Flyfishing FWSW

Another early outing to the stream yesterday.
I only saw a brief glimpse of the sun in the morning as the weather was changing.
The weather change had impact on the insect life.
It stayed quiet on top for most of the morning.

The Perdigon did a good job but I lost more to the trees than I liked.
At least I had the materials to tie my own which would be required soon.
A passing cold front made the weather let’s say interesting.
At times it looked like it would rain and as it was still warm and

sticky I thought the thunderstorms where imminent.

Late in the afternoon I went to the pub and settled in the beer garden.
The menu these days down scaled so I settled for a curry sausage with

fries and the mozzarella tomato side dish.

All flushed away with dark wheat beers.

I even managed to get the mandatory coffee and cake to top it all off.

The cold front was blowing through in force and those dark clouds

finally erupted in a heavy downpour.
Luckily I could shelter inside the pub, within half an hour it was all over
and I went for my last fishing session of the day.

After landing a nice trout near the grounds of the pub I headed

into the forest to see if I could spot trout feeding on mayflies.
The downpour had filled the stream with debris from the trees so surface

action was non existent.
The Perdigon yield a gudgeon, certified bottom feeder.
Lots of bites from these little fellows but not the fish I was looking for.

At the end of the day the light was fading and with the strong wind and

falling branches of the trees I thought fishing was over.

Some big dead falls where leaning against the still standing trees and made
a pretty awful noise.

If one of those old trees would give way it would sure be a bad day.

On the way out of the forest I heard a loud splash in the water.
At first I thought it had to be another falling tree branch hitting the water.
As I was not sure and had spotted several mayflies on the water I went to investigate.
A swirl in the water indicated to me that maybe something else was going on.

I broke out one of the big mayfly patterns and looked for a good position to make a cast.
It took a few cast before the fly landed near enough to the tree where I suspected a fish.
As the fly drifted near the tree the trout came up and nailed the fly with vigor.
A good way to end the fishing day with as last fish a trout on the dry fly.

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An early start trying to find the trout I spotted while fishing last week.
Insects where on the water early but no fish where rising.
I did a field test with some newly bought Perdigon nymphs and they worked well.
The roach seemed to like them and one small trout came for them.
The nymphs where heavy so no subtle entry in the water but they got deep and caught fish.

I had planned a break at the pub as it reopened last Monday under
new strict covid measures.
The word had spread under the bikers which arrived in hordes.
A long line of customers had formed in front of the ordering booth .
It looked like a waste of time to join the line and wait for a couple of
fries so I skipped lunch and continued fishing.

I visited a place where I had not been in ages.
The usually trampled paths where overgrown which was a good sign.
Mayflies where out in numbers despite wind and clouds.
Trout made their presence known as they aggressively pursued the mayflies.

I was tempted to toss a large mayfly at the trout but faced a problem
Casting was impossible duo to high banks and foliage.
When I spotted a trout under some submerged logs I tried to coax it out.
First with a nymph and then when that did not work with a streamer.
Both actions failed and I finally scared the trout away.

In de pool behind the logs I spotted larger roach so I concentrated on
catching them.
The bite I got was from the trout which had retreated in the pool.
I was pretty sure I could land the fish but when he went in the submerged roots of the tree it was over.

Downstream I finally found an interesting pool where I could wade.
I dropped the perdigon in a fast flowing deeper stretch.
I spotted small fish but then the indicator went under and something 
larger showed up, a nice trout.
Other trout where still rising and so eventually I tried dry fly fishing.
My presentation was not good enough though so I called it a day.

During the day the weather had changed from sunny to cloudy with lots of wind and back again.
I pondered of going to the pub for dinner before leaving for home.
With the late hour and lower temperatures I figured most bikers would be gone home.
I met up with some friends at the pub who where also out fishing today.
It was a tad chilly in the beergarden for the outside dining.

At least it was good that some normality had been regained in these
trying times, it was a good day.

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Today’s fishing session was to become a short one.
The nice weather we had would come abruptly to an end.
Predicted was a drop in temperature and an increase of the wind.

I started on the stretch where I missed so many trout on the previous session to no avail.
I later found out from reliable sources that they had been cleared out.
The only fish I managed was a small brown trout on a woolly bugger.

