Flyfishing FWSW

The Saturday was warm and sunny and would have been a perfect day for fishing but a long standing appointment was more important.
With the prospect of lower temperatures I had to stock up on my firewood supply so I spend the day in the forest hauling wood.

On Sunday the daylight saving time ended and I was quite late en route to my fishing haunt.
Despite predictions of rain all day it stayed dry be it quite colder than the day before with a chilling breeze.

The water had cleared considerably meaning the algea bloom was at an end.
I fished in the village and had most bites on the strike indicator so I changed to a segde and caught a nice dace on the dry fly.
I spotted fish in the surface but cloud cover and a strong breeze prevented 
reliable surface feeding.
In the end I tried the nymph again and that yielded some small roach and dace. 

With the late start and the end of daylight saving time the sun was setting early and when I fished the last spot of the day low light made spotting the indicator difficult.
Again tough fishing with not a lot of bites but at least some small dace where obliging to take the fly.
It was nice to end the day in the warmth of the pub.

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As my holiday in Florida came to an end I had already planned the next fishing outing at the mill pool.
When my plane from Fort Myers arrived in Atlanta at the domestic gate my connecting flight to Amsterdam was already boarding.
I made it ASAP through the terminal was just in time at the gate … my luggage however dit not made it on time.
The flight left at 20.00 hrs in the evening, arrival next morning aroud 10.00 hrs in the morning in Amsterdam.
When I finally arrived at home in the afternoon I gathered my freshwater setup for the next day fishing.

I was not early up the next morning but at least I made it to the mill pool in the afternoon.
The weather was dull and rainy just as you would expect it in fall.
Trout season ended on oct. 20th and then the mill pool would be closed again for a full year untill the end of September.
As I still had a fast sinking polyleader on the reel my first attempt to catch some fish was to drag a streamer through the pool.
I was pretty confident I would get a hit from the one or the other left over trout but nada.
Even with the nymph I could not get any fish to bite which was a bit strange.

I checked the outflow of the mill pool and carefully fished the next deeper spot and finally got into a brown trout.
I went back to the mill pool and after many casts I had another brown trout plus a small roach.
I wondered why the fish where not biting as normally you would have enough hits of the dace and roach on the fly.

I checked out various spots at various depths in the pool but no fish to be had.No fish to be seen but I did spot some flies in the bushes which looked like they where recently dropped there, barbless flies so they went directly in my fly box. Since I had time on my hand I figured it was time to experiment.
The weir off the mill was set back a distance from the pool.
The water would fall on a concrete slab where the depth was maybe 5 inches or more. For some reason trout would jump up on that concrete slab from the pool and lie just under the weir.

I had not spotted any fish but when I dropped a nymph in the whitewater I saw that a trout went for the strike indicator.
I tied on one of the found flies which was a fluo green nymph with a red metallic bead. After several casts I had a solid hookup and fought the fish and forced it to move off of the concrete slab into the mill pool.
Turned out to be a nice rainbow trout with good colors.
Near sunset I fished the end of the mill pool and allthough I spotted several trout my nymphs where left untouched.
There was one pretty big trout moving in the shallows but again no show on the fly.
With no action and fading daylight I figured I could better spend my time at the pub for dinner so that was the trout season for me.

Despite the lack of bites still a pretty good day with three trout caught.

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Despite the cloud cover and occasional rain I went for the chub spot today. Normally only good with clear skies and warm weather but what the heck,

I wanted to try roach fishing first but when I came to the right spot the water level had dropped one to two feet below the already low level.
Appearantly work on the weir had required the lowering of the weir.
I had hoped for schools of fish at the end of the weir but only got a roach, decent one though.

After some sightseeing I tried to locate the chub in less than ideal conditions.
The weather did improve during the day with some openings in the cloud cover and even some sunshine.
Plenty of fish came along but no real takers, some of the chub got as far as hovering under the hopper pondering to eat or not to eat.
A long cast with the hopper to some schooling fish yielded a good chub.

