Flyfishing FWSW

If I had believed the weatherforecast I would have stayed home but well … I did not.
The whole day rain scenario turned out to be a light drizzle at most so I could happily drop
small nymphs in the stream scouting for fish.

The water was off color but fish where present and surprisingly I hooked a rudd which is kind
of rare in this stream.
Could not get into anything large with the exception of the dace I hooked from underneath a bridge.

The bankside vegitation is now so high that you can hardly get to the water let alone toss a fly with a short fly rod.
I was fishing the chub stretch today which lies well downstream from my usual haunts.
Eventually I got a chub but only a small one, the carp size chubs still eluded me.

In the afternoon I took an extended break at the pub near my home waters.
I got into the waders to fish a particular spot where I should not fish but with the
now darkening skies I gambled that no one would be about to spot me.
Fish where rising and after hooking a few dace I got into a brown trout.
The brown trout threw the hook but interestingly it was accompanied or rather chased
by a much larger specimen.

Knowing the location of the large trout I tried the dry fly with no results so I
switched to a small nymph that did the trick.
This brown trout was strong and rare for brown trout around here it jumped several times.
With the light tippet and barbless hook I thought it would be over quickly but
despite the best attempts of the trout I could land the fish.
I tried for more fish but the wind suddenly picked up and the rains started in earnest
so I ran for cover back to the pub and waited it out.

On a scouting trip to the Ems river, graciously invited by the local angling club.
Lovely water, tough fishing if you are a first timer down there.

Another chilly day with a little rain but less wind than two days ago.
Plenty of fish spotted but tough to get them on the fly in the shallow water.
Mental note … always bring the net (lost a big one at the last moment).

As I had joined the work party last week and prospected our new pond with all the carp
in it my plans for the weekend where to get the trout I missed last week and try to catch
my first carp on the fly at the pond.

What I had not taken into account was the fact that the weather had turned.
It started just in time on Friday and before you knew it the temperatures dropped from
a balmy 27C to 10C the next day.
Wind and some rain where added also and we got some totally different to cope with.

I tried my hotspot early in the morning but this time no fish where present.
With the extreme low water and exposed banks I looked at some spots otherwise
not reachable but had to take care not to sink in the muck.
The water was in fact so low that at another spot I could climb down and walk
on the stones exposed at the bank to make a more stealthy approach at a spot where I had seen a couple of trout.
Even with the stealthy approach the fish were on to me as the water was extremely low.
Many spots I could I have fished under normal circumstances where now empty, just too
shallow and I guess gone forever.

It was early as I moved into the village where at one bridge massive numbers of
dace and roach would hold in the almost stagnant waters.
Many fish where lined up there but the nymph travelled through them like it was a ghost.
In the end I tried a small segde and got one dace, the school of fish dissappeared
though to safer places.
Darks skies and the chilly wind kept the fish down so I moved further upstream.

The shallow section upstream was a good spot for the dry but with the wind and
low temperatures it was useless to fish there.
This only left a weir as the last interesting spot in the village.
The nymphs did not do anything there so I figured I might toss in a small streamer to
scout for any predatory fish willing to chase the fly.

That worked as I had several hits on the fly, it was the same fish that tracked the fly
time after time but did not take.
I did get a fish from another spot at the weir and it was the most acrobatic brown trout
I had seen for a long time, jumped like a tarpon 🙂
Before I would leave further afield I tried the nymph once more and with a little adjustment
regarding depth and currents I managed a little trout and a dace.

For this day I had taken with me bread and some bread flies to fish the newly aquired pond of our fishing club.
I had it all for myself but as expected the weather had put the carp down and even the chumming did not convince them to feed on top.
All that lasted was to get that trout that had eluded me last week.
With the water so low I could access the spot with the boots I had on by wading through a shallow spot in the stream.

This time though no rising fish where to be seen at the pool were last week
a fish was clearly rising regularly.
I fished the pool thoroughly but had nothing to show for.
By now the wind was blowing full force in the afternoon and rain showers fell.
I was closed properly for the occasion but still looked forward to a pub visit
where I could warm at the fire.

After my usual lunch at the pub I was ready to go out for a last fishing session and well I did
a little poaching as I fished a spot which was off-limits to me.
Nobody was looking though and so I hoped to hook some of these big dace that where usually present at that spot.
It was a pleasant surprise that something else hit the little nymph I was fishing and allthough the fish
was rather ugly it was fun getting it on the four weight.

Even though it was cold, raining and blowing like hell I did noticed for the first time this season that a lot of the big mayflies where on the water.
The fish also noticed as I spotted a big wake in front of me when a large fish nosed up in the surface to take a natural.
A few casts with a large mayfly pattern did not get the desired reaction from the fish but a small nymph did …
So the last hour after the pub visit turned out to be the golden hour and brought a surprising number of large trout to the surface.
I still had time to revisit some of the spots I felt could yield more fish in the morning but decided to call it a day
as it could not get any better than this.
The last task I set myself was to get a picture of the local bird of prey that always sat on a tree near the place I fished
so I carefully scouted the forest in order to spot it before it spotted me.
Again a big fail as I had not noticed that it sat on a fence post right in front of me, you can guess the outcome.
The only thing I spotted was the supplier of the material used in most of the nymphs I tied.

Best day on the stream so far and might make a visit this monday to see if I can
get some more fish before the working week starts again.

