fish would not come to the surface so I suspected it was a brook trout as they tended to stay deep all the time.
The rod had a nice bend and since I fished a light tippet I did not want to horse the fish to the surface.
When the line went suddenly slack as the hook came out I wished I had used more force, oh well – there would
a rematch somewhere in time.

Last week the home waters seemed lifeless but that had changed now – I spotted tons of fat roach in the stream.
Fish where plenty but cooperative fish where in short supply.

Off course I ended the day at the pub where most people sat outside due to the exceptionally warm weather.
As the sun went down the outside air temperature plummeted fast though – typical for a spring day.
I opted for a spot at the fire and enjoyed a couple of cold ones and a good meal to celebrate the ending of the day.

Sunday

With the weather reaching summerly temperatures I figured that today should be
a good day to go fishing and that fish would be everywhere.
I was wrong since I did not spot as many fish as yesterday – might be the difference as I fished early morning.

I did offer my nymphs to loads of smaller roach stacked under a tree but they would not touch any of my nymphs.
I tried to find out if the mystery fish was still around that put such a nice bend in my #4 rod yesterday
but nothing would bite.
I took a break at the pub and hoped that the sunshine midday would coax the fish out into the open.
Had two fish contacts for a short while but both threw the hook.

As I was pondering what was wrong with me that I could not land a single fish I spotted a school of Dace,
a few fish where actively feeding from the surface so I tied on a small CDC segde.
The fish where hesitant but in the end one of the Dace went for the fly and saved my day.

On this day I checked out some new locations which have come available to me due to a deal
of my syndicate and that of the neighboring village.
When I was en route to the water I spotted one of those rare white egrets parading on a field.
Normally these birds are pretty shy but this one just went on doing its business.
So I took the camera out and checked if everything was in working order … appearantly not
as the message “cannot  record” was stated on the display.
I had forgotten to put the memory back into the camera and also forgot to bring a spare as I
usually did – I could kick myself ….

The new water did not boast enough interesting water for flyfishing but then again it was early season
and it might be good for some fish afterall when summer started.
I tried a spot in the water of my second syndicate on the same stream where I had caught some fish
this summer but nothing materialized.
The water was still pretty high due to the recent rains and off course it was early season.

I did not want the day to end fishless so I returned to my homewaters where I more or less knew
how to catch fish.
My usual hotspot once again let me down, only one slight nibble on the nymph and that was it.
Maybe a pike had taken station at my favorite spot.
Along the stream I noticed that some of the trees where cut down.
I really hoped they would leave the debris in the stream as that was where the fish could find
cover in these shallow lowland streams.

At one of the deadfalls in the stream I tossed in a small weighted pheasant tail nymph and
hooked three fish in short order.
The fish that stayed connected where a nice dace and a surprise perch, mission accomplished.

The stream still carried a lot of water but the level has gone down continuously during the week.
Fish where still in winter mode thus difficult to locate and to catch.
The general outlook is good though as temperatures slowly rise and trout season opener is about
two week away.

As this Sunday was the day with the best weather this weekend I choose it as my fishing day.
From the online water gage I figured the stream might just be fishable even though
the water level was quite high due to the recent rains.
Normally the fishing at the river started of slowly at the end of March beginning of April but since
the winter had been so mild I figured I might actually catch a fish so early in spring.

My usual 100% hotspot had curiously no fish, not a single take and no signs of life.
Under normal conditions you could spot fish moving about at this spot, fish would be hanging in the
current behind the submerged branches.
I had misjudged the amount of water still flowing through the stream though.

Further upstream I had more luck when I fished near a submerged tree.
There where quite a few roach under the tree but the strong current and a brisk breeze made proper presentation difficult.
In the end I could land one smallish roach – first of the year.

The nymph I fished was a weighted Ritz D nymph, a proven pattern from past outings.
This particular version was tied on a gold jig hook, ingredients:  tungsten bead, copper wire,
peacock herl, red wool and pheasant tail fibres.

A deep drifted nymph near a weir resulted in a small brown trout which was promptly relased as it was
closed season for trout.
My last fish contact was at another weir where a bold dace attacked my indicator,
I could spot the fish but they where not eager to take my nymphs.

I ceased fishing midday and headed for the pub to grab something to eat, the usual stuff…
The long term weather prediction tells of cooler weather but I hope we get a few more days
like today before spring really starts.