Flyfishing FWSW

Another chilly day with a little rain but less wind than two days ago.
Plenty of fish spotted but tough to get them on the fly in the shallow water.
Mental note … always bring the net (lost a big one at the last moment).

As I had joined the work party last week and prospected our new pond with all the carp
in it my plans for the weekend where to get the trout I missed last week and try to catch
my first carp on the fly at the pond.

What I had not taken into account was the fact that the weather had turned.
It started just in time on Friday and before you knew it the temperatures dropped from
a balmy 27C to 10C the next day.
Wind and some rain where added also and we got some totally different to cope with.

I tried my hotspot early in the morning but this time no fish where present.
With the extreme low water and exposed banks I looked at some spots otherwise
not reachable but had to take care not to sink in the muck.
The water was in fact so low that at another spot I could climb down and walk
on the stones exposed at the bank to make a more stealthy approach at a spot where I had seen a couple of trout.
Even with the stealthy approach the fish were on to me as the water was extremely low.
Many spots I could I have fished under normal circumstances where now empty, just too
shallow and I guess gone forever.

It was early as I moved into the village where at one bridge massive numbers of
dace and roach would hold in the almost stagnant waters.
Many fish where lined up there but the nymph travelled through them like it was a ghost.
In the end I tried a small segde and got one dace, the school of fish dissappeared
though to safer places.
Darks skies and the chilly wind kept the fish down so I moved further upstream.

The shallow section upstream was a good spot for the dry but with the wind and
low temperatures it was useless to fish there.
This only left a weir as the last interesting spot in the village.
The nymphs did not do anything there so I figured I might toss in a small streamer to
scout for any predatory fish willing to chase the fly.

That worked as I had several hits on the fly, it was the same fish that tracked the fly
time after time but did not take.
I did get a fish from another spot at the weir and it was the most acrobatic brown trout
I had seen for a long time, jumped like a tarpon 🙂
Before I would leave further afield I tried the nymph once more and with a little adjustment
regarding depth and currents I managed a little trout and a dace.

For this day I had taken with me bread and some bread flies to fish the newly aquired pond of our fishing club.
I had it all for myself but as expected the weather had put the carp down and even the chumming did not convince them to feed on top.
All that lasted was to get that trout that had eluded me last week.
With the water so low I could access the spot with the boots I had on by wading through a shallow spot in the stream.

This time though no rising fish where to be seen at the pool were last week
a fish was clearly rising regularly.
I fished the pool thoroughly but had nothing to show for.
By now the wind was blowing full force in the afternoon and rain showers fell.
I was closed properly for the occasion but still looked forward to a pub visit
where I could warm at the fire.

After my usual lunch at the pub I was ready to go out for a last fishing session and well I did
a little poaching as I fished a spot which was off-limits to me.
Nobody was looking though and so I hoped to hook some of these big dace that where usually present at that spot.
It was a pleasant surprise that something else hit the little nymph I was fishing and allthough the fish
was rather ugly it was fun getting it on the four weight.

Even though it was cold, raining and blowing like hell I did noticed for the first time this season that a lot of the big mayflies where on the water.
The fish also noticed as I spotted a big wake in front of me when a large fish nosed up in the surface to take a natural.
A few casts with a large mayfly pattern did not get the desired reaction from the fish but a small nymph did …
So the last hour after the pub visit turned out to be the golden hour and brought a surprising number of large trout to the surface.
I still had time to revisit some of the spots I felt could yield more fish in the morning but decided to call it a day
as it could not get any better than this.
The last task I set myself was to get a picture of the local bird of prey that always sat on a tree near the place I fished
so I carefully scouted the forest in order to spot it before it spotted me.
Again a big fail as I had not noticed that it sat on a fence post right in front of me, you can guess the outcome.
The only thing I spotted was the supplier of the material used in most of the nymphs I tied.

Best day on the stream so far and might make a visit this monday to see if I can
get some more fish before the working week starts again.

Last Saturday I had two appointments and I had to choose which one I should honor.
Appointment one was the annual breakfast and fishing with the flyrodders from over the border,
always a lot of fun although the fishing was never that great as it was foremost a social outing.
Appointment two was a working party at the recently leased pond of my German fishing club.

In the end I choose number 2 as I had volunteered for pond duty but had not attended a single
outing because I was on vacation.
As I was early that morning I could still sneak in an hour of fishing at a spot I should not
have been but it was the nearest spot of deep water in the vincinity of the pond.
Despite the depth (only 2/3 ft.) the fish spotted me and moved further away so I had to make
some longer casts with the two weight to get things going.
After donating a few nymphs to the rocks I caught some small dace and yet another little brown trout.