Last Saturday I had two appointments and I had to choose which one I should honor.
Appointment one was the annual breakfast and fishing with the flyrodders from over the border,
always a lot of fun although the fishing was never that great as it was foremost a social outing.
Appointment two was a working party at the recently leased pond of my German fishing club.

In the end I choose number 2 as I had volunteered for pond duty but had not attended a single
outing because I was on vacation.
As I was early that morning I could still sneak in an hour of fishing at a spot I should not
have been but it was the nearest spot of deep water in the vincinity of the pond.
Despite the depth (only 2/3 ft.) the fish spotted me and moved further away so I had to make
some longer casts with the two weight to get things going.
After donating a few nymphs to the rocks I caught some small dace and yet another little brown trout.

I had to leave pretty soon for the pond that used to be a resevoir for the local fire brigade.
The pond had been neglected for 15 years and a lot of work was in the planning to bring it into
shape, I think they had set aside two years for the works to complete.

The main reason to lease the pond was opportunity and the fact that the youth members of the
club would have a stillwater right at their doorstep to fish in.
An old derelict shelter had already been torn down and a base for the new shelter had been
build in April.
The new shelter was graciously sponsered by a local construction company which provided materials and manpower.
As the club had some good craftsman amongst it ranks construction went pretty smooth and
after a half days work the basic construction with roof was standing.

One of my fellow clubmembers had been appointed groundskeeper for the pond and told me what the plans where for this little gem.
This pond was spring fed but one side of the bank (more like a dam) was unstable so it had to
be fixed as the fear was that it could break and flush out the pond.
The overflows had to be improved, trees had to be cut and in general the banks had to be mowed and improved.

The pond had been unattended for 15 years, during that time lots of silt had filled in the pond.
Before any fish stocking the pond had to be dregded and that would be a risky business with
the unstable banks and the amount of silt present.
Inquiries where however on the way and one interested party for the work would be visiting the pond in the coming weeks.
At this point the main inhabitants of the pond were carp, zander (walleye) and a host of small shiners.

In the afternoon I left the working party as remaining chores where best left to the roofers and trained carpenters.
I had skipped the barbecue at the pond as I had planned to visit the pub that for some unearthly reason
turn out to be closed on this summer like day.
Seemed I had turned up an hour or so too early, in order to kill the time I visited the elderly couple at the local watermill and was invited for coffee.
Eventually the pub opened and I ordered my usual choice of food and drink. It was quiet at the pub, thats what you get with late opening hours 🙂

Just before sunset I tried the stream for a decent trout of any fish for that matter but it all seemed pretty dead.
There was one spot where I noticed a rising fish amongst the debris now floating in abundance on the water.
I was pretty sure it was a trout but there was no way on earth I could put a fly on that spot from the bank.
Location was noted however so maybe I would have a go at that fish some other time.
With a little wading I might get this fish afterall.

As it had been too cold for the season here and warm weather has just arrived (for the moment)
it would take some time before fishing picked up.

Today I tested a light rod setup at my home waters, this setup consisted out of an Orvis clearwater 6’#2 with a small reel and a WF2F line.
It was my second #2 rod as I strived to always get at least two indentical setups per lineweights.
As I had not been at the stream for some time I noticed that things were different, a lot …
Seemed the recent removal of a weir downstream had increased the current and lowered the waterlevels, it all just felt and looked different.

My hotspot still had fish though, besides a couple of carp the roach where thick and I pretty soon had two of them on a small nymph.
The shallow water and the racket caused by the captured fish made the rest of the school leave for safer places and so it was time to move.
At the next spot the low water table was not helpfull in catching fish but at least a small dace and a roach came to the surface.

As I was early I visited a spot with slow moving water in the middle of the town.
It turned out just as I had hoped, the dace where picking through the debris in the surface.
I could target several fish with a small segde and landed a few more dace.

In search for stocked trout I left the village and checked out some of the more rural spots of the stream but no signs of trout or other fish in the skinny water.
I spotted the deer tracks but the deer spotted me …

As it was late in the day I had the plan to visit the pub but opening hours where not yet at hand so
I picked out one of the lookout spots on a nearby hill for a small break.

Before I entered the pub I first checked out a spot at the stream that had yielded larger dace for me in the past.
Since it was relatively shallow I pondered if I should use a dry fly but the blossoms and other debris from
the trees where falling like snow so I choose the nymph instead … and caught my first little brown trout of the season.

The pub … well it turned out that they had changed opening hours … earlier now due to the season.
It was good to hear that the landlady had stocked up on dark wheat beer. Standard menu … standard pics 🙂

On the way home I made a stop not so far upstream from the removed weir.
All the exposed stones used to be under water but now exposed.
There were still some fish rising but approach was impossible as the fish could see you coming for miles.
First day on the stream in perfect weather, I just have to do something about the size of those fish though 🙂

As the last fishing trip of 2015 went pretty well on that river at the border
I tried the same spot in the new year as well hoping for good results.
The first trip however did not bring any fish to the net as the only few
hits came from small perch that fell of the hook prematurely.

I tried a second time under quite miserable conditions namely cold and
wet weather when not even the perch wanted to chase any flies.
Out of pure desperation I tied on a small size 16 nymph and fished the
shallow end of the mill pool with a very light tippet.

I found it odd that I got stuck so often untill I finally realized that it
where actually bites … I felt kind of stupid 🙂
One I noticed that the Dace where actively feeding even in the miserable
weather I did quite well, not big fish but at least the first silver fish of the year.