Flyfishing FWSW

I had planned some river fishing today over the border in Germany but with the low temperature
and constant rain I decided to ditch that plan.
It was quite cold and so I made up plan B to go to my perch spot at the end of the day
when the temperature would be at its highest.

My hotspot was a canal and although that water held perch and also pike you had to find
the fish otherwise the exercise would be pretty useless.
As the algae bloom had stopped a while ago the water was very clear and I could see the small streamer I fished from miles away.
What I did not see where signs of life = fish of any sorts.

I systematically fished the canal with a 4-weight rod boasting a full sinking line and a small barbless streamer.
When I came near the next road bridge I spotted fish.
Hordes of roach where at the surface and when that surface began to boil I suspected the fish where
corralled by the perch.
A few casts later my hunch was confirmed as I caught a decent size perch.
The second fish was a monster, never seen such a big perch in real life and I was very happy when I
finally landed the fish, that perch had put a serious bend in the four weight rod.

Off course I had hoped the action would continue non-stop but alas that did not happen.
One small perch made the tally three in total and that was it.
The roach where still splashing about even as the light faded but the perch did not fall for the
streamer anymore.

As the Asps where still milling in my head I had to go back to the big river.
A little search on the internet revealed some information that should have
been helpful  to improve my chances.

One of the things written was be early on the water and so I was at the big
river somewhere around 5.30 ish.
Off course no people, no shipping traffic and thus clear water.
What I noticed where fish in the surface … small stuff … and maybe the
bigger ones would follow.
It stayed quiet however although I spotted two big swirls between the groins …
be it during several hours.

My first fish contact came at the inside of a groin and behold I actually hooked
a fish … ok not exactly the target species and of debatable size but heck … a fish.
And that was it … could not get anything after that anymore.
In the meantime the guy with the spinning rod was hauling in an Asp, guess
they were not surface feeding.

Somehow I did not think the fishing would get better as rains started to pour.
Maybe it was time to check out the overflow area.
I tossed the Clouser of my Asp setup (6-weight rod, floating line)  at the end of
the overflow area and started to retrieve.
Suddenly … bang … fish on, but not the Asp, Ide or Perch I had hoped for but
a darn pike.
Off course fishing without the trace meant it all ended in a disaster … gone baby gone.

Now forewarned I got out the trace and continued to fish the overflow area.
Now and then I would see the fry jump out of the water so that was a good sign.
The water was clouded but I could still spot several bream moving in the surface.
Halfway to the railway bridge something very odd happened … my fly was gone and
the trace was frayed … river monsters ?  who knows …

It was not going well, so on to plan B – the full sinking line.
The sinking line had not the desired effect … I parked too many streamers on the river
floor.  In the meantime the rains had made the rocks on the groins slippery as hell because
the clay mud had been lubricated in a dangerous manner.
I called it a day and after staring down some cows that where blocking the exit gate I
went home … bugger.

With all the low water at the home stream I decided today to head in the
opposite direction aka west to try my luck on the big water.
I opted to go to the Ijssel river or as the Romans called it “Isala”.
Big, wide, strong current and so on, a whole other dimension than what I
am normally used.
My timing was a bit off meaning late as it was a beautiful day and the spot
I picked was a favorite for the towns folk to bathe and let their dogs run around.

I was not sure to start with nymphs or lures so I tried nymphs first but that
quickly changed when I saw the water explode at the first breakwater.
Without a doubt Asp where hunting and it was a pretty obvious that they
were out to make short work of the baitfish.
Several attacks followed but my lure went untouched, must have been to
slow with my retrieve I guess.
Action died down quickly and the Asps where gone.
I fished several breakwaters and got one strike but no fish stuck.

As the beachgoers came in droves I decided to head back home but first
took a few pics of my old office which was right on the river.
I also checked the old city moat with its exceptionally clear water but could not
see any fish (had hoped for Rudd) so that was a bust also.

To avoid skunk I visited a local canal and tossed the sinking line and a small lure
in the drink only to see a micro perch attack the lure that was bigger than the fish.
Hope faded but by more luck than skill I hooked a nice perch at the end of the
stretch I intended to fish.
I even got a little one as bonus so the day was saved.
I might go after the Asp later in the season maybe when it is no beachgoing
weather, early morning and evening should be the best time according to the
literature.

Today my friends and I tried to catch a seatrout (searun browns) at a coastal lake that is part in
a pilot project to reintroduce migratory fish to the northern part of the Netherlands.
We where hoping to run into one of the searun browns or at least get a flounder or an ide (shiner)
but the weather was against us.
It was cold, the wind had stirred up the sediment of the lake causing the visibility to drop to zero.
While wading we could not see an inch into the water and as the area was unknown to us with the
exception of some sketchy info it was tricky to move around.
We could not spot any fish with the exception of the ones caught by the crested grebes,
obviously better fishermen than us.

