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.