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Germany 07-05-2022

Germany 07-05-2022

The plans to go trout fishing today where ditched as an acquaintance had posted
a pic of a large chub recently caught on a dry fly.
So it was off to the chub stretch hoping I could spot one of the big ones.
En route I had looked for fish in the surface but every spot I checked was empty.

I had hoped to spot mayflies but did not encounter a single one.
Chub fishing was best with mayflies or hoppers around.
I went directly to what I figured would be the best spot to encounter chub.
When I arrived I spotted two chub just moving out of range in the shallow water.

Lucky for me one of the fish doubled back and came into range.
I dropped a small dry fly in path of the fish and it went for it.
The fish moved to the fly stopped for inspection and then inhaled it.
This time I was patient enough to strike just at the right time.
Not a monster fish but a nice one on the four weight rod.

The weather had been nice but clouds where accumulating.
In the afternoon showers where forecasted so I had to seek shelter in advance.
I went to my old watering hole which I now called the African pub because the
cook named Flora came from there.

Just as I entered the pub it started raining, perfect timing.
I had done some fieldwork and had noticed that the menu was online so I knew
what I wanted to order.
The menu was a bit pricey for the hillbillies of the village (including me) but what
the heck … we had to try.

I opted for the feta cheese hidden in puff pastry and covered by honey based sauce as starters.
The main course was a pasta dish.
To finish it all off I had the gooseberry cake with a cup of cappuccino.
And it was good … I liked it.

When I went out again the rain was heavy and thunder could be heard in the distance.
Ideal conditions to sneak out to a place where fishing was not allowed.
And yes … I hooked that trout but it came off.
I soon was back in legal water and with the rain falling the bite was on.
Nymphing yielded no fish but the squirmy did the trick on the roach as  the water filled with
debris flushed in by the rain.

As I was fishing a shallow pool I suddenly spotted a large fish racing into my pool from
very shallow water downstream.
It had a brown colour and I was pondering what the heck it could be.
A large brown trout in that shallow stream … hard to believe.

The fish hid somewhere in the pool and the squirmy was not intercepted so I had to try something else.  One of my friends had a lot of success recently with streamers.
I tied on a heavier tippet with a big black woolly bugger and made a cast into the pool.
That one cast was enough to get a hit from the trout and oh boy it was a big one.

The fish took me all over the place and many times I believed it would come off.
Miraculously the trout stayed on and after several hair raising runs I could beach the fish.
60cm of brown trout, my personal best ever and that out of the local stream.
You could not wish for a better end of the day.

HSK 10-2021

HSK 10-2021

Another pandemic year and again another plan B vacation.
Since Joe would not let me in I had to forge other plans and so I went to the 
Hoch Sauerland region at the neighbors to the east.
With all kinds of fall weather I chased the trout and grayling and did pretty good.
Started fishing oct. 2nd and went through until the season ended on oct. 19th.

The fishing was good and one of my friends decided he had to go to the same
place where I was at just to have some decent fishing days this year.
Hopefully plan A (SW FL) can be executed next year.

Germany 21/22-08-2021

Germany 21/22-08-2021

2021 … the Summer that never was … 

With the pandemic in place the pressure on the fishing water was greater than ever.
Lockdowns and border closings meant I missed the start of the trout season.
When travel was possible almost all trout where cleared out.

I tried my luck at with the chub but unlike last year it rained a lot and the streams carried a lot of water unusual for summer time.
The days with nice weather caused other troubles as apparently some tour operator had started canoeing trips on the little stream. Loud people … empty floating beer cans every where and no fish anymore.

Last week I tried my luck again in off conditions and managed only 1 chub on the hopper on Saturday. 
I had some shots at other fish but no solid hookups other than that one fish.
It was a day saver and the first time that I have actually seen a chub jump out of the water during a fight.

The Sunday was predicted as a full rain day but I figured you will not catch any fish if you are not at the water.
Off course it did not rain all day …
With the rain in mind I choose to fish the upper section of the stream where chub where absent.
The quarry would be either dace, roach or small gudgeons.
I fished a yellow/orange perdigon that yielded quite a few fish from the shallow water.