I had to leave pretty soon for the pond that used to be a resevoir for the local fire brigade.
The pond had been neglected for 15 years and a lot of work was in the planning to bring it into
shape, I think they had set aside two years for the works to complete.

The main reason to lease the pond was opportunity and the fact that the youth members of the
club would have a stillwater right at their doorstep to fish in.
An old derelict shelter had already been torn down and a base for the new shelter had been
build in April.
The new shelter was graciously sponsered by a local construction company which provided materials and manpower.
As the club had some good craftsman amongst it ranks construction went pretty smooth and
after a half days work the basic construction with roof was standing.

One of my fellow clubmembers had been appointed groundskeeper for the pond and told me what the plans where for this little gem.
This pond was spring fed but one side of the bank (more like a dam) was unstable so it had to
be fixed as the fear was that it could break and flush out the pond.
The overflows had to be improved, trees had to be cut and in general the banks had to be mowed and improved.

The pond had been unattended for 15 years, during that time lots of silt had filled in the pond.
Before any fish stocking the pond had to be dregded and that would be a risky business with
the unstable banks and the amount of silt present.
Inquiries where however on the way and one interested party for the work would be visiting the pond in the coming weeks.
At this point the main inhabitants of the pond were carp, zander (walleye) and a host of small shiners.

In the afternoon I left the working party as remaining chores where best left to the roofers and trained carpenters.
I had skipped the barbecue at the pond as I had planned to visit the pub that for some unearthly reason
turn out to be closed on this summer like day.
Seemed I had turned up an hour or so too early, in order to kill the time I visited the elderly couple at the local watermill and was invited for coffee.
Eventually the pub opened and I ordered my usual choice of food and drink. It was quiet at the pub, thats what you get with late opening hours 🙂

Just before sunset I tried the stream for a decent trout of any fish for that matter but it all seemed pretty dead.
There was one spot where I noticed a rising fish amongst the debris now floating in abundance on the water.
I was pretty sure it was a trout but there was no way on earth I could put a fly on that spot from the bank.
Location was noted however so maybe I would have a go at that fish some other time.
With a little wading I might get this fish afterall.

As it had been too cold for the season here and warm weather has just arrived (for the moment)
it would take some time before fishing picked up.

Today I tested a light rod setup at my home waters, this setup consisted out of an Orvis clearwater 6’#2 with a small reel and a WF2F line.
It was my second #2 rod as I strived to always get at least two indentical setups per lineweights.
As I had not been at the stream for some time I noticed that things were different, a lot …
Seemed the recent removal of a weir downstream had increased the current and lowered the waterlevels, it all just felt and looked different.

My hotspot still had fish though, besides a couple of carp the roach where thick and I pretty soon had two of them on a small nymph.
The shallow water and the racket caused by the captured fish made the rest of the school leave for safer places and so it was time to move.
At the next spot the low water table was not helpfull in catching fish but at least a small dace and a roach came to the surface.

As I was early I visited a spot with slow moving water in the middle of the town.
It turned out just as I had hoped, the dace where picking through the debris in the surface.
I could target several fish with a small segde and landed a few more dace.

In search for stocked trout I left the village and checked out some of the more rural spots of the stream but no signs of trout or other fish in the skinny water.
I spotted the deer tracks but the deer spotted me …

As it was late in the day I had the plan to visit the pub but opening hours where not yet at hand so
I picked out one of the lookout spots on a nearby hill for a small break.

Before I entered the pub I first checked out a spot at the stream that had yielded larger dace for me in the past.
Since it was relatively shallow I pondered if I should use a dry fly but the blossoms and other debris from
the trees where falling like snow so I choose the nymph instead … and caught my first little brown trout of the season.

The pub … well it turned out that they had changed opening hours … earlier now due to the season.
It was good to hear that the landlady had stocked up on dark wheat beer. Standard menu … standard pics 🙂

On the way home I made a stop not so far upstream from the removed weir.
All the exposed stones used to be under water but now exposed.
There were still some fish rising but approach was impossible as the fish could see you coming for miles.
First day on the stream in perfect weather, I just have to do something about the size of those fish though 🙂

As the last fishing trip of 2015 went pretty well on that river at the border
I tried the same spot in the new year as well hoping for good results.
The first trip however did not bring any fish to the net as the only few
hits came from small perch that fell of the hook prematurely.

I tried a second time under quite miserable conditions namely cold and
wet weather when not even the perch wanted to chase any flies.
Out of pure desperation I tied on a small size 16 nymph and fished the
shallow end of the mill pool with a very light tippet.

