Flyfishing FWSW

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.

The weatherforecast had predictied a dull gray day but the blue skies in the morning
told something completely different.

The big idea of the day was to visit my summertime chub honeyholes in order to catch a chub.
Off course this was a desperate attempt as all the fish that used to swim so freely in the river
this summer had somehow dissappeared … traceless.

I went in search of the fish and checked out all my favorite spots but there was no sign of life
anywhere. Off course I have to admit that I have no clue where these fish where overwintering so
a litte research might have helped in order to increase my chances of catching anything.
And while I probed my best spots with nymphs and streamers a thick blanket of clouds
covered the land and for a moment I actually thought it would start to rain.

As plan A failed miserably it was time for plan B and that was to visit to roach haunts.
When I finally arrived at one of the spots I wanted to fish it began to drizzle, the
weatherservice got their way with the gray dull day.

Fishing wise though it went pretty swell as I actually got some hits on the small Ritz-D nymph I was fishing.
After a few cautious nibbles my indicator stopped and I could hook my first roach of the day, no skunk jay …

Once I had gotten the right depth figured out I had bites all the time.
The bite was on and I could land several fish.

Off course it was quiet at the water as most sane anglers would have mothballed their gear already.
Still you never can tell when it is all over.
The only other creatures around where the small songbirds in the shrubs.

I fished untill the light started to fade and bites wore off.
It started to feel a bit uncomfortable to be outside so what better plan than to visit the pub for a hot
meal and some dark wheat beers to go with it.

On the way to the pub I made another stop at the stream and wondered how fast these leaves had
gone in the last two weeks …

I was glad I got out on this day as it would most likely be the last time on the river this year.
Or maybe not as I said the same thing two weeks ago 🙂

On this day a working parting at the hatchery of my syndicate was planned.
It was chilly and a thick blanket of fog covered the land.

At the hatchery the usual suspects where at work.
I guess it is the same everywhere, plenty of people who want to fish but just
a few who actually want to work for maintaining a good fishery.

The kids where busy with removing the leaves from the ponds and the walkways.
Others including myself where busy with the pavement of some of the hatchpools
as they had become untight.
When to much water drains from the pools our main water pump has to work
overtime resulting in a hefty electricity bill at the end of the year which hurts
a small syndicate.

After the working party I headed out to the stream to fish a little.
The fog had not lifted during the afternoon and with the temperature not exceeding
the 5 degrees C (41F) I had little hope of catching anything.
Also the rains of the last couple of weeks had produced quite a flow in my little
stream.

My plan was to fish my honeyholes where I almost always caught fish.
At times the waterlevels would rise for a while indicating the mill further upstream
was working.
The plan to catch fish actually worked as I could catch one Dace
and one Roach on a small pt nymph.
Action was minimal though and when my second spot did not produce any bites
anymore I called it a day.

As I had skipped breakfast and lunch I had to get something to eat so I made
my way through the fog and arrived at the pub.

I was the only guest at opening time and installed myself at the fireplace to warm
up. After a few cold ones and a good meal it was time to head home, a good day.

As the trout season and also a section of my stream would be closed at the end of the
month I decided to go on a last outing to the stream.
Having gained another permit to fish the mill pool I was pretty confident that the fishing
session would be good.
The last couple of days had been pretty warm for the time of year but still temperatures
would drop steady in the evening.
The day started foggy, no signs of any rainshowers that where foretold by the weatherforecast.


Last crop on the field, late canola.

Sweetcorn fields already harvested

Pheasant – tail – nymph 🙂

My first stop was at the hatchery this day as a work party had been planned.
Now I had no intention to work, I was rather hoping that one of the locals had woke up early and
made coffee.
The plan failed as I ran into the regular caretaker of the hatchery who had to chop firewood somewhere
in the area.

So it was off to the Watermill right away.
The inhabitants of the mill where an elderly couple who where kind enough to permit us anglers access
to their grounds.
I announced myself and dropped off a small present to the old folks, some typical Dutch waffles which
I knew they would appreciate.

I was the only one fishing the pool on that early morning.
The water looked good, there was however a lot of debri floating on the surface as the leaves
where really starting to fall know.
I missed the schools of fish I had seen on the previous visit but could catch a Dace on a nymph
pretty quickly.

Dace

My next catch was a rudd, a rather untypical fish for the stream as it prefers stillwaters like
ponds or lakes.
I had spotted a big rudd earlier but this was a tiny one.

Rudd

At the last visit I was complaining for the east wind that would effect fishing.
Well, this time the winddirecting was from the proper angle but the fish just would not bite.
I was pondering what the heck was wrong, changing nymphs and adjusting depths just did not
work out.
If there would be any trout in the mill pool I would surely have seen some action in the surface.
It was time to check if maybe a pike was making the water unsafe.
I dragged a streamer through the pool and was at least expecting a bite of a small perch but oddly
nothing happened.

