Flyfishing FWSW

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.

Germany 06.05.2016

6 May 2016 admin

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 🙂

Florida 2016

30 April 2016 admin

The first time I was in spring in SW Florida due to circumstances.
Four weeks in Collier county in April fishing the beaches and inland
lakes. What I noticed where larger crowds than at my usual Fall stays
and other fish species available at the beach.
Also a different weather pattern and less lush landscapes.

Germany 24.01.2016

24 January 2016 admin

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.

Netherlands 28-12-2015

28 December 2015 admin

The last fishing day of the year was traditionally spend with friends on the so called last pike-fishing trip.
This time we picked one of our local streams on the border with Germany as our venue.
The task at hand was simple, try to catch a pike and conclude the day with dinner at the restaurant
of the local watermill.
The mill was quite old, built in 1610 and still used for power generating.
In the good old days they used to hang people on a nearby hill on a main trading road that went
from the Netherlands to Germany as a warning to evil doers, yep the good old days.

At first my friends did not want to purchase the license for the German part of the stream as the
mill pool was crowded with local anglers.
I on the other hand always liked mill pools and was eager to get the license, my take on the
situation was “there might be other anglers but can they fish :-)”
So in the end we did get the licenses and started fishing the mill pool.

There was a steady flow of water pushing through the stream, as with most local streams higher than
usual after the steady downpours this month.
I had also seen this stream having clearer water than on this day but the visibility was good enough to catch fish.
At the outflow of the flow I noticed the shallowness of this section.
I was rather surprised I felt some what I call “ground movement” which indicated that a predatory fish
was present, I just could not connect for a second time.

The lack off success soon drove my friends to greener pastures and one by one they were heading
off into the forest to fish the Dutch side of the stream.
With the pool now vacated except for a few local anglers I tried my luck in the front section of the
pool and was soon rewarded with a little pike – mission completed.

I moved up even further in the pool on a tricky part of a sandbar as I did not know if the accumulated
flotsam there would carry my weight.
The sand did not give away and now I had a shot at the deeper water under the weir.
After a while I noticed that my fly was stalked by a pike but it failed to strike so I had to pester the fish
to provoke it and in the end it did attack the fly, pike nr. 2 of the day.

Off course this pike action had not gone unnoticed and before I knew it I had two anglers next to me
tossing lures and a dead bait.
It did not bother me as I knew before that the place was a zoo even in winter time because of the
adjacent restaurant.
Before leaving the crowds and entering the forest to fish the Dutch part of the stream I headed back to
the outflow of the stream where I had my first fish contact of the day.
I know concentrated more on the slack water and to my surprise a little pike was calling that spot home.
Pike nr. 3 was a fact and although small a fish was a fish.

Off course it was nice to catch the pike but honestly I was not a particular fan of pike-fishing.
The mill pool had a reputation as a prime perch spot but as everybody who lived there fished the
pool these fish were extremely difficult to catch with artificial lures, they had seen it all.
I entered into the woods on the Dutch part of the stream that had undergone some major renovation
several years back.
The stream had been straightened in the thirties and was looking more like a canal than a stream.
There had been tampered with the stream even hundreds of years earlier as they rerouted the water
to a different river systems than original to make it shippable for small boats.
The renovation work consisted out of digging up old meanders and removing steep weirs by cascading
rocky sections.
The stream now had very steep banks and loads of structure, all in all a more natural look.
In one of these pools I had another fish contact and this time it was a healthy looking river perch
of a pretty decent size.
The long net came in handy and so I landed fish nr. 4 of the day.

I fished the remainder of the stretch with no success and as I spotted footsteps in the sand deposited
by the recent floods I knew I was not the first time to fish those spots.
For pike fishing though that made no different as we often jokingly said you had to first wake the pike up
before they struck which was often the case on outings with more people.
My friends told me that even on this day 4 guys fished the same spot and nr. 5 eventually caught the
the resident pike out of a particular pool.