I found it odd that I got stuck so often untill I finally realized that it
where actually bites … I felt kind of stupid 🙂
One I noticed that the Dace where actively feeding even in the miserable
weather I did quite well, not big fish but at least the first silver fish of the year.

As the season winded down = the fishing permits ran out at the end of the year I was
still hoping for a last chance to fish the stream.
The unusually warm weather had been accompanied by boatloads of rain so the stream had not seen
its average level since this month’s beginning and any chance to fish slowly faded away.
With the end nearing I chanced it and went on a last trip despite the high water.
Although the feeders were clean the main stream still pushed a lot of water and clarity was reduced.

With the high temperatures and the bleak sunshine I was hoping for some midge activity and rising fish
but the wind was just blowing too hard for that.
At one of my favorite nymphing spots the sand was lying high on the banks indicating how high the
stream had been flowing during the last couple of weeks.

At many of my favorite spots the current was that strong that my regular tungsten nymphs where
probably not reaching the right depth in time to be successful.
In one of the deeper pools a quiet eddy yielded a first bite on the nymph and a very nice roach
surfaced, it was a good fish and off course I was happy that skunk was avoided.

Fishable spots where scarce but I found another one upstream where I found yet another slow
flowing pocket of water that could produce fish.
It took quite a while to get a bite but eventually I managed to catch another roach and a small dace.

I carefully scouted the stream at several spots for any fish activity but nothing showed itself.
The slow moving sections above the watermill would probably have yielded some fish but there were just too
many dog-walkers around to concentrate on fishing.

Late in the afternoon I called it quits and headed for a last time this year to the pub for a meal.
As I ran into acquaintances my pub time eventually outnumbered the fishing time but it was interesting
to listen to the old timers about the good old times when the outhouse of the pub emptied right in the stream,
well .. maybe all was not good in days past..

So this was my season in Germany, in the Netherlands it still continued and I might try to catch a pike
one of these days if those blasted rains would just stop.

We had been quite lucky with the weather until now as real cold spells that usually killed off the
fishing had been absent for the time being.
As I had not been fishing much this year because of my surgery there was one fish species still
on my to-do list namely chub.

The chub were restricted to the lower reaches of the river I fished due to man-made barriers that
had been in places for ages.
These barriers were slowly removed but until the river is passable for all fish might take a few
years more.

The mission was chub for the day and the temperature was good, namely very high.
It was so high that it was the warmest November day since weather was recorded.
The downside, lots of wind and rain showers.
It had already rained during the week and I was fearing a muddied up river.
At the river the water was pretty clean be it littered with leaves and pushing more water
than I had anticipated.

Before I would be wading I tried a spot near a bridge where I had done quite well in the past.
The current was however too strong to make a decent drift with the nymph along the pilings.
I concentrated on the slack part right at the bank and after two casts the indicator went down
and I was into a good fish.
The fish pulled quite good and tried to dive into the crowfoot but despite the light tippet  I got
it out and landed the fish safely.
It was a chub, a nice fat one so the mission for the day was accomplished.

Now the scary bit came, wading …
The first hurdle was to get safely in the water.
Luckily there was a small gage house fitted with a set of concrete steps into the water.
I got safely down the steps but a bit too deep for my liking, the water was definitely up from
the summer levels when I would normally fish for chub.
The whole point of this wading exercise was to get near to a current seem but the current
was just too strong to get the proper location so I carefully maneuvered back to shore.
Better leave that wading for when the river was low.

I checked out some other spots at the chub section of the river but none looked like they
would produce any fish.
I did take a look at one of the recently removed weirs.
The high dam was now replaced by a series of rock emplacements gradually lowering the the
river.
These collection of stones where spots where trout would take up station in the otherwise featureless made stream.
Since trout season was closed you were not allow not allowed to fish there.

Although I was happy with the chub caught the day was not at an end so I stopped at a junction
in the river further upstream where a small brook entered the stream.
The spot was I had been told good for perch but I could not get any despite using a tasty little
zonker streamer.
I did see some small fry swimming at the junction but they were left in peace.

Strong winds and rain made short work with the last leaves on the trees.
The woods colored from green and yellows to brown now.
One sign of the times where the collection of egrets in one of the fields I
passed, these usually came in late fall winter from their haunts east.

In order to catch more fish I eventually ended up at my home stretch were I
stopped at my roach hotspot.
That hotspot had not fished that well recently and with the now remarkably clear
water I could see why.
The otherwise deep pool had completely been filled with sand.
Fish where active at the willow shrubs that lined the water so a few casts near
them yielded some of the smaller roach.

In one occasion the whole school moved downstream into the shallows so I could
see how many fish there where further upstream in the shrubs.
Action was short though so I moved on.