The lake used to be an estuary but was now used as a discharge point for freshwater into the sea.
The sluices in the dam discharged freshwater at low tide and stayed open for a short while at high tide to let in migratory fish
that had been waiting at the seaside.
Fish species would be searun browns, stickle backs, smelt, flounder and a host of other fish.

Maybe we where a tad too optimistic to expect fish but I was glad we went there to check the place out.
Hopefully we can return there again when the conditions are more favourable.
Location was the Lauwersmeer, before 1969 known as the Lauwersea.

The last fishing day of the year was traditionally spend with friends on the so called last pike-fishing trip.
This time we picked one of our local streams on the border with Germany as our venue.
The task at hand was simple, try to catch a pike and conclude the day with dinner at the restaurant
of the local watermill.
The mill was quite old, built in 1610 and still used for power generating.
In the good old days they used to hang people on a nearby hill on a main trading road that went
from the Netherlands to Germany as a warning to evil doers, yep the good old days.

At first my friends did not want to purchase the license for the German part of the stream as the
mill pool was crowded with local anglers.
I on the other hand always liked mill pools and was eager to get the license, my take on the
situation was “there might be other anglers but can they fish :-)”
So in the end we did get the licenses and started fishing the mill pool.

There was a steady flow of water pushing through the stream, as with most local streams higher than
usual after the steady downpours this month.
I had also seen this stream having clearer water than on this day but the visibility was good enough to catch fish.
At the outflow of the flow I noticed the shallowness of this section.
I was rather surprised I felt some what I call “ground movement” which indicated that a predatory fish
was present, I just could not connect for a second time.

The lack off success soon drove my friends to greener pastures and one by one they were heading
off into the forest to fish the Dutch side of the stream.
With the pool now vacated except for a few local anglers I tried my luck in the front section of the
pool and was soon rewarded with a little pike – mission completed.

I moved up even further in the pool on a tricky part of a sandbar as I did not know if the accumulated
flotsam there would carry my weight.
The sand did not give away and now I had a shot at the deeper water under the weir.
After a while I noticed that my fly was stalked by a pike but it failed to strike so I had to pester the fish
to provoke it and in the end it did attack the fly, pike nr. 2 of the day.

Off course this pike action had not gone unnoticed and before I knew it I had two anglers next to me
tossing lures and a dead bait.
It did not bother me as I knew before that the place was a zoo even in winter time because of the
adjacent restaurant.
Before leaving the crowds and entering the forest to fish the Dutch part of the stream I headed back to
the outflow of the stream where I had my first fish contact of the day.
I know concentrated more on the slack water and to my surprise a little pike was calling that spot home.
Pike nr. 3 was a fact and although small a fish was a fish.

Off course it was nice to catch the pike but honestly I was not a particular fan of pike-fishing.
The mill pool had a reputation as a prime perch spot but as everybody who lived there fished the
pool these fish were extremely difficult to catch with artificial lures, they had seen it all.
I entered into the woods on the Dutch part of the stream that had undergone some major renovation
several years back.
The stream had been straightened in the thirties and was looking more like a canal than a stream.
There had been tampered with the stream even hundreds of years earlier as they rerouted the water
to a different river systems than original to make it shippable for small boats.
The renovation work consisted out of digging up old meanders and removing steep weirs by cascading
rocky sections.
The stream now had very steep banks and loads of structure, all in all a more natural look.
In one of these pools I had another fish contact and this time it was a healthy looking river perch
of a pretty decent size.
The long net came in handy and so I landed fish nr. 4 of the day.

I fished the remainder of the stretch with no success and as I spotted footsteps in the sand deposited
by the recent floods I knew I was not the first time to fish those spots.
For pike fishing though that made no different as we often jokingly said you had to first wake the pike up
before they struck which was often the case on outings with more people.
My friends told me that even on this day 4 guys fished the same spot and nr. 5 eventually caught the
the resident pike out of a particular pool.

