Flyfishing FWSW

Quite a cold day and not much going on … somebody shrunk the trout.

With this single hot weather day forecast I decided to have a go at my chub hotspot.
As I arrived fish where indeed rising and I messed up a couple of good bites.
Tossing the leader with the leader ring still attached was not that smart … it was too splashy.
Still I got a fish on the sedge, not the intended chub but a dace.
For some reason however the rising stopped and I could not spot a single fish anymore.
I tried fishing the cascades with a nymph but only got a very small battered dace.

Somebody in the village had obviously been feeding the ducks in town with bread as
the leftovers came floating down the stream.
Interestingly I noticed a big disturbance in the surface and spotted some hefty chub
going after the bread.
Would have loved to have a go at these fish but with the high steep banks I had not a
change to even come near.

Overall I found surface activity to be minimal, plenty insects about especially alder flies but
the stream was surface wise like a mirror.
I checked out several spots at the lower end of the stream but could not find any signs of life.
My last stop for the day was at a spot where one of my pals had recently hooked a signal
crayfish.
I spotted a boatload of bream in one of the deeper pools and drifted a flashback pheasant tail
nymph deep.
After several nibbles I finally had a good hookup and although bream do not fight spectacular
this one earned a gold medal for resistance as it just would not give up.

At the crayfish spot I fished behind the weir of the mill, the weir was open and the water was
running fast.
I had the heavy flashback pheasant tail nymph still on and after long trying I landed a little trout.
The weir was raised and flow almost ceased, the water level dropped and so I tied on a lighter
nymph only to catch a small perch.
With the absence of any flow and no signs of larger fish about I called it a day.

As my trips to the border waters where not that great lately I decided to hit the home waters
again as it just had better quality water and held more fish.
Yesterday I received a call from one of the hatchery guys asking if I would be
willing to relieve the natural pond of the big brown trout.
That call brought my plans in disarray but oh well … somebody had to do it
The trout had become too big and as the natural pond had no aerator their survival was
at stake.

The first few fish where easy, then they figured out something was wrong and got spooky.
Nymphs had lost their effect and so I turned to the last resort = streamers.
The streamers got most of the remaining larger trout out.
The removed fish where stocked in a different pond that had an aerator so they would
last until a later day when the fish would be stocked in our stream.

After the work was done I found the time to hit the stream which was now at the lowest level
since months and pretty clear.
Trout where not be had on the spots I fished but at least the dace and roach showed
themselves be it that the big roach where absent.
All in all a nice and productive day.

So back to the venue from yesterday, armed with traces this time.
The mill pool … zero bites … no following perch … no pike attacks.
Tried the nymph … absolutely nothing which I found very odd as there had to be at least dace around.
So back into the woods to look for rising fish as the sun came out but again … totally dead.
Figuring there had to be fish in that stream I tried the nymph again and behold after a lot of work one little dace.
Maybe the fish are put-off by the extensive manure spraying of the farmers.
Always hate when the surface of the water begins to foam…

Sometimes it just does not work out.
No bites from the silver fish, instead two tiny perch. Next on the agenda big perch so I tied on a streamer and ran into three pike.
Two unhooked themselves, one got away with the streamer.
Left the mill pool and tried the stream but no life and thus no bites. For a brief moment the sun came out and a fish started to rise.
Tied on a segde and finally got a small dace.
When they turn on the heating again I think it will get better.

Headed out again to the local stream where for some reason I could not get into
fish. Only after several hours I managed the first couple of roach and dace.

I had a chat with some of my fellow anglers and it seems that somebody has recently
managed to catch quite a hefty brown trout from our little stream.
I am still hoping that one of these days I will manage to get one of these ultra-rare 27 inchers from the stream.

The first couple of chubs have been caught in the section of the stream I fish which
means that the removing of a couple of weirs has had an effect as this species
was barred from moving upstream in the past.
It should make fishing more interesting as you now might run into more surprises.

With the fine warm weather a lot of anglers where on the move and the many footprints
at the deeper pools where not exactly giving me hope but I still managed to catch a few
nice brown trout.