The stream on the Dutch side was a tad narrower than on the German side and with the increased amount
of water I had the feeling that I fished not deep enough.
I could have changed to a sinking line or a weighted polyleader but I figured the murky water prevented
me to see any snags on the streams bottom which I figured were plenty.
As I had never seen the stream above the mill pool I opted to send the remainder of the daylight hours
to scout out a new part of water.
The section above the mill was wide and flat and I missed signs of fish and could not see any features
that I wanted to fish so I only made a few exploratory casts.
On the plus side I spotted a blue kingfisher shooting past me, a very pretty bird which I yet had to
photograph as they were too darn fast for me to take a decent picture.
Sometimes Kingfishers could be observed fishing or nesting but even then it was difficult to photograph them
without any mega zoom camera.
I walked quite a distance along the stream but could not find any interesting to fish in the current conditions.
What I did found interesting was some movement in the nearby cornfield and what I thought was a stray
dog turned out to be a roe deer.
After closer inspection I noticed there where at least five of them moving about.
I was off wind but I could swear they smelled my socks as they got up and stared at me.
Eventually they moved off so I could only take some pictures at maximal digital zoom resulting in
grainy pictures.

As the sun slowly went down I headed back to the mill pool.
In the meantime my radio went dead so I could not track were my friends had gone off too but
I suspected they where still searching their way through the now dark forest.
It was a bright idea to make a reservation for a table in the restaurant as the place was pretty
packed.

Netherlands 27-12-2015

27 December 2015 admin

Although it was early this morning I figured I was pretty well prepared for a little canal session.
Once on the water however I noticed I had left my landing net at home.

My high hopes of fish activity were not justified as the canal looked pretty dead and
I did not receive one nibble on the fly.
That unusually high temperature for the end of December surely did not convince the
baitfish to seek shelter in the dead end canal.

Even the geese seemed to have lost their way as they were flying around in circles.
The perch had to be found but whatever I tried I just could not get a single bite.
The last time at the canal it was fish after fish but now total silence.
In the end I figured the fly I fished might be to big so I switched to a smaller pattern.
That actually worked but instead of the perch I hooked a pretty decent pike.

As I was fishing for perch with small flies I had no wire trace so I figured in the end the pike
would sever the line but the fish was properly hooked out of reach of the sharp teeth.
Without the landing net I just had to perform the gill grip but the pike saw that coming and
with a last rush of energy it shook its head and severed the line.

The dead end section was out of bounds now as the perch had obviously moved so I tried
the marina instead.
I actually saw a perch following the fly or better said a perchlette as it had the same size
as the fly but was still intend on grabbing it.
My last resort was the section of the marina where the wind had pushed a lot of debris in
one corner.
I knew it as a shallower part of the marina with quite clear water.
I took only a few retrieves before I was into another pike, this time a smaller specimen.
The pike went airborne but this time it was hooked outside of harms way and with the
low bank I could release the fish without losing my fly.

I checked out other parts of the marina but no life was to be seen, all dead.
Clouds brought rain in the afternoon and light rain began to fall.
It was not that late in the day but light was getting low and with the lack of bites
I just called it a day.

Germany 20.12.2015

20 December 2015 admin

As the season winded down = the fishing permits ran out at the end of the year I was
still hoping for a last chance to fish the stream.
The unusually warm weather had been accompanied by boatloads of rain so the stream had not seen
its average level since this month’s beginning and any chance to fish slowly faded away.
With the end nearing I chanced it and went on a last trip despite the high water.
Although the feeders were clean the main stream still pushed a lot of water and clarity was reduced.

With the high temperatures and the bleak sunshine I was hoping for some midge activity and rising fish
but the wind was just blowing too hard for that.
At one of my favorite nymphing spots the sand was lying high on the banks indicating how high the
stream had been flowing during the last couple of weeks.

At many of my favorite spots the current was that strong that my regular tungsten nymphs where
probably not reaching the right depth in time to be successful.
In one of the deeper pools a quiet eddy yielded a first bite on the nymph and a very nice roach
surfaced, it was a good fish and off course I was happy that skunk was avoided.

Fishable spots where scarce but I found another one upstream where I found yet another slow
flowing pocket of water that could produce fish.
It took quite a while to get a bite but eventually I managed to catch another roach and a small dace.

I carefully scouted the stream at several spots for any fish activity but nothing showed itself.
The slow moving sections above the watermill would probably have yielded some fish but there were just too
many dog-walkers around to concentrate on fishing.

Late in the afternoon I called it quits and headed for a last time this year to the pub for a meal.
As I ran into acquaintances my pub time eventually outnumbered the fishing time but it was interesting
to listen to the old timers about the good old times when the outhouse of the pub emptied right in the stream,
well .. maybe all was not good in days past..