The next spot was a deeper pool where last week one of the locals was fishing for
a pike he had seen.
I saw big dace feeding in the surface and was frantically searching my tackle bag for
my dry fly box .. which I left at home … sort of hell for flyfishers scenario.
I could not get the surface fish with nymphs so I moved on.

It was late in the day and the light pretty much faded.
A last stop at the outflow of the local mill revealed that fish were still about.
I could not catch them though, small dace where attacking my indicator but the nymph
passed through the water unhindered.
Eventually I got one micro dace on the nymph making the coarse fish grand slam complete.

I made it to the pub at opening time and was the first guest.
While the fire was started up I asked if other guests were expected and well they were.
The local hunters had chosen the pub as their end station for their hunt and the management team
of the local distillery had rented off a section of the pub for them and their guests.
I finished my dinner just as the hunters came streaming in so in time before all the racket would
start, tough fishing day but accomplished the task I set out to do and thus happy.

Another weekend with picture perfect weather.
The day started out rather chilly as the night was cloudless which caused a significant cooling.
I tried one of my favorite spots near a removed weir were the rocks created an interesting
current and a deeper pool.
The water was still higher than usual, some of the familiar rocks where still partly submerged.

With fall steadily progressing the shedding of leaves had gone into overdrive.
Many of those leaves ended up in the bottom of the pool I was fishing and the accumulated due
to the eddies in the pool, not real helpful when fishing a nymph.
Still one dace found the nymph and tried to run off with it.

As mentioned earlier the leaves where on the way out and opened up the view to the sky.
Another significant change was that the water had become clearer, signs that the algae bloom was
ending. Fishing would become tougher for sure,

I could not spot that many fish in the morning and out of the ones I saw I could only
catch a small roach.
Furthermore the competition had also arrived, some of my buddies had the same idea as me
on this beautiful day and I ran into them at one of the parking lots at the stream.

With the leaves causing trouble while nymphing I thought it might pay off to check out one of the
more open sections of the stream and try some dry fly fishing.
It was still fresh outside and only a few midges where buzzing around at the stream.
Now and then a fish would rise but there was not a lot of action going on.

When I spotted a group of dace working their way upstream while leisurely picking off surface
debris I knew I was in luck.
A carefully placed sedges was immediately attacked, one fish caught – the rest fled at high speed
upstream.
The section I fished was very shallow so once you spooked the fish the only thing you could
do was to move and find a new spot.

At one of the bridges I saw some movement and with some luck I caught a few dace before the action died down.

With the increasing temperature and the bright sunshine the townsfolk where out and about and my dace
hotspot became frequented with dog walkers and the like.
Time for early lunch at the pub and some snapshots of the fall colors before it was all over for this year.

The lunch was good as usual and off course I stayed too long in the pub.
When I got out I noticed that the sun was lying rather low in the sky meaning that time of
productive fishing was coming rather fast to an end.
At one of my spring/summer hotspots the sun was still shining on the water and a splash now
and then indicated that fish where present.

Despite the good signs it was rather difficult to catch fish, somehow I felt that the makeup of the
pool had changed and the current was running different.
I caught a few small roach and then headed up upstream to check out some of the deeper pools
where I had done well in the past.

The last fish of the day was a surprise as it was a trout caught in a typical roach/dace spot.
I fished a deeper pool just behind some submerged shrubs when the indicator went down rather
violently and a brown trout suddenly went airborne.
The trout although out of season was the icing on the cake and as light was fading fast this was
the moment to cease fishing.

I took one last short break and watched the geese fly over.
The fog was slowly moving in over the field and I though what a brilliant fishing day it
was.

The weather service predicted nice weather for Saturday and not so nice weather on Sunday,
they were wrong … again.
You actually could not ask for better weather, light winds … mild temperature and plenty of sunshine.

It had rained in the night and the effect was a little more than I had hoped for.
The water pushed through at a pretty pace and the current patterns at my favorite coarse fish
hot spots where mixed up.
I could not get to the fish although I had a few nibbles on a small size 16 pheasant tail nymph.

The trout section of the stream was closed now so I had to check out the coarse fish section of the
stream. With surgery not in the distant past the available spots to fish for me where limited.
The last thing I wanted to do is ending up back in hospital because I slipped down a steep bank.

At one of the more easy accessible pools I spotted fish deep and on top.
The fish on top where dace, what lurked in the depths was unknown.
I tied on a tungsten black midge pattern and before I knew it I had hooked a brown trout.

After trout nr.1 I tried to fish a sedge in the faster flow as I had noticed that at times dace would race
up to the surface to grab floating debris, no luck for me though.
The black midge went back on and voila again a trout, this time a pretty decent fish.

