Another pandemic year and again another plan B vacation. Since Joe would not let me in I had to forge other plans and so I went to the Hoch Sauerland region at the neighbors to the east. With all kinds of fall weather I chased the trout and grayling and did pretty good. Started fishing oct. 2nd and went through until the season ended on oct. 19th.
The fishing was good and one of my friends decided he had to go to the same place where I was at just to have some decent fishing days this year. Hopefully plan A (SW FL) can be executed next year.
In the so called dark days before Christmas I was not the only one to hit the river while it was possible. Pretty consistant action for such a late date in the year. I spotted a few carp, noticed dace rising to small midges and caught several roach and dace on nymphs and squirmies. I had many tail bites on the squirmies which again shows how effective that fly can be to generate bites … Catching fish that bite on the squirmy however is a different story.
I had planned to fish on saturday despite the cold weather. On friday message came that help was needed at the club’s hatchery. I figured the best time to fish would be the afternoon so I headed to the hatchery first.
The task at hand was to clear out a hatching pond. Before that could happen the resident trout needed to be caught and sorted along weight. I had my waders with me so I entered the basin and caught a few hundred brown trout with some very nice fat rainbows mixed in.
After the work I warmed at the fire in our club house for a while and went out to the river. Recent rains had risen the water level but clarity remained. As it was standard in winter fish where few and at first I could not spot any. Nymphs remained untouched whatever I tied on or how deep I fished them. As a last resort I tied on a squirmy and that did the trick as I caught a small dace.
Other spots I visited where empy, with the sun low in the sky I went into the forest to check the last mark of the day. I noticed fish, again small dace with curiously a gold fish mixed in. I had counted that all dumped gold fish would have been victim of the herons by now. After getting two more dace I called it a day.
As the sun was still visibile I made a short stop at a nearby sand pit and made some exploratory casts along a few reedbeds. I fished a small streamer in perch livery hoping for a pike or perch but nothing was moving. I stopped to watch the sun set and headed back home.
Maybe it was not the brightest idea to visit the chub stretch in winter but I did. I figured the chances of getting a chub where almost non-existant but I had to try anyway.
En route to my favourite chub haunts I made a stop at the river to see how the water was looking. Surprisingly the clear water was full of small roach so I had to fish there. The fish where skittish but I caught at least one small roach.
Further along the stream I spotted the first chub. The fish also saw me and made a run for it. With the aquatic- and bankside vegitation gone a stealth approach was impossible. I encountered more chub at my honey holes but all ran at the first sight of me.
I came across one of my fellow clubmembers and chatted for a while. He was after pike but had not seen a fish all day. I mentioned my last port of call would be the feeder behind our clubhouse. And so I did, when I arrived at the clubhouse I noticed a pike in the middle of the shallow stream.
I tied on a leader with a trace and launced a polar minnow in perch livery to the pike, no reaction at all. Clouds rolled in and it started to rain, I could not spot the pike anymore. When the rain stopped I tried locating the pike and soon got a strike. I battled the pike for a short while and then the hook came out, bummer. At least I did not end the day with a skunk.
The planned holiday in Florida soon became fiction this year. Plan B was Germany, I was lucky to clear to border a day before travel restrictions where put in place. As you can imagine the hotel stay and dining arrangements where odd but at the river it was business as usual.
I had the river for myself which, a bonus in these dark times. My hopes for an warm fall dissappeared as I dogded rain and cold mornings. Having said that I also expirienced sunshine.
This late in the season the river was ultra clear. Nymphing did not produce results, dry fly fishing was the best method. The brown trout where few but grayling where plenty.
The grayling where tough, they where rising on the tiniest of flies. My fly selection of large segde patterns that had worked in the past failed. The two size 19 sedge patterns in my fly box that yielded grayling on a frequent basis where treasured as gold.
I had originally planned to stay for two weeks. With the knowlegde that more pandemic misery would follow I figured it might be best to extend my stay while it was possible. In hindsight I am glad I made that move.
A few days of rain had put water and color in the stream. I fished the upper section of the stream as the weather was no good for chub fishing.
