Flyfishing FWSW

Yesterday I went out with a friend fishing the local stream for one purpose, to catch chub.
The stretch I normally fish has no chub whathowever but far way downstream these fish are present.

The first spot I tried for the chub was below a weir.
I fished with a gold bead pheasant tails plus indicator and probed all
deeper sections but to my surprise got no hits.
I had expected at leasted a twitch from a roach or perch but nothing
of that.


Fishing below the weir.

Downstream some chub where rising to insects on the surface so I put on a small Klinkhamer and fished the dry.
A friend of mine told me that a week before the chub where feeding like mad on top but not today.
I had expected that chub fishing would be pretty much straightforward but these fish where tricky.
They spotted me always first and ran off down the river.


A sunny day at the river.

Maybe the fish more active in the open so I headed out of the forest and in to the open field in seach of the chub.
To my surprise I spotted only a few downstream and they all spotted me first as usual.
It became pretty uncomfortable walking with waders in the bright sunshine so I walked back to the shady trees.


Alder fly.

There was pretty much insectlife around, I spotted many Alder flies buzzing around.
The upstream section of the weir had more life in it that the downstream one.
Chub where rising there more or less continuously so I positioned myself on a strategic position and made casts to the rising fish.
Finally I had a good take and I could land my first ever chub in that river.


Chub nr.1

Fish nr. 1 was not a monster but not bad for a first.
Still some rises where pretty agressive and I knew for sure that some monster chub where lurking down in the water.
The chub where pretty picky, it took quite a time before I landed my second fish.


Chub nr.2

We fished all through the day and expected some evening rise to occur at sunset.
There was however no spectular rise when the sun went down.
The steady wind that was blowing during the day increased in force making casting sometimes difficult.
There was however an increase in insectactivity at sunset.
For the first time this year I spotted mayflies, loads of them.


Mayfly.

When the light faded activity stopped more or less and we called it a day.
My conclusions where that chub a very wary and that they are constant on the move.
I am still wondering why the chub would not take any nymphs, we will have investigate that further.

Today I tried to repeat yesterday performance but I failed to do so.
It was even hotter than on the previous day, the maximum temperature was 84 F. 
We fished at river nr. 1 but did not encounter any aggressive trout.
I saw a few fish scoot along the stream but had no single take.
My excuse was that it was just to hot.

Since we stocked river nr. 2 yesterday we returned there to see if the fish had settled
and where active. 
Large parts of that stream where straightened and had no shade from trees so our
hopes of catching fish where low.
All this sunshine of the past week had triggered an algae bloom that together with the
remains of blossoms created a very dirty river.

We did get a few following fish but nothing took real interest in the fly.
The only spots with some clear water where after weirs and the natural part of the stream
where the water flowed faster.


Clearer part of the stream.

I tried my honey hole where I had caught two rainbow trout in the last couple of weeks.
There where minnows moving in the murky water so some fish where present.
Finally a fish hit on the streamer but it was not the intended quarry, only a small perch had dared to attack the fly.


A little perch.

Over the past years I waded in these streams and always noted these small fish that where
hiding under the stones and debris.
Since fishing was really slow I decided that today was the day to investigate what species
of fish these critters belonged to.
Most of these little fish skilfully eluded me but finally I got one in my landing net, it turned out to be bullhead / sculpin.




Bullhead / Sculpin

No wonder that small black zonkers worked that well on trout and perch in the river.
While I was doing research my buddy caught a small brown trout and then another little perch.
I tried nymphs, wet flies and so on but could not hook into anything else than debris on the riverbed.

In the evening we ended up in the large pool below the watermill.
It was the first time I waded that pool so I waded with care.
The bottom felt almost like paved, it was an old building of several hundred years so it could have.
The pool was shallow but in the murky water you could not see the bottom, since I had no
wading stick with me moving was a bit tricky.

At a certain moment I came to the edge of the pavement, a deeper channel was just at my feet.
I stopped and hauled a streamer though the channel.
The channel gave up a larger specimen of perch.


Perch nr. 2

When the sun got low fish where beginning to rise in the pool but these where no trout, most likely shiners.
Our nymphs where rejected by the fish.
We finally called it quits and headed to the nearby pub for some nice cool wheat beers.

Tomorrow the big temperature drop will occur, from a whopping 84 F we will go back to 55 F which is more normal.
At least the new weather pattern will bring some much need rain.
Since I will fish the Baltic coast for sea run browns next Thursday I am glad that it will be cooler, summer like
temperatures are not exactly helpful for that kind of fishing.

