Flyfishing FWSW

I had pondered to visit the chub section on Sunday as the fishing on the upper section
of the main stream did not fish well.
Plans changed when I got a notification that brown trout had been stocked in stream nr.2
So I went to stream nr.2 instead and apparently the news had spread as there where already
two other anglers on the premises.

I figured the end of the pool might be the place to be.
The turbine was out of action and water flowed over the weir.
Unfortunately nobody was catching anything.
I tried downstream from the mill pool but all I could muster was a tiny perch.

When I came back at the mill pool the other anglers had left, not a good sign.
I made a few more casts and got another perch but no signs of trout.
With the first of May being a big thing in Germany I expected the pub to be
crowded any minute. 

This was the day for the ordinary Joe’s to walk around the countryside with a cart
full of booze and get drunk … or sit at the pub in the beer garden with the same m.o.
I moved off further downstream and spots I had not been in about 10 years.
Only bites from small bottom feeders though.

At one spot I actually saw a rising fish, not sure what it was but it rose steadily
so I could have been a trout.
The spot was difficult to reach though, high banks , shrubs and so forth.
I managed to reach the stream more or less graciously and made a few casts
at the head of the pool where I spotted the fish.
The fish struck but it was not the trout I had hoped for, a small dace which was
the first fish on dry fly of the season.

Plan C … to stream 1, I chose a spot which I thought saw not that much angling
pressure but the tracks of boots showed otherwise.
One measly roach was all that I found there.
I had to go deeper in the woods and finally got to a spot where no tracks where found.

Late in the day the question arouse what plan D would be, try another spot downstream
or go back to stream nr.2 and visit the pub.
It became the pub off course.

April 27th 2022 … a public holiday in the Netherlands as the king had his birthday.
I decided to hop over the border as I was more interested in catching fish than join the party crowds back home. The Germans had a normal working day so no crowds at the water.

The last couple of weeks the whole fishing thing did not really work out as I wanted.
I had not caught a single decent trout since the season start on March 15th.
The mission for the day was to catch a decent trout.

With a cold night there was no necessity to go early.
I was at the water at 09:00 and still had the place all for my self.
But… no fish … oddly I tried all the spots and riffles and no bites at all.
At a deadfall I finally hooked a little brown trout.

I worked my way upstream and only got a few small bottom feeders (gudgeons) and one single roach.
I moved a few miles further upstream and tried some of the deeper holes.
At one of them I launched a squirmy at the start of the pool and the indicator went down with force.
Finally a good fish and not a brown as I had expected but a feisty rainbow trout.

My day was made but just for good order I tried some more spots upstream.
The water was lifeless although I had spotted the first occurrence of a Danica mayfly (Ephemera danica). When I finally spotted a fish in the surface I wondered if it would be a trout.
I still had the squirmy tied on and dropped it near the fish but no reaction.
In hindsight a dry fly might have been a better choice but it was done.

Next I dropped the squirmy at the start of the pool and had a lot of bites.
The bites came not from trout but from Rudd aka Golden shiners.
Those where not usual stream fare but I suspected they came from the clubs pond where
the surplus population of shiners where sometimes relocated to the stream.
With their upturned mouth the Rudd where keen on surface food and probably cruised
in the surface for midges or stuff that came down from the trees.

I tried one final spot for a brown trout but no action was to be had there.
It was late afternoon so what better way to end the day than have dinner at the pub.
Off course the new location was at the other stream so I took some interesting backroads to get there.
The pub had a good crowd out on the terrace.
I soon traded my outside spot for inside as the temperature plummeted rapidly with the sun low in the sky. There where some supply chain problems but I did not leave the place hungry.

Another session at the mill pool on a very windy day.
I was not the first fisherman at the mill pool, a heron was perched near the weir.

Surprisingly the turbine had been put into action so no water fell over the weir.
At first I thought it was a good thing as I could fish the deeper water behind the weir but nothing showed up, not a single hit.

Off course I tried a streamer with trace this time and guess what … no pike
to be seen in miles … as if they knew.
I changed plans and entered the end of the pool and slowly made my way towards the turbine outflow.
That yielded two small roach and a perch but not the trout I had hoped for.
The highlight of the mill pond was the stoat that came by and crossed the weir with a show of acrobatics.