The second spot I fished had feeding fish, violent rises indicated trout.
With all the foliage fishing the dry fly just did not work out.
Figuring a streamer might do the job was correct, instant hit.
I had a fight with a good trout but when a run into an submerged tree caused the leader to part.
With the trout scared away I concentrated on nymphing for the roach.
The good spot from last weeks visit was reliable and yielded several roach.

Before leaving I returned to a spot where I had earlier seen a rising fish.
This time I positioned myself downstream as the fish was again rising.
I got one hit on the sedge but the trout missed the fly and action was over.
Last hope was fishing a small nymph upstream.
That worked as the trout hit the nymph.
The last good fish of the day was a nice brown trout.

When I left the premises late in the afternoon it was still warm.
Within an hour however I found myself in rain and cold weather.
The weather forecast was correct and it felt like summer had been replaced by fall within a few hours’ time.
Luckily I picked the right time slot to go fishing today.

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Yesterday was a public holiday around here and with the promise of good weather I crossed the border to my fishing haunts.
Goal was to catch a trout and it turned out better than I had hoped.

The first mark I fished was the barren sand pit as usual but the third position yielded a solid hookup of a big fish.
I was still fishing with my usual guppy setup aka roach setup tossing a size 16 nymph on light tippet.
The trout nailed the nymph and immediate shot into a submerged tree stump and as I could not exert to much power I thought I would loose the fish. After several runs by a sort of miracle I could land the fish.

On the same stretch I hooked two other large trout but the hook came out in both instances.
From that point on I was on a roll and several small roach and trout fell to the nymph.
At the end of the day I visited my secret spot where the number of flies on the water surprised me.

I noticed a trout feeding continuously in one spot and from the size of the rings in the shallow water I figured it had to be a decent one.
My small sedge pattern was however ignored and when I tried nymphing the indicator was attacked several times.
A small woolly bugger also did not yield the hoped reaction.
I checked my fly box and found one big old mayfly pattern in it and decided to fish that instead.
It took just one drift and the fish nailed the fly as it went downstream.

Best fishing day this year and I guessed the local club had stocked fish
as I encountered so many.

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Last Sunday I crossed the border to visit the chub section of the stream.
The recent warm weather motivated  me  to check out if the fish where starting to appear at their summer haunts.
My first trip to that section this year remained fruitless so maybe things had improved.

I made a stop along the way as I crossed the upper section of the stream.
The particular spot outside the village had been improved with some fish passages a few years ago.
I was not impressed with the results as the overall effect was that the water level had dropped.
The result was as a sort of underwater desert, only sand.
With no variation or depth I could only encounter small stuff.
At a bridge I spotted some small roach and caught a few small fish on the nymph.

At the chub section all was quiet, the aquatic vegetation had not yet reached the surface .
Big fish you could spot in the summer just where not there.
I took a while to find a school of chub.
The fish stayed deep in the water and rejected all my offerings.
The last hope was the feeder stream where with sheer luck I hooked a small chub on the dry fly.
I guess too early in the season after all.

On the way back home I came by a lake used for sand extraction where you could often spot geese on the adjacent fields.
Usually you could spot the common graylag geese with a mix of non-native Canadian and Nile geese.
This time I spotted something new, I contacted one of my palls that studied wildlife to see what it was. Turned out to be a Bar headed goose native to central and southern Asia.

On Monday I had set another goal, to catch a trout in the upper section of the stream.
I had noticed that fish had been stocked as people suddenly began to catch trout.
These actions where usually very short lived as word would spread quickly.
The trout would be clobbered  out of the stream as fast as they had been put in.

Since it was warm and sunny I tried dry fly fishing in the village for dace first.
As I had discovered on previous visits the surface action was mega slow.
Fish where cruising but only sporadically would they take something from the surface.
I dropped the fly near some of the fish that where moving in the upper layer of the water.
A few dropped takes and just only solid hookup where the result.

Since the dry fly fishing did not work out I tried the nymph.
The spots that usually delivered fish stayed eerily quiet.
Next I tried for the trout in the forest and probed some of the deeper holes where deadfalls and other debris provided some cover.
Fishing the pools only resulted in lost flies.
I did not see fish running from me so I figured no trout or other fish remained.

