Another week and totally different weather. The spring feeling was definitely gone when the thermometer showed -4C in the morning. Besides that rain, hail and snow was in the forecast with a high temperature not exceeding the 6C in the Afternoon.
So I waited until the temperature was above freezing, the roe deer probably did the same because they where everywhere late in the morning. I picked up the last rays of sunshine before the dark clouds and showers rolled in.
First spot was the location where I lost the legal size last week but boy fished sucked big time. No hits at all and nothing to be seen moving. The only break I got was when the tiniest of Rudd nailed the Perdigon nymph.
I ran into my friends and they had the same experience. Tried some other spots but no bites at all, pretty miserable day to be outside. Water levels had dropped and with no cover as foliage has yet to appear I figured if there where fish I had probably scared them off.
Another friend was also fishing and reported that he had a single hit on the fly and that it was a rainbow trout. Those are illegal to stock in flowing water in the part of Germany where I fish so I was puzzled. I had heard an earlier report that a quite large rainbow had been caught so maybe somebody stocked them.
The weather has turned for the worse and right now it rains cats and dogs and this will probably continue for the whole week. Likely the stream will be in flooding stage by the weekend. I will monitor the levels, if it is not to bad I might try dredging the stream with squirmy’s hoping for an elusive sizable trout.
Well, since last Friday did not yield any trout I figured I would give the syndicate the Saturday to put in the stockies so I could fish for them on Sunday. Went early before daybreak under cloud cover with as target the upper section of the stream. The headwaters were accessible in spring, later in the season it would become an overgrown jungle with no room to cast.
I guessed the lack of cover scared the fish away but at least I got a roach and a dace for starters. The stream further down was shallow so you could imagine what the headwaters looked like. But in the end I got a little brown trout and missed a legal size fish. There was always something like next week so I remembered the spot by heart for another try.
I even waded one the two feeders that formed the stream. Behold I actually got a strike on the indicator so that could only have been a trout. The clouds had gone early in the morning and the temperature rose quickly. Insects where appearing and I even spotted a blue dun on the water. No fish in the upper feeder though or more likely all on the run for bigfoot=me.
Next stop the middle section with deep pool but absolutely no life to be seen. Further downstream I managed only gudgeons and a few dace. Last stop of the day way downstream in a village dragging a deeper pool for any fish. I had hoped for a trout but only encountered a perch and some roach.
This was the last day of fine weather so far with a cold snap and possible snow, hail and other rotten stuff forecast for the weekend …
So I skipped work to get my first trout of the season … to put it short … I failed. Morning started with clear weather and a temperature just above freezing. At the first stream I crossed I looked from upon a bridge into the water and found several roach moving about. One of the fish was pretty large … could have been a trout.
The first mark had fish, hooked a few dace but could not stick the hook.
Plenty of bites from the pesky gudgeons, small bottom feeders and thus the first
fish species to be caught. Finally managed one good dace but did not see any trout. Stockies usually go for the sight indicator but no show.
I tried several spots on our so called guest stretch but no hits at all.
Headed out into the woods to check some more secluded spots but alas nothing to be had. Ended the day with another dace and some more gudgeons.
It was nice being out and about and it sure beats working.
At the closed pub I noticed a note at the door stating it would reopen soon. The owner probably found a tenant again brave or stupid enough to give it a go. On the way home I ran into a local acquaintance who could tell me that the new landlady was from Africa and that the menu would be African. We made a bet that they would not last past December…
Early season and finally some better weather to get out and about again. Still early spring pickings where slim with the water still cold and clear. With the trout season just opened I had hoped to run in to some trout in the stream but the water was lifeless.
Nymphing did not yield any fish so I had to bring out the squirmy again in order to get a few small dace, roach and perch.
I timed the second session of the year between two stormfronts. It was still windy but waterlevels were ok, temperature a tad low at 6 degrees C.
At first I tried nymphing at the feeder stream hoping to encounter dace, roach and chub. The wind blew strong over the water so I could not see moving fish. The nymph travelled unhindered along the stream.
With no action to speak of I tied on a streamer hoping to get a perch or other predator. After a few casts I saw a boil near my streamer and felt the missed strike of a pike. The second cast yielded a solid take of a nice fish, it was a real jumper.
I suspected more pike would be around and after another missed strike I had pike number 2 on. Unfortunately the wire trace broke so that fish was lost.
End the day on another section of the feeder tossing a squirmy in the depths hoping for a chub or perch. It was no good though, nothing moved so I called it a day.
And again more rain, at least the competition stayed in. As the upper section of the stream yielded small fish I tried the village stretch for a change. The former hotspot however did not yield much fish, at least some other species. The best I could do was a couple of small roach and perch with the squirmy.