With the mill pool no good I tried the river and probed some of the deeper pools but only got some small perch and gudgeons to show for my efforts.
To make matters worse when I walked back to the pub high on the bank I noticed a felt sole floating downstream.. I only realized later it came from my el cheapo wading boots.

The only thing to do was to flush away my grief at the pub.
It had been dead all morning but in the afternoon bikers came in droves
with cyclists mixed in … it was packed.
It was also understaffed so I chucked a way a couple of cold ones and
a cheeseburger and called it day … wel almost.

I made one more stop at a bridge downstream as the spot looked so fishy.
Still no trout but at least I could two dace out of the riffle.

Another day of spring fishing, mill pool take 3 …
I started with tossing a streamer for larger perch early in the morning.
At the first cast I had an instant hit of a pike .. got off.
Then I tried again and another pike hit and took the fly.
No wire trace since I was fishing a small streamer intended for perch or trout.

I switched to the squirmy hoping to avoid any encounters with pike but even
that was not guaranteed as a pike hit the worm fly.
The spot at right at the mill weir looked promising but I got zero hits.
I took quite some time to find out where the fish where hiding.

At the end of the pool I noticed fish in the surface, a first for me this year.
I finally found the right current seam and depth and started fishing a perdigon.
In the time from morning to early afternoon I had hit after hit from mostly
small roach with some perch mixed in.
I even hooked a trout but it was a lively one taking to the air.
The barbless hook came out during one of the jumps.

Later in the afternoon I decided to scout the river as I had noticed that the
warm weather of recent days had changed the game.
There where a lot of midges and segdes about but just a few small dace
that where rising.
In the river I stumbled over a trout, good size but I spotted it too late so it
took off.

Fish size again not that great but action had greatly improved since the last
time I fished the spot.
Spring is in full swing and the great outdoors is finally getting some green hues.

Another session to the mill pool of syndicate nr.2
It was an early session as had some trouble sleeping so when I got up early I decided to go out.
It was colder than I had expected and fog was blanketing the land.

At the water I was the first angler to appear …
The water was a lot lower than last week but it still blasted through the mill.
The turbine channel was still out of action so all the water rushed over the weir.
It was just flowing to fast to get the fly deep enough in time.
Nymphing seemed out of the question in these conditions so a free lined
squirmy was my last hope.

With the water now lower and the sandbar and the end of the pool exposed
I figured wading to a better spot might be an option.
I managed to reach a spot where an eddy had formed with slower water.
Still … it was deeper than anticipated so cold water entered the wader.

Some of the hits on the squirmy resulted in catching small perch but no
hits of trout, at least not visible.
On three occasions the tail of the squirmy was bitten clean off, not the
action of perch but not sure who was responsible for that.

When I finally had a large fish on I thought I had hid the jackpot by either
getting a big perch or a pike.
The rod was bend double and I wondered what it could be.
When I got a glimpse of the fish it turned out to be a pike.
Just as I was about to net the fish the line went slack.
Turned out I had hooked a small perch and the pike had grabbed it.

A couple of my friends came along and one of them fished with conventional
gear and dropped a lobworm on a sinker into the currents.
He managed two large perch in succession so the combination of natural
bait and proper weight outperformed the squirmy.

In the afternoon the cold easterly wind died a bit down and out of the
wind it was rather nice … still I was not clothed properly for the day.
Some midges where on the water but no signs of feeding fish.
After another small perch I called it a day.
Monday back for a third try with some perch streamers.

With the recent rains and cold temperatures it was maybe not the wisest move
to check out one of my “new” old fishing haunts.
Early morning the temperature was below freezing and ominous clouds
at the horizon meant nothing good.

An earlier peek at the particular river gage showed it was carrying twice
as much water as in normal conditions.
The only hope I had to catch fish was the fact that there where plenty
of perch in that water.