Since the mill pool was open again for members with a special permit I tried to catch some fish there. Unfortunately the lack of water over the past year had filled in the pool completely so it was to shallow for decent fishing. Surprisingly the usual present roach and dace where a no show.
Luckily some other sections of the stream still housed some fish with as icing on the cake a nice brown trout. The perdigon produced some fish but with the murky water I soon opted to fish the squirminator. A borderline fly but it has it’s moments and the many gudgeons I caught showed it was fished properly deep.
Drawback of the squirminator or squirmy is that you get a lot of tailbites and that their durability is minimal. The plus side is that they are easy to tie so you should be able to tie a good supply of them in a short time. I like the original material from Fulling Mill best as it really moves.
Another sunny day was upon us so again back to the chub hot spots. As it had not rained for ages the water in the stream was extremely low and almost stagnant. I did not manage to spot any large fish or many fish to be precise.
With the sun low in the sky I had again problems just seeing fish. The many bow waves in the shallow water indicated to me that the fish had none of such problems.
I finally spotted a collection of fish near a brigde. The reaction to a dry fly landing in the water was not what I was hoping for. The fish scattered with even the larger ones running scared.
Switched to a squirmy brought a small chub to surface and later on a small sedge did the same. The fish which I did not where totally uninterested in any flies I offered them. Hopefully some rain will fall soon to get some action started.
A bright sunny day just beckoned for chub fishing. An early start was out of the question as it was fall and the morning temperatures where quite low. The first spot I visited boasted some chub and I had the first fish quite early on.
A little walk along the stream revealed a very big chub in the middle of the stream hovering in the surface. I managed to put the fly right in front of the fish without scaring it as I usually do. The chub moved slowly towards the fly and tried to gulp it down.
Tried because yours truly was again to quick on the strike and yanked the fly out of reach of the fish. The fish submerged to be never seen again. A trip to a feeder stream yielded chub nr. 2 of the day and later finally the largest one of the day measuring 40cm.
Fishing was tough, quite some wind from the east and also a sun low in the sky that made spotting fish very difficult for me. Alas the fish had less problems seeing me … they ran …
An opportunity arose to make a last minute fishing trip so plans where put into practice quickly to arrange another road trip. The recent visit to the Harz region called for more and so we left for a second trip at the end of the trout season for that region. Conditions where excellent weather wise while fishing was not always easy.
I set goals to catch browntrout, rainbowtrout and grayling and all those goals where accomplished. I was most pleased at catching the grayling as I had not expected such large fish in the river. When I fished a squirmy through a deeper pool I was amazed at what size grayling where chasing the fly. Off course catching one on sight was the hightlight of the trip.
With international travel being restricted the local region was crowded. That caused some challenges with dining as due to limited space reservations where often required. We managed to find less frequented places where you could dine without reservations. At some of the more popular places in town we where turned down but also had some luck being the last guests admitted as the busy hours started.
I left for the stream just as the sun was appearing in the sky. The weather forecast was questionable but early morning started with patches of fog and a clear sky.
Fall was here, crisp mornings with fog and still the possibility of warm afternoons. With the sun low in the sky I could not really have a good look in the water and thus had difficulty with spotting fish. I scared the fish off before I could make casts with only on one occasion a fish that took a look at the large dry fly twice before rejecting it.
With time the sun came higher but also clouds appeared and the wind picked up messing up my chances for sight fishing. A small sedge yielded a small chub so at least I did not blank. The spot I fished was clearly not yielded any fish so I headed to a feeder stream where surprisingly the fish where absent.
With some luck I got two larger fish but still not the size I wanted, fish in the 40 to 50cm range. It was late afternoon when I tried my last spot which frankly had not been good to me this season. Again the lack of sunshine made spotting fish virtually impossible with the fish seeing me first and running for cover.
I was lucky that I spotted the orange fins of a large chub upstream from me close to the bank, I noticed in fact two large chub. I could not place the large mayfly under the bank from my position but I did manage to toss the fly near to the fish.
The fly was close enough to make both fish turn and one of them gobbled up the mayfly without any hesitation. I kept my cool and struck at the right moment resulting in the landing of an 48cm long chub on the 4-weight.