And back again for another head clearing session.
Cowslip and windflowers are abundant and fish are slowly returning to their summer hideouts.
Some spots are still desolate though, according to a fellow syndicate member it will take a couple of weeks more before we see more fish in the open.

I wanted to check up on my chub hotspot and for a brief moment conditions where perfect as several chub had taken up position in the shallows behind our clubhouse.
Dry fly was the way to go and so I tossed a small f-fly over the chubs and voila the first chub on the season incidentally also the first fish on a dry fly this season was fact.
The wind picked up rather quickly and surface feeding was cancelled.

I went to another more sheltered stream, could not spot many fish there.
One spot did have fish and allthough it was not easy I managed several dace and roach on the nymph.

At the end of the day I went to an open spot out in the fields that could be good for surface feeding dace.
I found them as they where lazily cruising in the surface picking up food items.
My casting with the wind was sloppy though and I totally messed up a good chance by striking too early … oh well there will be more days.

I had to clear out my head today so I went fishing.
It was a beautiful spring day that started very chilly but by now the sun had the power to warm the air.
It was windy though and in the open field it did not feel that warm.
The amount of water surprised me as I had figured it would be back to a normal low level … it was not.

One of my hot spots was already occupied by a fellow fisherman who had caught a yellow perch and a trout.
I tried nymphs but was under the impression that they did not get deep enough to coax any bites
so tied on an extra nymph for added weight and got a roach to show for it.

I noticed a big splash in the fast running water and out of instinct
I looked up the bank to see if any clown had thrown  a rock or so in the water.
There were no clowns around and as in general people where rather civilized in the village I was puzzled.
I was pretty sure now it was a trout and more than one would be present as the season opener was recent = stocking time.
I decided to tie on the most gaudy pattern in my arsenal, the squirmy worm.
That worm was interesting enough for the trout to have a closer inspection and so I hooked two trout in rather short succession.

Before I headed upstream of the mill weir I checked the mill pool but nothing was happening there except losing
several flies at the same underwater debris as on previous visits.
The good thing was that I finally found some free roaming fish which is a sign that the season progresses
and fish are on the move again.
I spotted two large fish which I could not identify positively.

At first I thought it where slimy bream but they were to slender which would only
leave the asp as species.
The problem with that however is that those fish are only present very far
downstream from where I fish and a hydro-electrical power plant downstream is for sure unpassable.
The big fish were out of roach but at least a dace went for the nymph I tossed in.

The upstream section above the weir looked dead.
The water was low and flowing fast as the construction crews still had not finished
bypass over the mill weir … by now three months late.
Further upstream it went and another spot produced several dace for me on the nymph.
I passed my former favorite pub, the staff was clearing it out as they had not gotten a new lease.
The intel I picked up was that the owner in the end did now want to turn the pub into a residence but had found a new party to run it.
This time it would be an a la carte restaurant … probably too fancy for a fisherman like me but maybe they will
still serve beers to the common folk.

I stopped fishing and decided to check if anyone would be around our clubs hatchery
to get the latest news … nobody was around so I settled for a bench far up the hill
and just enjoyed the spring sunshine and the clean air.

While crossing the first local river it dawned on me that my outlook of the current high water situation was rosy to say the least.
The water in my stream was even dirtier and faster flowing than last week.

With the absence of any bites I feared the dreaded blank but luckily a brown trout decided to show up.
Quite a pull on my 4-weight with the thin tippet but in the end safely netted.

No roach and dace to be seen except for a small one which I managed to catch close to the bank.
Lovely day to be outside but fishing conditions where rather dismall.

The last week it had poured cats and dogs and the stream was in flooding stage.
It all tapered off quickly towards the weekend so I choose Sunday to go to the stream hoping
I would see the lowest water level of the week.

Unfortunately Saturday night it rained … a lot … again.
I went fishing the next day anyway and found a colored stream pushing way to much water for comfort.
I tried to catch fish anyway and tied on two nymphs just to gain some depth.
I figured the eddies of the deeper pools might be the only place to catch a fish and it
turned out to be exactly like I had figured.

I had a very good day with several dace and roach and as a bonus a brown trout although the latter was
prohibited from taking the nymph as it was still closed season for trout.

Glad I did decide to go fishing as it panned out pretty well considering the circumstances.