When I arrived at the water I saw that it was indeed high and murky.
Only one fly could yield something in those conditions, the squirmy.
I tried but no luck, wat surprised me was the fact that I could see a
trout trying to get up the mill weir.
Off course impossible due to the height and lack of a fish ladder but
at least fish where present.

The spot right behind the weir did not yield any bites.
Figuring I might fish too shallow I removed the indicator and drifted the
squirmy freely with the current.
That method gave me a certified hit but the fish came off.
Tried for a quite a while and finally got a little perch, the only fish of the day.

All we can do is hope for warmer weather to get things moving.
Insect life had started and midges where out in numbers so fishing should
improve in the coming weeks.

Another week and totally different weather.
The spring feeling was definitely gone when the thermometer showed -4C
in the morning.
Besides that rain, hail and snow was in the forecast with a high temperature
not exceeding the 6C in the Afternoon.

So I waited until the temperature was above freezing, the roe deer probably
did the same because they where everywhere late in the morning.
I picked up the last rays of sunshine before the dark clouds and showers rolled in.

First spot was the location where I lost the legal size last week but boy fished
sucked big time.
No hits at all and nothing to be seen moving.
The only break I got was when the tiniest of Rudd nailed the Perdigon nymph.

I ran into my friends and they had the same experience.
Tried some other spots but no bites at all, pretty miserable day to be outside.
Water levels had dropped and with no cover as foliage has yet to appear
I figured if there where fish I had probably scared them off.

Another friend was also fishing and reported that he had a single hit on the fly
and that it was a rainbow trout.
Those are illegal to stock in flowing water in the part of Germany where I fish so
I was puzzled.
I had heard an earlier report that a quite large rainbow had been caught so maybe
somebody stocked them.

The weather has turned for the worse and right now it rains cats and dogs and this
will probably continue for the whole week.
Likely the stream will be in flooding stage by the weekend.
I will monitor the levels, if it is not to bad I might try dredging the stream with
squirmy’s hoping for an elusive sizable trout.

Well, since last Friday did not yield any trout I figured I would give the syndicate the Saturday
to put in the stockies so I could fish for them on Sunday.
Went early before daybreak under cloud cover with as target the upper section of the stream.
The headwaters were accessible in spring, later in the season it would become an overgrown
jungle with no room to cast.

I guessed the lack of cover scared the fish away but at least I got a roach and a dace for starters.
The stream further down was shallow so you could imagine what the headwaters looked like.
But in the end I got a little brown trout and missed a legal size fish.
There was always something like next week so I remembered the spot by heart for another try.

I even waded one the two feeders that formed the stream.
Behold I actually got a strike on the indicator so that could only have been a trout.
The clouds had gone early in the morning and the temperature rose quickly.
Insects where appearing and I even spotted a blue dun on the water.
No fish in the upper feeder though or more likely all on the run for bigfoot=me.

Next stop the middle section with deep pool but absolutely no life to be seen.
Further downstream I managed only gudgeons and a few dace.
Last stop of the day way downstream in a village dragging a deeper pool for any fish.
I had hoped for a trout but only encountered a perch and some roach.

This was the last day of fine weather so far with a cold snap and possible 
snow, hail and other rotten stuff forecast for the weekend …

So I skipped work to get my first trout of the season … to put it short … I failed.
Morning started with clear weather and a temperature just above freezing.
At the first stream I crossed I looked from upon a bridge into the water and
found several roach moving about.
One of the fish was pretty large … could have been a trout.

The first mark had fish, hooked a few dace but could not stick the hook.

Plenty of bites from the pesky gudgeons, small bottom feeders and thus the first

fish species to be caught.
Finally managed one good dace but did not see any trout.
Stockies usually go for the sight indicator but no show.

I tried several spots on our so called guest stretch but no hits at all.

Headed out into the woods to check some more secluded spots but
alas nothing to be had. Ended the day with another dace and some more gudgeons.

It was nice being out and about and it sure beats working.

At the closed pub I noticed a note at the door stating it would reopen soon.
The owner probably found a tenant again brave or stupid enough to give it a go.
On the way home I ran into a local acquaintance who could tell me that
the new landlady was from Africa and that the menu would be African. 
We made a bet that they would not last past December…