Browsed by
Tag: spent mayfly

Germany 20-09-2024

Germany 20-09-2024

The project I was working on was on hold and since I had nothing better to do on my Friday home office day I decided to go fishing instead.
With the exceptional fine weather soon ending I could think of no better way to spend the day.

In the bright sunshine it seemed pleasant to hide under the canopy of the trees as they still had leaves. I fished a spot I had avoided most of this season as it just was no good anymore.
Fishing the nymph and getting no bites was a reminder why I skipped this spot.

A glimpse of hope was the sign of a continuously rising fish.
The way the fish rose was for me a sign that it had to be a trout.
A light breeze blew a steadily supply of debris on the water that caused the fish to rise.
My weapon of choice was a spent mayfly due to its silhouette and color and it did the trick
as I could hook a nice brown trout.

With the water being very low I could not find good deeper spots that held fish.
Most of the time I spotted fish moving in front of me in the shallow water.
With a small nymph I was able to get the odd roach or dace.

It was time to move to other spots that boasted deeper water.
My goal was still to catch more trout and at a deeper pool  I thought that I
spotted a dark green back of a rainbow trout.
Again the fish was feeding in the debris lane.
I tried to re-acquire the trout after setting up but could not see it anymore.

Luckily I saw an even bigger fish further downstream actively scouting the debris.
The fish was of such size that I opted for heavier tippet, I also tied on a spend mayfly pattern.
As soon as the fly came into view range the trout hit it and it gave quite a fight with jumps included. Second trout of the day was a fact.

My last shot of a trout came when I spotted one standing right under the adjacent bank.
I figured a 100 percent hooking chance when drifting the spent mayfly over but the fish was suddenly gone.
I could not see where the fish had gone… until I spooked it by wading upstream.

For the remainder of the afternoon I could not get anything anymore to bite.
I still spotted some fish but no trout, with sun getting low I called it quits and
visited my home away from home for dinner.

Germany 11-08-2024

Germany 11-08-2024

Last Sunday was prone to be a perfect chub fishing day, sunny and hot.
I opted to fish the lower part of my stream and selected one of my hot spots first.
With the banks being mowed access was to the water was guaranteed.
The presence of fish however not, it turned out that the water was pretty empty.

The high banks and clear water where not exactly a good ingredient for stalking.
So the few fish I spotted where aware of my presence and would either scoot or
stay deep. Tried everything from hopper over large dry fly to streamer but nothing worked.

Having wasted quite some time at the first spot it was time to avoid skunk and find a
place where also smaller fish where present.
The smaller fish would often take a sedge or other dry fly with gusto.
The plan worked so I avoided a skunk day.

I was still eager to catch a larger fish.
With the bigger fish staying deep I tried a shallower feeder where I finally spotted a larger fish.
It took about two casts with the spent mayfly before the fish committed, nice size one.

Almost had a second fish of the same size but my handicap worked against me.
Chub, especially the larger ones are extremely wary and inspect the fly first before a take.
I spotted the fish … lost my nerves and struck too early … boom, fish gone.
Next I spotted an even larger fish close to the bank but whatever I tried it showed no interest at all.

Late in the afternoon I tried the last spot in the open fields.
Boy it was really hot and with my drinking supply gone it was tough. Walked a mile or so along the stream and all I found was a rather large muskrat swimming underwater past me.

Germany 26-05-2024

Germany 26-05-2024

Went on another mayfly session to the local stream and soon spotted the first
rising fish at a location where I had seen a trout last week.
Some of the rising fish where dace but one was definitely a trout.

Targeting the dace was tricky because of overhanging trees.
After every clumsy cast I waited a while so everything would calm down and fish would continue to rise.
That tactic yielded two dace and a spectacular hit from the trout … who completely missed the fly.

When the action died down I tried tossing a streamer close to the bank to see if any trout where present.  The trout that previously was rising took the streamer but managed to flee in the submerged roots of the trees and broke off.

I moved further upstream and heard a loud plop as if something had fallen from the trees in the water … but it was caused by a fish.
Off course a trout and when I launched a spent mayfly pattern under the trees the hit was instant.

On my way upstream I noticed dace close to the adjacent bank rising now and then to debris floating by so again I presented the spent mayfly and got two fish.
Upstream from me the outside of a bend provided a continuous supply of debris floating close to the bank. The spot was not deep but I figured one or two fish might be station there.
On the second drift the spent mayfly was nailed by another brown trout.

Last week I had some takes on the streamer in a deeper pool so today I checked that spot today hoping for a solid strike. This time all went to plan and I hooked surprisingly a nice rainbow trout.
Later in the afternoon clouds and winds killed of the surface activity.
With rain showers immenent called it a day, a good day with the dry fly.