Flyfishing FWSW

After a successful trip to Lake Oostvoorne on the 18th of December quite a few members
of our flyfishing club wanted to go there for a final flyfishing trip to seal off the year.
The big rainbows in the lake where a compelling reason to go there.
Unfortunately the weather was a factor that had a strong impact on my fellow flyfishermen.
Once the temperature dropped below freezing the volunteers disappeared as snow before the Sun.
In the end only Tom and Bert where willing and able to go but I guess everybody had a slight
feeling that we might be totally insane to go fishing in this weather.

When we arrived at the lake the skies where bright and blue and a light breeze was blowing.
The otherwise packed parking lot at the lake was totally empty, how odd.
We only spotted three fellow flyfisherman from Belgium and saw two divers floating in the cold waters of the lake.
The water was actually warmer than the outside air, 41F water compared to 33F air.
I headed out to one of the entrances between the little dams in the lake and immediately
spotted a very big rainbow making a turn in the surface.
So the fish where present, the only thing needed was a fish that ate flies.

The cold weather called for fishing with sinking lines and making slow retrieves.
We used floating nymphs that in conjunction with the fast sinking lines hovered close to the lake’s bottom.
Fishing was very slow, after seeing the big bow in the surface I saw no more signs of life in the water.
Since nobody was catching any thing I was pretty sure I was not doing anything wrong.
At one point during the day we saw a guy who was filming us, he was standing next to Tom and asked how things where going.
Bert asked Tom later who the guy was affiliated with, I just replied it might be psychiatrists weekly.

So during the bright daylight hours nobody was catching any fish.
We would just have to tough it out until the golden hour of sunset arrived.
Then our chances of catching a fish would be increase greatly.
It was a fact that most fish where caught either at dusk or dawn.

Although it was cold outside we fared pretty well during the day because the sun was shining and the dunes behind us shielded us from the North-easterly
winds.
The only drawback was the smell from the petrochemical plants located well in front of the dunes in the Rotterdam harbour.
Once the sun was gone the temperatures plummeted and suddenly I noticed ice in the guides and on the line.

Tom and I had the same rate of success in the evening as during the day, none.
Bert on the other hand was shouting that he finally had a take.
Then came another shout and he was into a fish.
Tom rushed towards Bert and took a few pictures of the fish, it was not big so most likely one of the years new stocked rainbows.

So Bert saved the day, at least a fish was caught so this whole exercise in the bitter cold was not in vain.
Our reputation was saved and for now we where safe from being transported to an asylum.
As we left the temperature had plummeted to 25F, we where happy to get in the warm car and go home.
It was a memorable ending of the fishing year.

Today I went fishing for pike at the grounds of the local university.
My fishingbuddy Joop had a special permit to fish there and was able to take one guest angler with him.
The campus is littered with small heavy overgrown lakes that house pike in various sizes.
I had two hits on the fly and managed to haul in one little specimen who hit the fly when I retrieved it close to the bank.


Pike

Pike nr.2 shot out from a weedbed to nail the fly but after a few jumps the hook came out.
Joop was fishing a streamer with a spinningrod to fish those parts of the lakes that where out of reach for flyfishing.
He had several hits but was not able to hook any fish.
Todays weather was reasonable, 40F temperature with gray skies and light rain.