Still the lack of trout bugged me and so a little poaching was in order.
I was absolutely sure that one spot would hold a trout but it was a no fishing section.
As I knew the owner of the property and it was late in day I tried that spot.
A small deeper pool with a good flow that always held fish.
At first I fished the perdigon and got hits from the small dace and gudgeons.

There was a trout in there and little flies would not convince it for a take.
I broke out the squirmy and after a dozen or so runs trough the pool I hooked up.
I was now connected to a decent trout on the four weight glass only connected with light tippet and a barbless squirmy worm.
The fish was strong and after the second jump I was not sure if I could land the fish.
It took patience and in the end I could safely land the fish.

Germany 25-06-2021

Germany 25-06-2021

Last Friday I went on a road trip to a tributary of the Ruhr river with some palls.
I had fished this river only on two earlier occasions at upstream sections.
When we arrived at the river the first thing we noticed where the large puddles
of water on one of the field roads leading to the water.
It obviously had rained pretty hard quite recently.

Once in the water it showed, visibility low and a strong current pushing along.
The part to fish was the adjacent bank but I went only half way as I did not
know the pitfalls of this river and the current was to strong in my book.
I did some blind casting tossing perdigons and squirmy’s at likeable fish
hideouts but did not got any bites.

There was one place where I noticed a fish, it was a big fish.
That fish made such a racket that I thought it was a Asp but my palls told
me it was resident big trout.
A rather smart one because whatever I tossed near be it streamer, squirmy or
large mayfly it would not fall for it.

The fast current and the lack of success made us relocate to an even wider
section of the river.
My palls had some success with French nymphing but I was not on my a-game.
I tried a calmer shallow section hoping for chub but I only got a few small chub
plus some assorted minnows.

Later in the day the question arose to find an alternative spot but as conditions
where off I rather would stay at the wide section hoping to see some rising fish
sometime.
To my surprise the rising fish came, suddenly fish where popping up in front and
behind me that I had not seen all day.
I quickly tied on a sedge and soon had several good hits and lost a few good fish.

That fast current was something I was not used to so I had some trouble with
getting the line in quickly enough.
A few fish did stick though, trout and grayling.
Just as I thought the bite was really on cloud cover got thicker and the rise stopped.
I was recalled from the water as it was dinnertime so we visited a pizza shop
for a quick bite to eat.

We where back at the water maybe short of an hour to see if a evening rise had
commenced but after checking out two spot we figured it would not happen.
I voted for the option to call it a day due to the high water and the lack of action.
At least I had caught some fish and had a nice day exploring new water.
This was a spot to revisited when the conditions would be better.

Germany 19+20.06.2021

Germany 19+20.06.2021

On Saturday I once again went after the chub, there was more activity and I
had shots at two good fish.
The first big chub had no interest whatsoever for the mayfly I was throwing.
The second big chub was in a school amongst small fish at a feeder just
behind some rocks.

The strong current made a good presentation virtually impossible so I
opted to fish with a heavier streamer.
The streamer landed behind the rock and a big chub plus a small one
raced forward to intercept the streamer.
The small chub was first and nailed the fly.

At other spots I saw fish but could not get them to take the fly.
In the afternoon the heat got to me and I went to the main stream
upriver in the forest.
The shade made it more comfortable to fish.
I had two ferocious attacks on the mayfly by a trout but the fish
missed both and did not return later.

The next day I opted to go after the trout but the weather had turned
as a front with rain, wind and lower temperatures passed overnight.
The stream was up and murky but still good enough to fish.
I opted to fish the squirmy and had many hits from the small gudgeons
that where pretty active in the increased flow.

I hooked a good trout but after a long battle it threw the hook before
I could put the net into action.
Nymphing did not work that well so fished a small blue dun pattern with
a foam post and caught several small dace.

I tried the spot where I lost the trout earlier later in the day.
After many fruitless casts with the squirmy and the mayfly I tied on a
heavy perdigon nymph.
Heavy was the way to go as the fly went deep and yielded an attack of
a trout, a different one than the one I had seen earlier.

Before I left for home I tried to get the first trout out of the pool that I
had lost earlier that day.
I decided to fish a small weighted conehead streamer and to my surprise
the trout I was looking for chased the fly a few times.
The fish did not commit so I called it quits and went to the pub for
dinner.