It was late in the day when I fished the final stretch, again a spot with very shallow water.
Flies where hovering in the hundreds over the water but not the sort that would bring trout to the surface.
I fished a nymph near the bank where a tree created a little depression in the otherwise shallow water.
Small dace where surface feeding, I caught one while dropping nymphs near the tree.

Further upstream a small stone dam provided some turbulence and depth in the water.
 I spotted a feeding fish at the beginning of the pool and tossed in a nymph.
The result was a little brown on the nymph, size wise not that great but a trout after all.

As I moved upstream I noticed a fish aggressively feeding in the surface.
I could not spot what the fish was feeding on so I continued fishing the nymph.
It could only be a trout and when I got a hit on the indicator I was sure.
The fish missed the indicator but it did get the nymph and so I got my second brown on the fly.
A larger fish which managed to wrap my leader on a sunken tree branch.
I had luck with me as I could untangle the leader and land the larger brown trout.
The last fish of the day was again a small brown trout from below a small dam.

Fishing remains though in the home water as the lack of water and fish.
difficult.
At least that larger trout made up for the miserable fishing we had till now.

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I made the most of a sunny spring day knowing the border might be closed down soon.
It was dark when I left and the only crowds I encountered where numerous deer.
At my hotspot the water was clear and cold.
Early in the morning it was still pretty chilly.
I fished a team of nymphs to get deep and soon got a small roach.
After some more bites and a few lost fish it got quiet.

I tied on a streamer hoping to encounter the one or other trout.
First stocking should surely have commenced after the season had just opened. The streamer only yielded one small perch though.
The sunny weather place is closed until further notice so they spend their time doing maintenance hoping this mess will eventually end.
I had expected rising fish due to the sunny weather.
The surface was void of fish activity maybe due to the strong wind.
At one spot a few dace where rising but declined to take the dry fly.

The day progressed and crowds started to appear, time to go.
In the forest I finally caught the first trout of the season on a small nymph.
In order to find more stocked trout I switched from nymph to a squirmy worm fly.
The second larger trout came soon but got off.
Scouting other spots yielded only bites of two smaller brown trout that both threw the hook.

I was contend with that one trout and went to the pub to look how the
folks where faring with the lock down.
The fence outside was painted, without customers time was just for
maintenance.
The debate of closing the German/Dutch border would start on monday.
Most likely the outcome would be a closed border so my fishing sessions
there would not be possible anymore.
The landlord of the pub gave me a parting gift, a few cold dark weizen beers with an accompanying glass.
On my way home I stopped at rest stop in the forest and drank a few cold ones on my probably last venture over the border for some time.

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The last time I crossed the border was two weeks ago.
My fear of a closed border came not through.
Restrictions where in set in place though.

I decided to fish the river as the last day of fair weather was upon.
A week of sunny clear skies would come to an end.
Instead colder weather with the mention of frost and snow would roll in.
The first mark yielded some bites but no solid hookups.
I hoped to encounter a brown trout but could not find any.

I did spot dace in the surface further upstream though.
The dace at times would pick up items from the surface.
I switched to a dry fly and got a few takes which I missed.
The strong wind caused waves upon the normal calm stream.
The dace where staying deep due to the wind.

I fished several of my hot spots but all where pretty void of fish.
A tree lined bank was the last hope to catch any fish.
The roots of the trees usually held some fish.
Fishing a nymph close to those roots yielded a nice dace.

I fished inside the village and wondered about many people around.
Too many people gathering and too close to each other.
I gave me an uncanny feeling so I moved to a quieter place.
A spot in the deserted forest seemed safer to fish.
Weeks of rain had displaced a lot of sand in the stream.
I saw the bottom well, I could spot no fish though.

I checked out the time for sunset and made my way back home.
In the morning I had biked 30 km due SW against a steady E head wind.
At the end of the day the wind had switch to NNW which so a head wind on the return trip.
I was cold despite having extra layers of clothing due to the wind chill.
I arrived home and was pretty beaten.
Good to be outside again in these strange times.

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