Flyfishing FWSW

Another week with again lots of rain and wind.
On Saturday I visited one of my sure shot perch spots in the Netherlands hoping to catch a large perch.
It was very windy, chilly but dry when I arrived at the canal in the afternoon.

I wanted to test a WF4 sink-tip line and soon found out that I did not get the fly fast enough to the required depth.
I finally ended up exchanging the floating leader with a fast sinking poly leader and a weighted streamer.

The canal was ultra-clear as it was each fall / winter and I could see the fly from quite a distance moving in the water
… just the fish where missing in the picture.
With the perch it was always important to find them as they usually on the move.

Eventually I found them and could see several big striped fish following my streamer … but they always stayed
a few inches behind the fly and did not strike.
I tried for them until sunset but with the light fading and rain pouring I soon called it a day … skunked again.

Sunday was not planned as a fishing day, but I took my flyrod with me anyway.
It was time for the annual Christmas casting meeting with the German fly fishermen on the other side of the border.
A social meeting with smoked salmon and certain Scottish drinks at a pond near the river I usually fish.

As usual we had a good time and interesting fishing information was exchanged.
I left in the afternoon as I still had the intension to fish the river but when I saw the state I noticed that the water was even
higher than last week and that the stirred up silt and leaves would make fishing impossible.

Off course it was not a total waste as there still was the pub.
I was informed beforehand that the special of the day was the Goulash soup with a side order of choice
plus a salad with cream dressing.
I choose as side order Spätzle, egg noodles usually a dish in Southern Germany.

This dish was very good and thus my plate was empty quickly which prompted the landlady to give me an additional bowl of that delicious Goulash soup.
For dessert I was given the opportunity to taste a new dish with ice cream and well it was nothing short of excellent, vanilla ice cream with a sauce of peach and mango ….
Not a bad day at all.

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I had to visit the pub as I ordered some stuff from the local distillery.
Since I passed the stream anyway I figured some fishing might be in order.
After a record dry summer fall and the start of winter had been wet.
This was good for the groundwater table, not for fishing.

The stream had a coffee color and pushed a lot of water.
I tried my luck and fished in the calmer water hoping for some bites.
It actually worked so I did not have to end my day fishless.

I ended the day at the pub already outfitted with Christmas decorations.

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Last week the temperature drop was not exactly inviting for fishing.
For Saturday I had once again a working party at the hatchery.
On the way to the hatchery I noticed frosty fields and ice sheets on the 
puddles of the back roads.

Work at the hatchery consisted in draining the pond that housed the small brown trout.
Some members carefully moved around in the pond with nets to get the
trout while the water was pumped out.
I was hoisting the fish out and put them in a temporary holding basin.
After that it was back again to get the leaves out of the remaining ponds.

I had to stay longer at the hatchery to help out the last guy working.
Our best man was cleaning the small pond with a high pressure cleaner and he took his job very serious.
In the mean time I was drying up at the wood burning stove in our clubhouse.
When the work was finally done the sun was already low in the sky and it was getting cold.

With just an half hour of daylight left I tried to fish the river but I just could not get into fish and so I had to call it a blank.
Since the fish where not biting all I could do was to hit the pub, always a pleasure.

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The morning was chilly and slightly foggy when the sun came out.
At the stream no fish action was visible and the nymph stayed untouched.
With the dace and roach not active I tied on a streamer and surprisingly got
a few hits by the perch.
Could not get the larger ones but at least I had some action.

In the afternoon the temperatures climbed to such a level that rising fish could be seen and I got into some dace on the nymph.
Sunset came swiftly and the temperature plummeted so it was of to the pub.

Next weekend will have yet another working party at the hatchery to clear
the hatching ponds for a third time.
Temperatures are predicted to plummet next Sunday will probably be spent
fishing the one or other canal for larger perch.

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Another weekend, another working party at the hatchery.
First I did some sightseeing and took pictures of the last foliage on the trees.
After the frost and rains the strong wind made short work of the leaves.

A second working party was organized at the club’s pond where they planted trees. A sandtrap was being constructed for the ditch that will eventually feed water into the pond.

The last couple of daylight hours where spend at the river where I had one bite from a trout, then it was off to the pub for dinner.

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There was a working party at the clubs hatchery and as volunteers where sought I attended the party.
With all the foliage coming down from the trees the aeretors in the hatch ponds got blocked causing the alarms to go off at the caretakes of the hatchery.
Usually in the middle of the night so I could understand the urgency of the work.

It was a cold day and by noon when the work was finished I went to the local pub first to get something to eat.
Normally food would be provided at working parties but with this ad hoc event nothing was arranged.

Off course I had to catch some fish but I only encountered a few dead trout lying on the streambed and wondered how that happened.
When the sun dissappeared at the horizon I feared for the dreaded skunk but just before dark at least some small dace decided to take the nymph.

With the winter setting in fish have dissappeared from their summer haunts so best to find some deeper water or sheltered spots to have some chance at succses.

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As the days get shorter and the temperatures go downhill it would made more sense to fish the waters at my side of the border for pike instead of continuing to fish the river on the German side.
Still I really enjoy the pub visits after my fishing exploits and as the foliage is coloring and falling fast this is the time to visit the rural countryside.

The water is getting very clear now and fish seem to disappear to their overwintering haunts wherever that may be.
Last Sunday was a beautiful clear day but with a very chilly start.
As the temperatures hovered near freezing in the morning I went out quite late.

Many of the spots that usually held fish in the summer where empty but I did see some surface activity even with the low temperatures.
The fish I encountered where  small roach and dace, at least something was biting.
Even a small brown trout nailed one of my newly tied nymphs.

Did some more field testing with a nymph I found in the trees that used to belong to one of my compatriots and it proved to be a steady producer of fish.
Size 16 barbless shrimp hook, red metallic tungsten bead, body of fluorescent green tying thread ribbed with orange fluorescent tying thread.
A combination I would not even have thought up in my dreams but it does work.

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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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