Flyfishing FWSW

Sunday promised to be the best day of the week for fishing so off to the stream.
Spring has let us down temperature wise for now, only the foliage on the trees
reminds you that it is not fall.

A bright and sunny start of the day

I decided to fish some of the old spots on the stream that I had not visited
for a long time.
I fished some promising pools but found no signs of life there.

At one spot I noticed a rising fish, the same I had spotted last week – for sure a trout.
There was however no way I could make a decent cast in the jungle surrounding the stream.
I was upstream from the fish but could not get a good drift downstream because of a newly
formed bunch of debris had settled in the middle of the shallow section in front of the deep pool.
So I moved quietly downstream, went down the steep bank and hid behind a big tree.
With a roll cast I managed to launch the fly to the general holding area of the trout.
The fish came to the surface, grabbed the fly but got off – bugger.

I moved on upstream where I did notice signs of fish but again I was not able to approach
the fish before they spotted me and ran.
Steep banks, very shallow water and loads of trees and shrubs make the life of a flyfisherman
difficult at the stream I fish.
I did target a couple of Roach I spotted in one of the deeper pools and finally caught the
first fish of the day – tiny it may have been but a fish is a fish.

I moved further into the forest coming to our little no-go area where a local farmer won’t
let fish.
At one of the last pools I noticed something big in the water, it turned out to be a bream.
The fish had spotted me first though and slowly moved into cover.
Since it was midday I decided that it was time for lunch.
The pub was for a change loaded with people, all due to the local marksmen festival.
Those Marksmens festivals where always a big deal in the little rural towns and villages
and so it was on this day.
I figured it might take a long time to get something to eat with all these people
around but I got my food in a remarkably short time, guess good tipping helps 🙂

In the afternoon I fished the area around the pub.
Again not much fish around but I did notice some rising fish here and there.
A cast into a fast flowing rocky section delivered my first trout of the day,
not a monster but a trout anyhow.

Action was slow, out of boredom I decided to see what food sources the local
trout had.
Allthough the stream has a mainly sand bottom there are section that have
a soft sandstone bottom, besides that fallen tree branches provide cover for insects
and small fish.
So I put the landing net on the river bed and kicked up a few stones and branches
and voila – the little critters got caugh.

The catch consisted out of a loach, a millers thumb and some shrimp.
No wonder that natural colored streamers work so well in my stream.

Late in the day I decided that there still was time to check out or so called visitors stretch.
That stretch was available for non-members who could purchase day-tickets to fish that section.
It was usually better stocked that the rest of the stream so maybe there could be some
trout to be caught there.
The water was low and clear so approaching fish was almost impossible.
Fishing a streamer or nymph with indicator in these conditions just was to crude, even the landing
of a weighted fly in the water would scare of the fish.

As I had noticed that fish where rising I tied on a segde pattern.
There where insects on the water most of the St.Marks flies where
gone.
A hopefull sight however was the appearance of the first big mayflies of the season.
At a dead fall I noticed some irregular water movement thinking it might be a
feeding trout.
I carefully placed the segde along the deadfall and a trout shot right up from the deep
and nailed the fly – great action.

It was a small trout but it was a scrappy one that put quite a bend in my
light 4-weight rod, first fish on the dry fly this season.

I checked out a nearby bridge where I though I had seen a rising fish during a recent visit.
At the time I was not sure it was a fish rising, it could have just been drainage water from
the bridgde but on this day I actually saw that it was a rising fish.
Now it was time to figure out how to approach the fish, get close from the side or
wade to it.
I opted for the easier land approach which resulted in a fleeing fish, the water under the
brigde was really shallow – bad move.
Maybe the trout would come back later so I fished another spot.

The other spot boasted a feeding trout but it fed right in front of a fallen tree that
lay at right angles over the water.
Fallen blossoms from the trees collected in front of the obstacle.
I missed about four takes on the segde at that point and then it went quiet –
the trout had gone.

Time to check out the bridge again and yes the fish was feeding in its old spot.
This time I waded to it, as I did the trout was happily feeding.
I had to wade a little closer to make a cast, the trout was still feeding…
When I made the cast though the trout spotted me and raced off, on the shallow
sandy bottom it almost looked like a torpedo had been fired off.