The stream on the Dutch side was a tad narrower than on the German side and with the increased amount
of water I had the feeling that I fished not deep enough.
I could have changed to a sinking line or a weighted polyleader but I figured the murky water prevented
me to see any snags on the streams bottom which I figured were plenty.
As I had never seen the stream above the mill pool I opted to send the remainder of the daylight hours
to scout out a new part of water.
The section above the mill was wide and flat and I missed signs of fish and could not see any features
that I wanted to fish so I only made a few exploratory casts.
On the plus side I spotted a blue kingfisher shooting past me, a very pretty bird which I yet had to
photograph as they were too darn fast for me to take a decent picture.
Sometimes Kingfishers could be observed fishing or nesting but even then it was difficult to photograph them
without any mega zoom camera.
I walked quite a distance along the stream but could not find any interesting to fish in the current conditions.
What I did found interesting was some movement in the nearby cornfield and what I thought was a stray
dog turned out to be a roe deer.
After closer inspection I noticed there where at least five of them moving about.
I was off wind but I could swear they smelled my socks as they got up and stared at me.
Eventually they moved off so I could only take some pictures at maximal digital zoom resulting in
grainy pictures.

As the sun slowly went down I headed back to the mill pool.
In the meantime my radio went dead so I could not track were my friends had gone off too but
I suspected they where still searching their way through the now dark forest.
It was a bright idea to make a reservation for a table in the restaurant as the place was pretty
packed.

Although it was early this morning I figured I was pretty well prepared for a little canal session.
Once on the water however I noticed I had left my landing net at home.

My high hopes of fish activity were not justified as the canal looked pretty dead and
I did not receive one nibble on the fly.
That unusually high temperature for the end of December surely did not convince the
baitfish to seek shelter in the dead end canal.

Even the geese seemed to have lost their way as they were flying around in circles.
The perch had to be found but whatever I tried I just could not get a single bite.
The last time at the canal it was fish after fish but now total silence.
In the end I figured the fly I fished might be to big so I switched to a smaller pattern.
That actually worked but instead of the perch I hooked a pretty decent pike.

As I was fishing for perch with small flies I had no wire trace so I figured in the end the pike
would sever the line but the fish was properly hooked out of reach of the sharp teeth.
Without the landing net I just had to perform the gill grip but the pike saw that coming and
with a last rush of energy it shook its head and severed the line.

The dead end section was out of bounds now as the perch had obviously moved so I tried
the marina instead.
I actually saw a perch following the fly or better said a perchlette as it had the same size
as the fly but was still intend on grabbing it.
My last resort was the section of the marina where the wind had pushed a lot of debris in
one corner.
I knew it as a shallower part of the marina with quite clear water.
I took only a few retrieves before I was into another pike, this time a smaller specimen.
The pike went airborne but this time it was hooked outside of harms way and with the
low bank I could release the fish without losing my fly.

I checked out other parts of the marina but no life was to be seen, all dead.
Clouds brought rain in the afternoon and light rain began to fall.
It was not that late in the day but light was getting low and with the lack of bites
I just called it a day.

The weeks persistant rains accumulated such an amount of water that my beloved
stream in Germany was bursting out of its banks, no use in going there.
So for the first time since ages I fished a body of water in my own country for a change.

Each morning as I went to work I passed along a dead canal that was used by the coarse
fish as an overwintering spot because it provided shelter from the elements.
In the evening time you could often see rising fish in the water and this had not
gone unnoticed by the predatory fish that inhabited the canal.

Allthough it was stormy last Sunday I deciced to go out fishing for a couple of hours at the canal.
My intended quarry was perch which had to be located first as they were moving up and down
the canal probably in pursuit of the baitfish concentrations.
Perch could be big in the canal but up to now I only caught the smaller specimens with the larger
ones only following my fly.
As it was a well known spot fishing pressure was great and the fish would probably be wary
about any artificial lure passing by.

As I arrived somewhat late in the morning the first spin fisherman was already on the scene
tossing a twister accross the canal.
He had encountered two small pike but had not caught any perch yet.
I fished the same stretch with a 6-weight rod, sinking line and a polar minnow and was quite
quickly into my first fish.
Things where going really well with a decent amount of bites and a few caught fish.

I left the dead end section of the canal for a while and concentrated fishing the nearby
marina.
No life to be seen in the water and all that wind had surely mixed up the otherwise
so clear water.
As I returned to the dead end section of the canal I noticed at least three new anglers on
the scene.
One of the nearest guys was actually running to his buddy with a large net but I could not
spot any fish being landed.
When I spoke to them later it turned out one of the guys had a large pike on that managed
to get rid of the large plug at the last moment, must have been a heartbreaking moment.

I continued dredging the canal with the polar minnow and my own adaptation of a bend
back streamer made out of SF blend and managed a few more fish.
The wind was pretty bad and allthough it was quite warm I did feel that some warmer
clothing might have been in place due to the wind.
Later in the afternoon as the light was fading I noticed the first activity of fish in the
surface so something was going on.
By that time though I had expirienced enough wind for the day so I called it quits.
No monster perch caught yet but maybe we get some shots this month or next year.