I dodged the rain and fished the mill pool hoping for larger fish. Since the mill bypass was installed the fish population had deteriorated. Now the fish could freely travel up and down the sections. I still got some bites but missed the takes.
When I finally tried dead drifting the squirmy I managed a few small perch. It was my intention to stay in the village to check out some other spot. The amount of dog walkers and other people made me change my mind so it was off to more rural parts of the stream.
The rural parts delivered some more dace as expected. With the rain continuing to fall I decided to call it quits early and head to the pub. It turned out to be the last day the pub would be open as the pandemic killed of business and new restrictions could happen any moment. A bittersweet ending of the season in Germany.
Another week but still lousy weather. The forecast … light rain and yes it rained again but at least it was not freezing. Crossing the first major stream gave at least a positive feeling as visibility was good. I actually spotted some fish moving about. With the year coming almost to a close I still had hope to catch an out of season brown trout, conditions looked right this day.
The stream was now very clear and the tactics of dumping the squirminator into the deeper parts did not work at all. The other standby pattern, the perdigon did its magic however. The dace could not stay of the pattern, crazy how many bites it received.
The highlight of the day was the out of season brown trout that hit the perdigon in one of the deep pools. I had noticed some larger fish in past visits but had not thought that any trout would be left in the stream at the end of the season.
Winter fishing, against better judgement due to recent rains I went out. In my opinion it was better to fish flooded streams than being holed up inside a house. As the ditches already carried a lot of water and the first stream I crossed was blow out hope was low.
To increase the changes of catching any fish I stopped at a sandpit en route to the stream. I had never caught anything there and this time was not different. I tossed a stream near the reedbeds and submerged trees in hope to get a pike or pike but nothing showed up.
When I finally arrived at the stream the coffee colored water was blasting through. The hip waders were barely high enough to keep the water out. The only way to catch fish in these situation was to use the squirminator as it head enough profile to entice fish.
I had plenty of bites from the gudgeons who were active and in the end one stuck. With some luck I also tackled two small dace and that was it for the day. Darkness came quick and so I ended the day at the pub early, the Brightside of the day.
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.
When I was at work last Friday I got a call to join a short road and my first answer was no. Not that I didn´t like fishing but it was more that I did not want to go unprepared. I wanted to be sure the proper licenses could be arranged in time and since that turned out to be the case I opted in.
My buddies did not know the particular destination but I had been there before on multiple occasions. This was the river where I caught my first ever grayling. After a drive of a couple hours we arrived at the scene, I had suggested we park at the end of the so called guest stretch open for visiting anglers.
The end of the guest stretch was formed by a weir so the water was slow moving. We took a look and immediately saw rising fish. With the end being shallow I opted for hip waders but soon regretted it as the upper parts had some spots that where to deep to wade through.
Nonetheless I stayed with the hip waders as I knew the stretches further on would be shallow. There was a lot of surface activity so I choose to fish a sedge. As I figured that some parts of the stream would be overgrown the rod I choose for this day was the four weight Hardy glass.
I was soon into fish … pretty rainbow trout and a lot of them… I was pretty amazed at the amount of fish I encountered and I caught tons of them. A few browns where mixed in and my buddies also caught some nice grayling.
With the sun hiding behind the clouds the insect activity tapered off in the afternoon. I tried nymphing but the lack of results caused me to use the ugliest fly in my box aka the squirminator. That pattern did not fail me and many more rainbows came to the net.
Late in the afternoon we regrouped for a quick lunch and headed out again. My buddies checked out the fly only stretch further afield while I did a rerun on the lower stretch. I had hoped the afternoon would see some rise but it was quiet so the squirminator was put into action again and yielded more rainbows.
After finishing to lower stretch I moved upstream and came across my buddies wo told me that the upper section was shallow, overgrown and did not boast many fish. As I had not fished that stretch before I checked it out, indeed very shallow. I caught a few fish there but fishing was tough because of the nature of the water.
With the sun about to set I continued upstream until some shiny in the water caught my eye. This was like a scene from Lord of the rings … it was a golden ring. With a bridge nearby I figured somebody had a bad day and tossed it in. When I passed the bridge the river boasted a deeper pool which was filled with rainbows. As the sun had gone I figured it might be time to head back and used the path that ran along the river bank.
At the spot where we parked the car I did not see the other guys so they where still fishing. With the river nearby I did the same. As the fog started to roll in over the meadow I was still catching rainbow after rainbow. When it became dark I head back to the car and spotted my buddies doing the same.
It was chow time now and as I spotted a restaurant near the main bridge in the village I suggested we would go there to eat. It was a traditional German restaurant so no worries about the food. The outside dining area was fully occupied so we headed inside and ordered pork chops topped with eggs and bacon accompanied by a glass of tasty Maissel Weizenbeer. Glad I went on that trip, a very good day indeed.