So this was my season in Germany, in the Netherlands it still continued and I might try to catch a pike
one of these days if those blasted rains would just stop.

Netherlands 06-12-2015

6 December 2015 admin

The weeks persistant rains accumulated such an amount of water that my beloved
stream in Germany was bursting out of its banks, no use in going there.
So for the first time since ages I fished a body of water in my own country for a change.

Each morning as I went to work I passed along a dead canal that was used by the coarse
fish as an overwintering spot because it provided shelter from the elements.
In the evening time you could often see rising fish in the water and this had not
gone unnoticed by the predatory fish that inhabited the canal.

Allthough it was stormy last Sunday I deciced to go out fishing for a couple of hours at the canal.
My intended quarry was perch which had to be located first as they were moving up and down
the canal probably in pursuit of the baitfish concentrations.
Perch could be big in the canal but up to now I only caught the smaller specimens with the larger
ones only following my fly.
As it was a well known spot fishing pressure was great and the fish would probably be wary
about any artificial lure passing by.

As I arrived somewhat late in the morning the first spin fisherman was already on the scene
tossing a twister accross the canal.
He had encountered two small pike but had not caught any perch yet.
I fished the same stretch with a 6-weight rod, sinking line and a polar minnow and was quite
quickly into my first fish.
Things where going really well with a decent amount of bites and a few caught fish.

I left the dead end section of the canal for a while and concentrated fishing the nearby
marina.
No life to be seen in the water and all that wind had surely mixed up the otherwise
so clear water.
As I returned to the dead end section of the canal I noticed at least three new anglers on
the scene.
One of the nearest guys was actually running to his buddy with a large net but I could not
spot any fish being landed.
When I spoke to them later it turned out one of the guys had a large pike on that managed
to get rid of the large plug at the last moment, must have been a heartbreaking moment.

I continued dredging the canal with the polar minnow and my own adaptation of a bend
back streamer made out of SF blend and managed a few more fish.
The wind was pretty bad and allthough it was quite warm I did feel that some warmer
clothing might have been in place due to the wind.
Later in the afternoon as the light was fading I noticed the first activity of fish in the
surface so something was going on.
By that time though I had expirienced enough wind for the day so I called it quits.
No monster perch caught yet but maybe we get some shots this month or next year.

Germany 07.11.2015

7 November 2015 admin

We had been quite lucky with the weather until now as real cold spells that usually killed off the
fishing had been absent for the time being.
As I had not been fishing much this year because of my surgery there was one fish species still
on my to-do list namely chub.

The chub were restricted to the lower reaches of the river I fished due to man-made barriers that
had been in places for ages.
These barriers were slowly removed but until the river is passable for all fish might take a few
years more.

The mission was chub for the day and the temperature was good, namely very high.
It was so high that it was the warmest November day since weather was recorded.
The downside, lots of wind and rain showers.
It had already rained during the week and I was fearing a muddied up river.
At the river the water was pretty clean be it littered with leaves and pushing more water
than I had anticipated.

Before I would be wading I tried a spot near a bridge where I had done quite well in the past.
The current was however too strong to make a decent drift with the nymph along the pilings.
I concentrated on the slack part right at the bank and after two casts the indicator went down
and I was into a good fish.
The fish pulled quite good and tried to dive into the crowfoot but despite the light tippet I got
it out and landed the fish safely.
It was a chub, a nice fat one so the mission for the day was accomplished.

Now the scary bit came, wading …
The first hurdle was to get safely in the water.
Luckily there was a small gage house fitted with a set of concrete steps into the water.
I got safely down the steps but a bit too deep for my liking, the water was definitely up from
the summer levels when I would normally fish for chub.
The whole point of this wading exercise was to get near to a current seem but the current
was just too strong to get the proper location so I carefully maneuvered back to shore.
Better leave that wading for when the river was low.

I checked out some other spots at the chub section of the river but none looked like they
would produce any fish.
I did take a look at one of the recently removed weirs.
The high dam was now replaced by a series of rock emplacements gradually lowering the the
river.
These collection of stones where spots where trout would take up station in the otherwise featureless made stream.
Since trout season was closed you were not allow not allowed to fish there.

Although I was happy with the chub caught the day was not at an end so I stopped at a junction
in the river further upstream where a small brook entered the stream.
The spot was I had been told good for perch but I could not get any despite using a tasty little
zonker streamer.
I did see some small fry swimming at the junction but they were left in peace.