I tried some other spots in the area to no avail.
It was already late in the day and the fading light and clouds where a sign to call it day.

The boss once again decided to close down the factory this friday as thursday
was a public holiday.
With deteriorating weather being predicted for the weekend I opted to go
fishing on this day.
The roach spot was visited first but I could spot no fish as the skies where
covered by a blanket of clouds.
I soon got a hit though by a roach that fought like a trout, it ran all over
the place.



After the racket being produced by the roach I recieved not a single hit anymore, time to move on.
Further upstream in the village it was quiet, all the villagers where still asleep.
It was a fine moment to engage in some gardening as a thick thorny bush was blocking access to
a deep pool I had been fishing in the past.
With the proper tools access was restored.
There was a small weir in front of me and tons of roach where behind it.
It was hard though to get any of them to bite, managed just a few fish with as bonus
my first hybrid roach – probably a mix of bream and roach.





As there where so many fish it was the time to experiment with fly patterns.
My usual favorite – the goldbead pheseanttail nymph did not yield as many fish as I had hoped for.
Since my friends used once specific pattern all the time and caught many fish with it I
tried it also.
They used a so called Ritz D nymph with a red tag, I used a basic red tag nymph.
For some odd reason I never had much succses with the fly but on this day it worked pretty well.

When I looked upstream from the weir I noticed hundreds of roach in the clear water.
I carefully moved upstream from the weir and had a good look at the fish.
All roach with one odd goldfish mixed in.



Amongst all these roach there was one fish that stood alone near the bank, a trout.
Everytime a small roach would be in reach of the trout it would charge from it lie.
I was pondering if I would use a dry fly in the shallow water but opted for a small nymph.
As the nymph drifted by I saw the trout move, it nailed the nymph instantly.



After the trout it was the turn of the roach, I caught a lot of them but most where small.
At one of the deeper pools I noticed a striped fish = perch.
A streamer was tied on and it surely followed it but unfortunately it did not strike.
Besides the perch I even saw an eel moving by.



I had hoped for some surface activity of the Dace but it was rather cold for the 
time of the year.
The skies where filled with cloud and it looked like it could rain any moment.
Besides that the strong wind did not help either.
Next stop was further upstream at some pools I had not fished this year.






There where tracks on the bank and it was not only from the roe deer, obviously the 
place had been already checked out by the locals.
I noticed there where a lot of Hawthorn flies about, these terrestrials might be landing on the
water as they are bad flyers.
Maybe some of the stocked trout would be keyed in on this prey.



Most of the pools where void of fish but at one location I saw a steady rising fish.
Since I already had a streamer tied on I decided to use that fly and dropped it near the fish.
It striked two times but missed, after that no hits anymore.
I had no luck anymore so it was time to move on to the stretch where I had done well 
with the trout on the previous visit to the stream.

There was a disturbing sight at the riverbank though, not only fresh footprints but a 
foam indicator was hanging at one of the treeroots in the water.
I knew exactly who was fishing with these indicators, one of my friends.
After a while I ran in to two of my friends who had already fished all the pools I
intended to fish.
They had done well with the trout which meant that my chances where close
to zero as the place had been disturbed.
Not that it mattered as I had already done pretty well in the early morning.

After a chat with my friends I fished on, I spotted a few trout but they had also
seen me and scooted off to safer places.
I ended the day with a beautifull little small brown trout and headed to
the pub for a well deserved dinner.

With the recent abdication of our Queen the opportunity rose for a trout trip
to the Möhne river in Germany.
It was our tradition to use the holiday called Queens day for a trip to this river.
As Queens day 2013 was on a Tuesday my boss found it a good idea to close the
company down also on Monday so I had two days off.
As the proprietor of the river also ran a hotel I asked my friend if it would be 
a good idea to a two days fishing package.
It was not cheap but we always did well at the Möhne river.