A visit to the barber to make yours truly presentable again prohibited a trip to the stream on the other side of the border.
The barber told me that one of my old haunts where I first caught a river fish on the fly had been reworked to
improve habitat and to increase the streams water retaining capacity.

The stream in question had been messed up for a long time but what really did the trick was the work they did in the
thirties when they “improved” the agricultural land.
What they basically did was straighten the stream out and make orderly manicured banks.
With all the work already done in the past the streams total length had become shorter as branches where cut off
and meandering section where pulled straight.
This brought new problems as the flowspeed increased thus causing erosion.
So they build many weirs to slow the water down, off course in those days nobody cared about fish migration.

This past Sunday I travelled to the stream but when I came there it seemed I was a little too optimistic about the progress
of the work being done.
The banks where still barren sand so all the work had been finished quite recently and it would surely have effect
on the fishery, most worrying of all – I did not spot any fish.
It used to be a prime spot for dace but the surface of the water yielded no rising fish whatshowever.

Now it came to fishing … yes there where fish … pin fry so small that they where not even able to
sink my size 17 dry fly which I was tossing at them.
Every time I struck some small 5cm dace would fly through the air, only small stuff around.
I eventually tried nymphs and streamers but I came no further than a few missed bites on the nymphs
again from tiny fish.

As I hated blanks I had to think of a plan B and that was to visit one of the feeder streams where I
might have more luck.
The junction of the feeder stream with the main stream would have been good but when I arrived there
the heavy machinery was still on the banks … which where closed off to the public.
The only hope was than the section of the feeder near the border where a small lake functioned as as
a so called sandcollector – retaining sediment.
Unfortunately the spot was already taken by bait fisherman and as the visibility was nearly zero
I did not think flyfishing would have worked there,
The feeder itself only carried an inch or two of water and was pretty lifeless.
Looking at the shallow water I would have found it more likely to encounter a boa constrictor than a fish.

The feeder stream seemed almost fishless … almost since the section at the culvert under the
road had some deeper water and shelter.
To my surprise some pretty big carp called the culvert their home.
The carp where moving about at the front of the culvert, untill they spotted me off course.

Plan B failed but I still had plan C on offer.
As one section of the main stream near the border with Germany had been redone several years ago
it was feasable that fish would be present there.
The last time I had fished there was more than ten years ago so it would be interesting to see how itA
looked now.
When I arrived at the location I noticed that the easy bank access was gone, it had turned in to a total
jungle.
The brigde over the stream was still present be it in a different form as it was replaced by an arching bridge.
The plus side was that I had an high vantage point from where I could spot a school of smaller dace.
After several missed takes I finally hooked a little dace and my day was saved.

The catch of the day one little dace, for that I had sweated it out in the heat …. got stung by several
horseflies … had to tolerate antisocial mountainbikers … people who let their dogs swim … andsoforth.

It was a moment of enlightenment as I realized again why I had done my best to find a decent fishing
spot far away from my hometown.
Next week … back to the syndicate waters 🙂

As always the most important thing at the start of the year was to catch the first fish.
Sort of breaking the ice to use a rather horrible term.
Temperatures had been unseasonable high for the time of the year so conditions where
optimal to go after the predators in one of the local canals.

Strong wind and rain made it a bit unpleasant to be outside but fish had to be caught.
Allthough many local fisherman fish for pike in this time of year my favorite predator is
the perch so I fish for them almost exclusively.
I fitted the four weight with a sinking line and tied on a small polar minnow in perch livery,
big perch like to eat small perch.

The usually clear waters of the canal where murky as a strong wind was stirring up
the silt but after a while I could see the big perch tracing the streamer.
The perch in the canal are very wary though as the place is fished a lot so in first
instance they only followed the fly.
Competition among the perch was fierce though so one of them actually went for the
fly but came off after a short drill as I had only hooked it lightly on the barbless hook.
Since I had now located the perch I made a second attempt and could actually land
a nice fish.

I fished the canal section thoroughly untill the dead end but got no more hits.
What I did notice was that the canal was still used for shelter by the overwintering roach.
Besides the perch the canal is inhabited by some very large pike but I try to avoid them by using
very small flies.
Next I fished the nearby marina where I had a battle with another decent perch but again the fish
managed to threw the hook, the score 3 hooked – 1 landed.

The marina did not yield any more fish and as the sun was about to set chances to catch perch
where diminishing fast.
So the first fishing session of the year resulted in a fine perch.
Next on the menue will be a pike if the weather permits it.