The fishing in our first German river had been so dismal during this summer that
we skipped that water altogether and went to the river of club nr. 2 instead.

Our first stop was the pool behind the watermill to see if any trout had survived that constant
attacks of the conventional fisherman.
Apparently the other guys had done a good job of cleaning the trout out since all
I caught where very tiny yellow perch.
I always wondered what happened to the big yellow perch, there where some real nice fish
in there but it seemed that they had gone on vacation.
The pool was still very shallow so the plans to dredge the pool where obviously not implemented yet.

The next stop was the river itself, we fished the deep holes we knew would hold trout.
To our surprise the water looked dead, even the streamers where left untouched so I was quick
to state that the bait fisherman had cleared out the holes.
Just as I spoke those words a fish suddenly rose under a tree.
It showed once again that there where more fish about than you would expect.
While I kept to nymph fishing Joop tied on the smallest CDC fly he could find.
I had seen no insects about whatsoever so I was curious if that dry fly would yield any response from the fish.



Joop with trout.

Joop made a clever move by using the dries, as soon as the fly landed under the tree a rainbow trout
came up and grabbed the fly.
In the mean time I was drifting nymphs in the same location and had not a single bite.
Even when a second fish made his presence known I could not get the trout interested in taking the nymph.
Joop tried again and before I knew it he was into his second fish.
That sight was too much for me so I left for a quiet place.

The other pools had only small shiners in them which would readily rise to a dry fly but I found them too small to target.
I stubbornly fished the streamer and finally hooked something, not a trout but a nice yellow perch.



Yellow Perch

We tried some other parts of the river upstream and wondered why such a pretty stream had so little fish in it.
We would have to talk to the club member responsible for stocking to release some more fish in the river,
not only trout but also other species.


High summer.


Pretty stream, not many fish in it.

The last couple of hours fishing would be spent at the small lake where club nr.2 had fishing rights,
we would fish there the conventional way (with sweetcorn)
It was a small man-made lake in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees.
Flyfishing was tough there since the trees made it impossible to get the line far out.
Furthermore the place was rather deep so it was not exactly the ideal flyfishing spot.
The lake would be ideal for bellyboating but boating was forbidden there.


Hazelnuts at the lake.


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The lake.

As I mentioned the bellyboating thing to one of the clubs official he mentioned that it might be possible to get
permission to use a float there so I requested a official ok from the clubs president. 
If I would get the go-ahead then my next purchase would be a bellyboat to chase the pike near the lily fields.
After a few fruitless hours on the lake we called it a day, it seemed like our conventional fishing skill where a bit rusty.
Hopefully on my next fishing outing to the lake I will be floating on its surface.