I had planned to fish on saturday despite the cold weather.
On friday message came that help was needed at the club’s hatchery.
I figured the best time to fish would be the afternoon so I headed to the hatchery first.

The task at hand was to clear out a hatching pond.
Before that could happen the resident trout needed to be caught and sorted along weight.
I had my waders with me so I entered the basin and caught a few hundred brown trout with some very nice fat rainbows mixed in.

After the work I warmed at the fire in our club house for a while and went out to the river.
Recent rains had risen the water level but clarity remained.
As it was standard in winter fish where few and at first I could not spot any.
Nymphs remained untouched whatever I tied on or how deep I fished them.
As a last resort I tied on a squirmy and that did the trick as I caught a small dace.

Other spots I visited where empy, with the sun low in the sky I went into the forest to check the last mark of the day.
I noticed fish, again small dace with curiously a gold fish mixed in.
I had counted that all dumped gold fish would have been victim of the herons by now.
After getting two more dace I called it a day.

As the sun was still visibile I made a short stop at a nearby sand pit and made some exploratory casts along a few reedbeds.
I fished a small streamer in perch livery hoping for a pike or perch but nothing was moving.
I stopped to watch the sun set and headed back home.