Flyfishing FWSW

I fished a local stream late in the afternoon.
The perdigon nymph yielded the first fish quite early in the session.
I caught a good size roach and hoped for more of the same.
Alas it stayed quiet for a long time.
I tried the squirminator but only had a few hits of small fish.

I switched back to the perdigon as the worm did not perform that well.
The perdigon was intercepted by a gudgeon, fish species 2 of the day.
I tried several other spots hoping for fish but nothing happened.

I switched to a heavier tippet and a lure as the sun was low in the sky.
My choice of weapon was a small woolly worm with a bullet shaped head.
Something was chasing the fly, a perch lunged forward and took it.
To my surprise a second perch about twice the size tried to eat the fish
I had just caught.

I continued fishing the spot where I had last fish contact.
The perch where wary though and only nibbled at the fly.
I suddenly felt a tug on the streamer.
A small pike had hit the fly and was actually going ballistic.
I landed my first pike of the season despite the lack of a trace in the leader.

I tried the last mark of the day as the sun was setting but only
hooked a piece of submerged wood.
I called it a day when the mosquitoes came out at dusk.

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Another trip to the local stream on a bright sunny day.
Since it was Sunday a lot of people where out in the outdoors.
Even though the border should be only open for essential travel it looked like people on both sides disregarded that fact.
With a steady east wind fishing was difficult, hardly any bites.
The bites I had where from tiny tiny fish.
When the sun was setting I feared another skunk but in the last minute
a small roach went for the nymph so it was not all in vain.
Hoping for winds from the southwest and some rain as it is needed.

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I took a short trip to the local stream in the Netherlands as the border was semi closed.
I only blanked on this stream this year so far but with the warmer weather maybe conditions would be better.
Ader flies and St. Marks flies where about but surface feeding dace where
totally absent.
In the past this stream boasted a Dace population but the water looked dead.
The stream although shallow was also pretty murky.
In the end the small nymphs did the trick and a few small roach where caught.

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As a master of social distancing I slipped out for a few hours to check out the local stream.
Took the back roads and a path that was just across the border to reach my fishing spot.

The stream fishes bad in early spring and with a frosty morning and a steadily blowing east wind my hopes for finding fish where not that great.
It was a short session so I choose a spot where I had lost two pike the last time I visited the stream.
The water was high and quite dirty but I figured clear enough for any predator to strike the fly.

I tried for a couple of hours but nothing moved.
Plan B was to get a dace or roach by drifting a nymph deep along the bottom but that also failed to haul in any fish.
Still nice to be in the fresh air for a while.

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I had hoped the rains would stop so my favorite stream would be fishable again but last Thursday and Friday the skies opened again.
The river was up in flooding stage in no-time so I tried another canal session at my side of the border.

Goal for today was to catch a perch.
The last two sessions at the canal remained fruitless, I came no further than hooking a fish.
Today I finally had a solid take of a good perch and was able to land it.
I noticed that the water was not as clear as usual so that might have helped.

I probed the canal thoroughly but had just one good hit.
It was a short session which I ended at the junction of an old canal to the harbor.
Nothing much moving until a pike tried to nail the polar minnow I fished.

The pike missed the fly but remained in the surface looking for escaped prey. I quickly tossed the fly back in and twitched it a few times resulting in an instant attack.
In hindsight not a wise move as I had only a trout net with me.
So I played the pike hoping to somehow perform a gill grab but the hook came out so all was well. 

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Last chance to get a pike this year so I fished a stream on the border.
Pretty strong flow but good visibility. 
The shortcut through the preserve meant dealing with the highlanders but luckily they did not seem that bothered by my presence. 

Managed to hook two pike but on both the hook did not stick so I am afraid I was skunked again.
Then again it was a huge improvement over the session before when I did not see any action at all. That pike will come next year. 
Fishing for this year is done so all left to do is wishing everybody all the best for the upcoming year.

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With the end of the year in sight it was time for our traditional venue to close of the flyfishing year,
the so called “oliebol snoeken”.
Where “oliebol” stood for the deep fried raisin bun, a traditional end of the year treat in the Netherlands.
With “snoeken” pike fishing was meant.

The location for this year was a polder, a piece of low lying reclaimed land littered with small canals
and ditches used to drain the land by means of pumping stations.
It was cold in the morning, temperature below freezing and a bleak sun in the sky.
As it was freezing the guides would ice up so from time to time you had to dislodge the buildup ice.
The visibility was very poor, it had a coffee color which dimmed my hopes for catching anything.

After a few hours fishing the results were pretty meager.
Tom had a strike of a pike but missed the fish, he did notice some baitfish around.
I had seen not any activity of fish, the rest of the guys also with no hits.
The lack of visibility in the water bothered us so we went looking for cleaner water.
In the end we found a  nice wide canal that had a dark tannic color but with some visibility in it.
It did not take long before Tom hooked the first pike of the day.

Hopes where raised and we did our best to imitate Tom but alas to no avail.
After walking a mile or so along the canal making various casts into the middle of the canal
and along the shore line I had nothing to show for.
In the mean time the rest of the guys had doubled back to the first location of the morning but soon came back as it still was no good.

When the guys came back Tom asked me if I had seen anything moving and well I had.
In the same spot where Tom landed his first fish I had seen some fish moving but tossing in a streamer did not yield a strike for me.
Tom started to fish the same stretch and behold within a short while he hooked another pike.
It got worse .. at least for us … soon Tom caught pike number three.

With the sun going under and the temperature back to freezing we called it a day.
Off course the phrase “Dumb farmers grow the biggest potatoes” came up but in the end it was clear that we where useless and Tom could fish … simple as that.
We end the day at the pancake house nearby for a proper ending of the fishing year, kudos to Tom … surely our pike whisperer.

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At our local flyfishingclub plans where made for an outing to Rotterdam to pursue shad.
At one of the club meetings the neccesary flies where tied and dates where picked for the venue.
The location was the ” Nieuwe Waterweg” which was in facto the artificial mouth of the Rhine with the North Sea.
The best time to fish for shad was towards the low tide when the shad
would gather in the lower part of the waterway as they entered from the sea.
The signs to watch out where jumpin fish and diving gulls as the shad would hunt for small baitfish.
My equipment consisted out of a #6 sinking tip line with a short leader and a small chartreuse weighted fly.

So far the plans, we arrived at the outgoing tide and carefully positioned ourselves near the breakwater.
The waterway was a major shipping channel for oceangoing vessels we took care to watch for bowwaves.
We did not wanted to be flushed out to England.
In the beginning of the tide a few shad showed themselves but not in the numbers we had hoped for.
I was into fish at the first few casts when I caught my first be it little european sea bass.
Unfortunately that was it for the rest of the day as the shad where just not there.
From locals we gathered that fishing for shad had been really bad so
I guess they had not arrived in numbers yet.
In the end I had caught one fish of a new species.
Watching all that shipping entertained me through the rest of the day.

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A day ago I walked past an innercity canal and spotted a bunch of large perch lying on the canal floor hiding under some floating plants.
I was there “unarmed” so I vowed to check the place out the next day.

Off course I went back to the canal and checked the location of yesterday … no one was at home.
I then went looking for the perch at the other bank and noticed one fish on the move.
Once cast along the bank and the fly was intercepted by a hefty perch.

I came across a school of big perch further on at the canal but those fish where quite lethargic, they followed the fly within an inch but would not hit.
Pretty happy though with that one fish, a real decent pretty perch

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