My last ditch effort to catch a predator was to drop the streamer right behind the weir of the mill.
There the water was falling from considerably hight down into the pool and created a deep hole.
When I retrieved the streamer along the wall of the mill it was intercepted, by a trout.
It turned out to be a brown trout, a strong fish that put a good bend in the 4-weight.

A nice brown trout from the mill pool.

In the afternoon some other fisherman came by, it was the chairman of our fishing syndicate with a
friend.
They where installing themselves right at the weir which they percieved as the best spot to fish.
Both gentlemen fishing the conventional way with bait.
What always surprised me was how crude their tackle was, heavy rods armed with big floats.
As I was still catching fish these guys where catching nothing at all, very odd as I thought that the
fish would more easily take a worm than a fly.

As the front section of the pool was now mined with floats and groundbaits I headed down to the
stream to see if I could find fish in some of the shallow pools.

The roadbridge boosted some deeper pools and maybe a trout.
In the shadows under the brigde I could spot fish but they where mostly small roach and dace mixed
with a lot of small gudgeons.

Roach.

Leaves are starting to color.

The stream, carrying not much water which is usual at this time of year.

As was common in this season the stream did not carry a lot of water and most pools where to
shallow to fish or the fish where to wary and fled upon sight.
I decided not to follow the stream further down and headed back to the pool.

My first cast into the shallow section of the pool yielded a strike of a big fish, one that actually
jumped. It turned out to be the brown trout I had caught earlier that day on the streamer.
Best of all it happened within view of our chairman was still watching his float in vain.

Same brown I caught in the morning, this time it went for the nymph.

As the nymph fishing at the end of the pool did not produce the shiners that usually hang out there
I headed right up to the mill weir and noticed that a lot of roach where milling around there.
I crawled along the wall of the mill and dropped the nymph right at the edge of the weir and
subsequently caught a couple of the small roach under the watchfull eye of our chairman and his friend.
The first one responded by “we have to learn how to flyfish”, I guess he has seen the light 🙂

Last fish of the session.

Just like the last visit action pretty much died when sunset approached.
It was time to call it a day and head to the pub for dinner.
From the distance I could see smoke rising from chimney of the pub, appearantly it
was cold enough now to light a fire.
I ordered my usual menu and thought that it was a pretty good ending nonetheless for this
years troutseason at the stream.

Today I had arranged special permission to fish in one of the private mill pools at our stream.
Allthough the main attraction would have been the Trout you might encounter there these
pools also housed very large Roach and Dace.

I had feared that the strong easterly wind on this cloudless day would make fishing
absolutely miserable but fish where pretty active in the morning.
It all worked out pretty nice as the Trout put up quite an areal show and the Roach was of
the size I had hoped to catch.

The fishing was not that easy though and when the sun was setting the temperature
bottomed out and bites ceased completely.
Still it was a golden day, literally …

On this day we headed first to the headwaters of our little stream as one of our friends
had reported quite a few trout at that location.
If was a nice hazy fall morning with a quite enjoyable temperature.

I had not visited the headwaters for a long time as fishing there was useless during times of low water.
Every season the stream changed it’s face, trees fell and created new deep pools – other places tended to
fill up with sand.
The latter happened to my local honeyhole – totally filled in with sand thus all fish where gone.
In my search for slightly deeper water I had to go into the local jungle which was by now totally
overgrown with thorny bushes and shrubs.

Most spots where just to shallow to fish, I got no further than one hit of my strike indicator.
There was one last spot where I could try to catch something but first I had to clear out some
of the thorny blackberrys to get to the stream.
Once I had opened up the fishing spot I could see that the water was deep enough to hold fish.

One drift with the nymph showed me fish where present, first a roach and then a brown trout.
So the presence of brown trout was confirmed only the size could have been a little better.
I noticed a quite loud plop in the same pool which was from a larger fish but I could not get
it to take the fly.

Later that day we had the opportunity to fish at the pool of one of the local watermills which was usually of limits
to us as it was private property.
We knew this pool was stocked with quite a few trout so succses was almost guaranteed.
In the beginning catching fish was fairly easy but soon the fact of our presence got around and bites got less and less.

Near sunset the bites stopped alltogether so we called it a day.
Maybe we get another shot at fishing this location soon.

A time ago I was complaining about the lack of water in the stream.
Well, the weather patterns have finally changed and water is coming out of the sky.
The timing is however far from perfect as it seems that it rains mostly during the weekends.
This weekend was the same, it rained cats and dogs on the day I planned to go fishing.