So arrangements were made and the next day we arrived timely at the hotel.
After check in we immediately headed out for the river and as we were eager
to fish we choose the so called senior citizen stretch of the Möhne river.
The main characteristics where that there was ample room for back cast at that
spot as one bank was a meadow, the other a hillside where the main road was 
located. 
This stretch resembled more a canal as the end was blocked off by a Watermill.
A small bypass left the main river at the end to join the main river behind the mill.
The main reason to fish there was that there were always a lot of fish on that
stretch due to the deeper water.



I fished a small nymph and within a short time I was in to a good size rainbow
trout that took a small bead-head nymph.
The rainbow trout put up a good fight and even made some nice jumps.
Unfortunately during all the mayhem the barbless hook came out so no fish for me.

It was eerily quiet at the water, although the temperature was rather low and nature
was probably two weeks behind schedule due to the cold winter insects where 
around. 
I spotted Alder flies, small midges and other unidentified insects but nothing was rising.
Even worse I could not spot any fish in the water which would be normal for this spot.
When I fished a streamer I finally got in to a good rainbow and landed the fish.
A little while later I managed to hook a small brown trout.



In the meantime my friend remained fishless which was a very rare occurrence.
As it was midday we decided to end the slow fishing session and head to one of the local
restaurants for lunch.

At the restaurant we pondered how we would spend the remainder of the day.
As things where so slow I opted to fish the end section of the river where it entered
the Möhne reservoir.
The end often boasted large schools of roach and chub which entered the river from
the reservoir, at least I would be having some action.
My friend opted to fish the upper section of the river with as goal to catch a trout.



When I entered the lower section I had to pass underneath a bridge where you could
normally spot the chub.
Unfortunately I spotted no signs of live, not a single fish was around.
A little further upstream a deeper pool always held roach and chub but
even there I did not got a single hit.
Maybe it had just been too cold and the fish where still in the reservoir, 
I had no idea .
I continued fishing and after an hour or so I finally got a hit on the fly.

Fishing the four weight with 5x tippet and a size 14 gold bead nymph was
a suitable setup for the coarse fish.
There was however something else at the end of the line, when the fish
flanked I saw that it was a large brown trout.
A rare catch at the end stretch as it was a place I figured was never stocked
because the fish would probably swim right into the reservoir anyway.

The battle was nerve wracking as the strong fish continued to make strong runs.
My full flex rod however dampened every escape attempt , I kept my cool and
in the end could net the fish.
The fish looked like one of the so called lake trout, large fish that live in the reservoir
and head up the river in spring to spawn.
During all the time I fought the fish one of the locals was a spectator on the bridged.
When I released the fish he asked me bewildered why I let the fish go.
I just replied “fish too big” , the spectator figured “oh well it probably does not taste that good then” 
Yeah right 



For a while I continued fishing the lower section but it was pretty dead so I made a long
walk to the senior citizen stretch where I met my friend.
He had fished the upper section and all he caught was a small brown trout.
Having fished such a long distance his suspicion was that somebody might had forgotten to
stock the river with fish.
With a rather steep day ticket price you would expect to have a good fishery, not in this case.
After sunset the temperatures dropped and we called it a day.
At the hotel we noticed that people where fishing in the so called protection stretch of the river,
this was highly forbidden.



We wondered what the reason for this anti-social behavior was when we ran into the proprietor
of the place.
Apparently the other angling guests of the hotel had the same experience was we had, very unsatisfied customers.
Now the proprietor had given those people permission to fish the protected stretch which obviously would hold fish.
The word rip-off came floating in my mind.

The second day started with a breakfast in the hotel which was in our minds substandard.
This boasted nothing good for the rest of the day.
We would give the upper section of the river a try but after hours of fishing the only result was 
that my friend caught another small brown trout.




The senior citizen stretch was visited but it remained pretty lifeless, a few small browns 
followed the streamer I was fishing but no hits.
There were still insects on the water but again nothing was rising.