Strong winds and rain made short work with the last leaves on the trees.
The woods colored from green and yellows to brown now.
One sign of the times where the collection of egrets in one of the fields I
passed, these usually came in late fall winter from their haunts east.

In order to catch more fish I eventually ended up at my home stretch were I
stopped at my roach hotspot.
That hotspot had not fished that well recently and with the now remarkably clear
water I could see why.
The otherwise deep pool had completely been filled with sand.
Fish where active at the willow shrubs that lined the water so a few casts near
them yielded some of the smaller roach.

In one occasion the whole school moved downstream into the shallows so I could
see how many fish there where further upstream in the shrubs.
Action was short though so I moved on.

The next spot was a deeper pool where last week one of the locals was fishing for
a pike he had seen.
I saw big dace feeding in the surface and was frantically searching my tackle bag for
my dry fly box .. which I left at home … sort of hell for flyfishers scenario.
I could not get the surface fish with nymphs so I moved on.

It was late in the day and the light pretty much faded.
A last stop at the outflow of the local mill revealed that fish were still about.
I could not catch them though, small dace where attacking my indicator but the nymph
passed through the water unhindered.
Eventually I got one micro dace on the nymph making the coarse fish grand slam complete.

I made it to the pub at opening time and was the first guest.
While the fire was started up I asked if other guests were expected and well they were.
The local hunters had chosen the pub as their end station for their hunt and the management team
of the local distillery had rented off a section of the pub for them and their guests.
I finished my dinner just as the hunters came streaming in so in time before all the racket would
start, tough fishing day but accomplished the task I set out to do and thus happy.

Germany 01.11.2015

1 November 2015 admin

Another weekend with picture perfect weather.
The day started out rather chilly as the night was cloudless which caused a significant cooling.
I tried one of my favorite spots near a removed weir were the rocks created an interesting
current and a deeper pool.
The water was still higher than usual, some of the familiar rocks where still partly submerged.

With fall steadily progressing the shedding of leaves had gone into overdrive.
Many of those leaves ended up in the bottom of the pool I was fishing and the accumulated due
to the eddies in the pool, not real helpful when fishing a nymph.
Still one dace found the nymph and tried to run off with it.

As mentioned earlier the leaves where on the way out and opened up the view to the sky.
Another significant change was that the water had become clearer, signs that the algae bloom was
ending. Fishing would become tougher for sure,

I could not spot that many fish in the morning and out of the ones I saw I could only
catch a small roach.
Furthermore the competition had also arrived, some of my buddies had the same idea as me
on this beautiful day and I ran into them at one of the parking lots at the stream.

With the leaves causing trouble while nymphing I thought it might pay off to check out one of the
more open sections of the stream and try some dry fly fishing.
It was still fresh outside and only a few midges where buzzing around at the stream.
Now and then a fish would rise but there was not a lot of action going on.

When I spotted a group of dace working their way upstream while leisurely picking off surface
debris I knew I was in luck.
A carefully placed sedges was immediately attacked, one fish caught – the rest fled at high speed
upstream.
The section I fished was very shallow so once you spooked the fish the only thing you could
do was to move and find a new spot.

At one of the bridges I saw some movement and with some luck I caught a few dace before the action died down.

With the increasing temperature and the bright sunshine the townsfolk where out and about and my dace
hotspot became frequented with dog walkers and the like.
Time for early lunch at the pub and some snapshots of the fall colors before it was all over for this year.

The lunch was good as usual and off course I stayed too long in the pub.
When I got out I noticed that the sun was lying rather low in the sky meaning that time of
productive fishing was coming rather fast to an end.
At one of my spring/summer hotspots the sun was still shining on the water and a splash now
and then indicated that fish where present.

Despite the good signs it was rather difficult to catch fish, somehow I felt that the makeup of the
pool had changed and the current was running different.
I caught a few small roach and then headed up upstream to check out some of the deeper pools
where I had done well in the past.

The last fish of the day was a surprise as it was a trout caught in a typical roach/dace spot.
I fished a deeper pool just behind some submerged shrubs when the indicator went down rather
violently and a brown trout suddenly went airborne.
The trout although out of season was the icing on the cake and as light was fading fast this was
the moment to cease fishing.

I took one last short break and watched the geese fly over.
The fog was slowly moving in over the field and I though what a brilliant fishing day it
was.