I was told by a friend that the fish where finally 
active in the rivers again so I headed to one of the
places I fish in Germany.
Hordes of Roach moved through the clear water and made
a perfect target for nymph fishing


Clear water



Nice Roach

I talked for a while with a guy who was walking his dog, he was member of the local club and
told me that he had spotted trout.
It would be great to catch a trout for a change so I followed his directions and came to a deeper pool.


The pool.

I could determin one rising fish and one that went after my small Polar Magnus streamer.
The small one finally nailed the fly and trout 1 of the day was a fact, it was a little Rainbow.


Rainbow trout.

I had to call one of German fishing buddies and was told that he was in the process of stocking
rainbow trout in another river.
He asked me to help him and of course I said yes.
We collected a load of regular size Rainbows and a couple of monstersize ones and headed off to
various locations at the other river to stock the fish.


A plastic bag, water, oxygen and a large trout.


Trout released and already positioned in the river.

Since we where at river nr. 2 we could just as well try to get some fish well below the are we had just stocked.
A hatchery on one of the feeder streams had a little mishap with a rusted grid on their rearing pond meaning
loads of smaller sized browns had entered the main stream.
A week before I had caught a rainbow and missed a brown so now I had a rematch.
Eventually I located a brown trout but I missed the fish three times before all went quit.
When a fish rose upstream from me I tried again but only got a small perch on the fly.
I had more succses further downstream when I hooked one of the Rainbows that where stocked the year before.
The fish gave a pretty good fight.


Rainbow trout

Since activity at river was so high we went back in search for more trout.
On a very unlikely spot I hooked into something big.
At first I thought I had hooked a Walleye but to my big suprise it was a brook trout, my first in this river.


Brook trout.

The brook trout put up quite a fight before I could land and release it. It was a fine well built fish.
My day was really made now, I had caught all three trout species available down here in a single day.
I fished untill evening but got no more fish.


One of the good spots

This day was the best of the season so far.
It was so hot today it reminded me of Summer, I would not be suprised I would see mayfly one of these days,
It was nice to see that the river was finally alive again.

Yesterday it was time again to visit our club water over the border in Germany for another
Go at the fish.
Recent visits showed us that life had not returned to the river even though the weather was
improving by the week.
On this day the sky was a bright blue and the sun shone with full force, too bad that a strong wind was blowing over the land.
We decided to visit the sheltered part of our little river to stay out of the wind.


The river.

Fish where nowhere to be seen, I suspect they where still in hibernation on the river bed.
It is still early spring but the forest floor is already in bloom, some parts are full of windflowers right now.



Windflowers

The main stream yielded no fish so we looked for fish in some of the small feeder streamers where we suspected more activity due to the shallower water.


Feeder 1.


Feeder 2.

At feeder stream nr. 2 I had my first fish contact which I suspected was a brown trout.
I misinterpreted the sinking of my strike indicator as being caused by the current when in
fact a fish was taking the nymph.
When I lifted the line I felt the fish but it was already too late as the fish threw the hook.

My colleague had more success and told me on the radio that he had run into a school of roach and had seen a trout jump further downstream.
He also told me that the fish would only take nymphs that where fished very deep.
I headed to his direction and positioned my selves at the undercut bank near a large tree.
I weighted the leader down so the nymph would drift over the bottom of the pool.
This tactic worked since something was pulling the indicator down.
A quick strike and my first roach on flowing water was a fact.


Roach nr. 1

In the deep I could see the sunlight reflecting off the silver bodies of the Roach.
There where a few more fish down there and soon I had a slightly larger fish on.


Roach nr. 2

After fish nr. 3 the roach wised up and left the scene.
There where quite large fish moving about but these larger specimens where not
inclined to take the fly.
There where still not many insects about so I guess it would take a few more
weeks before the fish would become really active.
Even the kingfishers where not in their usual mode as one passed right along me, normally 
they would fly around me from a long distance. 

We tried some other spots that we usual fish in summer but those did not yield any more fish.
The only living creature I came along was a muskrat that moved past me at the waterline.


Rat.

It was a beautiful day but it is still early in the season.
I am pretty sure that no trout where stocked as we would have ran into them somewhere along the way, so the wait continues.
Maybe I give the Mohne River a try in a week or two, one week later it is off to the Baltic
coast in search of the Sea trout.
Things can only get better now.