Time passed and out of pure boredom we decided to have lunch early.
At least lunch was good, as usual at the Al Lago restaurant on the banks of the 
Möhne reservoir.
I decided that the highlight of the day was probably the waitress there, a real looker 

Since the fishing was so terrible my friend wanted to fish the protection stretch since the
other guest where allowed to go there the day before.
I guess the proprietor was allowing this to prevent any negative promotion of his operation.
Well, I would not go for that so I told my friend I would stick it out at the end of the
stretch.
So I entered the lower section again and on this day it was still void of fish.
I waded upstream to a shallow section where I noticed that there were a lot of insects on the
water.
Swallows and other birds where picking up small mayflies from the water.



There was one single fish rising pretty predictable in front of me.
I tied on a small dry fly and launched my fly towards the feeding fish.
Every time I would do so the fish would stop feeding, when all was quiet again the
feeding would commence.
I figured that due to the shallow water even the landing of the leader on the water would
put off the fish.
I was beginning to fear that I would end the day with a blank and since it was a travelling day the
end was nearby.
I head back to the deeper pool in vicinity of the bridge and made some more futile attempts to
catch chub or roach that where not there.
An hour before sunset I finally got a hit on the small nymph.
From the resistance I knew it was not a roach or a chub, too my surprise another big brown
trout.
I suspected that I had hooked another lake trout and this one was equally strong as the one of
the previous day.
So another tough battle lay ahead for which the outcome was very questionable.
Again I kept my cool and the rod absorbed the runs of the fish.
I was very happy when I finally landed the fish, a perfect chubby brown trout.



When my friend picked me up for the return journey he could state that he had caught a couple
of standard size browns in the protected stretch.

Although the cold winter might had something to with the minimal results we figured that 
the river probably was not stocked the way it should have been.
Combined with the rather steep day ticked prices and our experience with the hotel we 
concluded that visit might have been the last one to this place. 

Since we no longer have a Queens day as official holiday but a Kings day this might be the 
incentive to start a new tradition on another river where there is a proper balance between the 
fishing and the price you have to pay for it.

Plan A today was to go fishing the stream but when a unscheduled work party was 
called in I had to ditch plan A.
Plan B … get to the Hatchery at 0900 hrs and so I did, to bad though that I was 
the only person showing up.
So it was back to plan A again.

The cold weather had finally gone and life slowly returned to the land.
Roe deer where out in the fields this morning.



Roe deer

The first windflower where showing in the forest, these are one of the first
flowers to appear in spring after the snow drops.



Windflowers

At the stream I first went to one of my always producing pools but today it yielded
no fish.
I should have taken waders with me as my options for making a decent presentation where quite limited.
Next stop was the spot where I had caught my first trout of the season but nothing happened there.
As I walked along the bank I spotted a moving trout and made a few casts at it only to scare the fish.
I would be back later for that fish.

I found a nice pool further downstream and with some climbing I positioned myself to make a cast
into the pool.
The streamer moved nicely along the opposite back when it was suddenly attacked by a decent
brown trout.
This trout was an acrobat as it jumped twice high in the air.
I was still connected to the fish though and was about to land the fish when the hook came out, bummer.

The next spot was an undercut bank where a trout literally jumped on the streamer but
alas also this fish threw the hook.
I decided to leave the stretch alone for a while and head up further to the source of the stream.
When I spotted some roach or dace I had a go at them with the nymph and hooked another fish …
and lost it consequently.
Two small carp came shuffling by and as happens each spring the brook lampreys where out in force.


Undercut bank

In the afternoon I head back to the stretch I had fished in the morning and probed all
the spots I had fished earlier again.
At one spot I had three cautious hits but those did not result in a solid take.
I tried the pool again of the acrobatic trout thinking no fish can be so stupid to take a lure
twice a day but it did and it saved me from skunk.
Maybe it was another fish but it did not matter as I could land my second trout of the season



Second trout of the season

So with the main mission being accomplished it was time to get something to eat.
A look at the clock showed me that one of my favorite haunts was just about to open
and since I had not had anything to eat all day decided to call it a day.


Still cold enough to need the fire.

As the weather looked like rain this morning the pub was void of the usual daytripper 
but lucky for me the kitchen was staffed.
The weather forecast for tomorrow shows warm temperatures so I guess I have the
visit the stream again and catch those other trout 🙂