It got late and as the sun was low in the sky my sight fishing failed as I could not spot the fish anymore.
I let the fish be and headed for the pub for dinner. Great day to be outside.

um ipsum

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The plan of the day was to watch the syndicates ladies fishing tournament at the mill pool.
First though I headed to the same spots where I had encountered some leftover trout last week.
Last week I was not alone fishing the trout stretch as a kid told me he had been trying to catch those trout for weeks now.
When I did not encounter any trout anymore I guess he had accomplished his mission.
All I caught where the usual small roach and gudgeons.

I was early at the mill pool and only our syndicates fearless leader was busy arranging the tables and chairs for the obligatory coffee and cake.
I took a peak at the mill pool and watched the carp sunning in the calm water.
Also present the rudd and dace actively feeding.
As usual some trout had found a way to jump on the legde just above the weir and where moving gently in the current.

Meanwhile under the weir the dace where picking off insects in the surface while two very big rainbows where chasing fish in the deeper water.
To be honest the sight of all those fish and the fact that I could not fish for them was to much for me.
I skipped my plan for the day and headed for the pub to flush my sorrow away.

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The first day of meteological fall, like clockwork the temperature plummeted 10 degrees and the sky boasted cloudcover.
I visited the upper stretch of the stream where a trickle of water was still flowing.
The shallow water only yielded small roach and dace with believe it or one spot with a certified goldfish.

People tended to dump their garden pond pets in the river so I have seen plenty of goldfish and koi carp.
Fellow syndicate members even caught pumpkinseeds in the mill pool, a feat I have not yet accomplished.
Surprisingly I scared off a trout in the shallow water so there was still hope.
A carefull cast near a tree stump yield a take of another trout but the fish came off.

The last chance I had was at a spot where the resident trout had eluded me
on several occasions.
A nightmare to cast to as it was littered with submerged tree branches.
I managed a bow-and-arrow casts among the trees but the trout went for the indicator while a roach took the nymph.
Off course the trout did not go for seconds.

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Again a hot day and so it was off again to catch chub.
My go to spot was again void of fish, at times it would hold fish but the last couple of weeks it was empty.

I was just barely entering the meadow at hotspot number two when a lady walked towards me asking to look out for some escaped cattle from her farm.
When I asked what cattle they where looking for the surprising answer was water buffalo, never knew they had them overhere.

The second spot only yielded one attack on the hopper and I noticed far fewer
fish than usual suspecting the waterbuffalo had choosen this hot day for a
bathing session in the stream.
Anyway I did not spot the buffalo’s but a lot of farmers and cops looking for the cattle.
Not the solitude I came for so I thought I would enjoy a pub visit more.
On my way back throug the fields I saw that the farmers had at least one of the buffalo’s captured.

When I finally arrived at the pub I cherised my dark Weizen beer and off course the tomato-mozzerella entree just to keep in line with the buffalo theme.

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Yesterday … about 90F in the fields with little or no wind.
Second day chub hunting and lost my nerves twice when a big chub wanted to nail the hopper.
Big chub meaning 15 to 20 inches.
Once you pulled the fly from their nose they submerged and where gone.
With sheer luck I got at least one larger fish on the hopper.
Also missed two fish who managed to threw the hook.
The cloudless sky was ideal for spotting fish but with the low water the fish where ultra wary.
When I finally arrived at the pub’s beergarden late afternoon I was thirsty … luckily they had a cure for that.

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A very hot today in the open fields.
With the clear skies I went for the chub located plenty of fish.
Totally messed up the chance to catch the big one.
Spotted two fat chubs ahead of me and dropped the hopper near the two fish without disturbing them.
One came for the hopper and was about to gulp the hopper when excitement got the better of me and made me strike early … fish gone…
Have to try again tomorrow.

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Rain all morning, the trout I missed yesterday nowhere to be found.
Spotted large dace but those where lethargic.
Dropped a segde near the school and fish submerged.
The nymph yielded a lot of roach, no big ones but nice fish.
Carp where also active.

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Rain this morning and more than I expected.
The stream still low and clear.
Spotted a trout and got a good strike on the dry fly. Pulled the fly away from the trout instead of hooking it.
Action was pretty lame, spotted numerous big dace but they would not take the dry fly.
Had some small dace and roach with one roach actually taking a sedge.
Tried the sheltered part in the woods but tough fishing in the dark.
Scared another trout out of its hiding place and only caught tiny dace.

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