Germany 05-12-2020

Germany 05-12-2020

I had planned to fish on saturday despite the cold weather.
On friday message came that help was needed at the club’s hatchery.
I figured the best time to fish would be the afternoon so I headed to the hatchery first.

The task at hand was to clear out a hatching pond.
Before that could happen the resident trout needed to be caught and sorted along weight.
I had my waders with me so I entered the basin and caught a few hundred brown trout with some very nice fat rainbows mixed in.

After the work I warmed at the fire in our club house for a while and went out to the river.
Recent rains had risen the water level but clarity remained.
As it was standard in winter fish where few and at first I could not spot any.
Nymphs remained untouched whatever I tied on or how deep I fished them.
As a last resort I tied on a squirmy and that did the trick as I caught a small dace.

Other spots I visited where empy, with the sun low in the sky I went into the forest to check the last mark of the day.
I noticed fish, again small dace with curiously a gold fish mixed in.
I had counted that all dumped gold fish would have been victim of the herons by now.
After getting two more dace I called it a day.

As the sun was still visibile I made a short stop at a nearby sand pit and made some exploratory casts along a few reedbeds.
I fished a small streamer in perch livery hoping for a pike or perch but nothing was moving.
I stopped to watch the sun set and headed back home.

Germany 27-09-2020

Germany 27-09-2020

A few days of rain had put water and color in the stream.
I fished the upper section of the stream as the weather was no good for
chub fishing.

Since the mill pool was open again for members with a special permit I tried to catch some fish there.
Unfortunately the lack of water over the past year had filled in the pool
completely so it was to shallow for decent fishing.
Surprisingly the usual present roach and dace where a no show.

Luckily some other sections of the stream still housed some fish with as
icing on the cake a nice brown trout.
The perdigon produced some fish but with the murky water I soon opted
to fish the squirminator.
A borderline fly but it has it’s moments and the many gudgeons I caught
showed it was fished properly deep.

Drawback of the squirminator or squirmy is that you get a lot of tailbites
and that their durability is minimal.
The plus side is that they are easy to tie so you should be able to tie a 
good supply of them in a short time.
I like the original material from Fulling Mill best as it really moves.

Harz 09-2020

Harz 09-2020

An opportunity arose to make a last minute fishing trip so plans where put into practice quickly to arrange another road trip.
The recent visit to the Harz region called for more and so we left for a 
second trip at the end of the trout season for that region.
Conditions where excellent weather wise while fishing was not always
easy.

I set goals to catch browntrout, rainbowtrout and grayling and all those
goals where accomplished.
I was most pleased at catching the grayling as I had not expected such
large fish in the river.
When I fished a squirmy through a deeper pool I was amazed at what size grayling where chasing the fly.
Off course catching one on sight was the hightlight of the trip.

With international travel being restricted the local region was crowded.
That caused some challenges with dining as due to limited space 
reservations where often required.
We managed to find less frequented places where you could dine without
reservations. 
At some of the more popular places in town we where turned down but
also had some luck being the last guests admitted as the busy hours started. 

Germany 27-06-2020

Germany 27-06-2020

Yesterday I met up with former colleges at the pub in Germany.
The company we worked for had been sold to a big corporation.
The new management ran the whole lot into the ground, we left.

I had some time to spare so I fished the stream in the morning.
Weather wise the rains had stopped at daybreak with the water
slightly up and murky.
It was strange that the perdigon did not draw strikes from shiners.
I hooked a nice trout and then knew why it was so quiet in the pool.

The perdigon did not perform liked I hoped it would.
I had to change to a squirmy worm to get things going again.
Mostly from small bottom feeders that bit the tail but I also managed a trout.
I stalked a larger trout when the skies suddenly darkened.
The rumbling sky above my head made me clear out the water fast.

I went to the pub and just as I was getting out of my waders the skies opened.
It poured but I made it more or less dry into the pub.
It did not take long before my former co workers arrived.
We talked about the old times while having lunch.

Off course I could not resist getting back in the stream after the meetup.
During the downpour the stream had swollen and pushed a lot of dirty water.
The squirmy was a producer due to it’s visibility in the murky water.
All in all a nice day, I cleared the premises around bat time aka sunset.