Trout season was closed so I moved on to find coarse fish.
There was a mill pool that could house the odd perch but even though I used a sinking line and
a weighted lure I had no bites whatshowever.

The last section I fished was a wide slow moving section of the stream.
It was ultra shallow but always the spot for dry flyfishing and as I approached the place I
noticed sporadic rises of dace.
With the sun at an unfavorable angle it was impossible to spot the fish so I had to drop the fly
near surface action and hope for the best.
I was too slow for the dace though as I missed most strikes.
The one fish I did hook eventually came off so 1-0 for the fish.

The change into standard time from daylight saving time messed up
my sense of timing so it was off to the pub for lunch.
I had the intension to go fishing after lunch but activity at the stream
was minimal.
As I had enjoyed myself pretty good at the stream in this fantastic weather
I did not bother to go fishing again – fully satisfied and off to home.

With the end of the trout season in sight my days on the trout section of the stream
where numbered and the urge to go fishing was thus great.
The problem I faced was that the last couple of days the rains had poured continuously.
I watched the river gage daily as it went up nearly vertically = flooding.
With two special permits left for the mill pool the Saturday fell into the water as the
stream had its peak flow.
On Sunday the waters receded but it was still way too high for decent fishing, I went
anyway as it was my last chance of the year.

The day started with rain and well it actually never stopped, light rain … heavier rain … just rain.
All that rain was only good for the mushrooms which where popping up everywhere.
The migration of the geese was at full force as I spotted a whole army of them through the canopy
of the forest.

I paused at one of the feeder streams to see how the water looked but the stream in question flowed
mostly through the forest from the nearby hills so it never carried much silt as it bypassed agricultural land.
When I hit the first bridge over the main stream the situation was obvious, brown soup.

I entered the mill property rather late in the morning and as it was such a muddy mess I did not
even bother to put on my wading gear.
Before I went fishing I first delivered a Dutch treat to the inhabitants of the mill namely a pack of
syrup waffles, always a success
Off course I was invited in and in no time I was drinking an Irish coffee.
Eventually I headed to the pool to try and catch at least one fish.

Hopes where slightly raised as I could still see the bottom of the shallow sandbar in the pool so
some minimal visibility was present.
I tried my luck at one of the trees bordering the pool as I spotted fish among the exposed roots
at previous occasions.
A small pheasant tail nymph size 16 was launched and to my surprise it immediately raised the interest
of the fish.
In short succession I landed four roach which had eluded me when the mill pool boasted clearer water.

After a short time the rain became heavy.
As it was past noon it seemed like a good idea to get lunch at the pub first and get into waders later
to make most of the day.
During the previous weekend the low temperatures had kept me from going fishing and so I did something
productive instead namely tying new flies.
After lunch I would try those flies out in the deeper pools behind the mill as I still thought I could
do some business at the stream despite the poor conditions.

The main pattern I wanted to try was a red midge tied on a red Skalka Czech nymph hook.
Red tying thread, tinsel and red dubbing where the main ingredients of this fly.
A tungsten bead would get the fly quickly down and a coat of bug bond would make the fly durable.
Icing on the cake was the red hook, purely for optics.

To my surprise the nymph did pretty well, at the first pool it was hit after hit.
At first I thought this fly would mainly appeal to trout but the Roach and Dace in the pool had
no problem with this fly and where eagerly hitting it.

The pools further downstream yielded mixed results.
I guess at some spots the faster flows prevented the fly from getting to the proper depth.
Knowing the many snags at some spots I did not wanted to extend the leader as I could
not see the underwater hazards under these conditions.
At one of the pools where I knew the bottom was relatively clean I fished with a longer
leader and had results again.
One decent Trout got off but the Dace and Roach stuck.

When I exhausted the last pool I went back to the mill as the light was slowly fading.
I still wanted to catch one of the Yellow perch at the mill or a trout on a streamer but despite
using a sinking line to probe the depths and combat the increased current I received no bites.

I switched back to nymph fishing and during a short break in the rain I even spotted some rising fish
although this was only of short duration.
I also noticed a giant sedge in the grass which I never knew existed at the stream, at first I
thought it was a stone fly since it was so large.

Eventually the rain and cold got to me as I was walking around in my el cheapo
Hardy featherweight waders which I once had bought as a backup in case the proper ones had problems.
These waders where so thin that they had the insulation properties of a plastic bag … none.
Despite the less than favorable conditions I had done pretty well and ended the trout season
with a trout caught and released.

I took a last look at the mill pool, said goodbye to the inhabitants of the mill and called it a day.
Next year we will try again.