The plan for saturday was first to join the work party at our hatchery and then fish for
a couple of hours.
The downpour in the morning brought so much water that the work at the hatchery was
postponed.
As it was raining so hard I had no haste to go fishing and hung around at the hatchery
talking to my fellow fisherman who had also came for the working party.

Rainbow trout.

One of the regulars showed me an untill now unknown secundairy pond where he raised
trout for our syndicate.
As the pond was near our hatchery on the hillside it was spring fed.
Besides the pond a section of a small ditch was cordonned off where brown trout
where raised, one batch on natural food (shrimps) and one with natural food and pellets.
The ditch trout where sort of trained for live in our stream and where stocked in the
small feeder streams.
Lots of work and effort that paid off in good quality fish.

Eventually I left the hatchery and headed for the stream which boasted higher water
but not the expected brown soup you would usually get with sudden rains.
Levels where raised to a little under the optimal range.
I did not see fish but when I drifted a nymph along a deadfall I got into a fish that
managed to threw the hook pretty quick, most likely a trout.
As it was still raining hard I decided to take shelter and wait untill the downpour got less.

With the change of the weather pattern the temperatures dropped.
Most of the crops where harvested making the countryside look empty.
The foliage started to discolor, fall had made its entry quite abrupt.

Signs of fall.

Last of the crops.

After a lunch session at the pub with some friends I headed out to the stream again to the spot where a week or two ago
I had lost a trout in the brush work, maybe I could have a second shot.
A peek trough the brushwork revealed a dozen or so shiners behind half submerged shrub.
Everytime I dropped the nymph close to the debri I would get hits on the fly but got no solid hookups.
When the fish had enough of the disturbance they left and so did I.

Next stop was the village downstream which usually had some spots where you could almost be sure to catch
anything.
In the village I often fished the spots that the bait fisherman would avoid due to fast water and the many snags.
Those spots however where sometimes good for the holdover trout that had survided the season.
I hooked one of those and allthough it was a small brown trout it pulled very hard.

Brown trout

A little further downstream I dropped the nymph into the roots of the brushwork and immediately noticed a lot of gray
shapes appearing from the depth, a school of shiners had taken refuge under the brush.
After several takes I finally hooked a small fish, then a very decent one.

Roach.

Allthough I could have visited some other spots I thought all was well for the day.
The skies where dark, it rained and it was already late so time to go home.

Today I fieldtested some nymphs that I had tied yesterday.
Some of my buddies almost exclusively used the pattern, I tried it a few times
and could not score a single fish with it.

During the recent Harz trip I borrowed some of these nymphs from my friend
and did quite well with them so it was time for a second go,

As the drought continiued I opted to fish far downstream from my usual haunts
hoping that the feeder streams would provide deeper water.
It was a wrong assumption though as many of the feeders had dried up completely.

Even worse was that I was fishing an open landscape on a very windy day.
Due to the water shortage the current was so weak that the wind pushed flyline and
nymph upstream – not good when you want to catch fish.

Still despite the setbacks I did quite well.
The first fish my new nymph pattern brought to the surface was actually nice surpise.
Instead of the expected chub a nice colored trout took the nymph instantly as it
hit the water.

I found some chub hideouts where the chub respondend well to a dry fly and the nymphs.
The big ones where also spotted but some of them had seen me also and wisely
retreated to safer grounds.

Late in the afternoon I was fed up with the strong wind messing up my casts so I decided
to have dinner at a nearby restaurant.
I was dining outside and allthought the terrace was sheltered it felt chilly.
When a leaf fell on my table I could not escape the thought that fall had arrived.

After the fancy trip to the mountains it was business as usual at the local stream.
Like each summer the amount of water carried by our little stream has been reduced
to a minimum but I have never seen it so low as it is right now.
Long term weather forecast bode nothing good for our stream so I just have to hopeZ
that it will not run dry over the next couple of weeks.

Flow is minimal and the only place you will find fish now is in some of the deep holes
and sections of the stream that have a weir or deadfalls.
Most of the trout have been cleared out of the stream by the meat fisherman but in
the not so easy to reach locations you can still encounter a few of them.

With some luck I caught roach, dace and even a gudgeon.
When you catch gudgeon you know for sure that you are nymphing right at the bottom 🙂
Off course we have a story of the one that got away.
I noticed a feeding trout that was in a location I could not reach with a cast.
Somehow I managed to launch the nymph right into the treeroots where I spotted the
trout and the trout instantly inhaled the fly.

Instead of moving further into the roots the fish choose the open deeper water so I thought
that I had a chance of landing the fish.
Unfortunately the trout had a change of mind and ran back into the treeroots.
My attempts to stop the trout where futile as my light tippet broke under the strain … bummer.
I know where the trout is located – next weekend I will try again.