 |
|
|
Fishing Notes (Archives)
June 17th, 2004
I did mention, during one of my earlier fishing trips, that it could be a good idea to take my laptop along so I could write my stuff right away. And so I did. Actually it is not a laptop but my Palm with a special "Fold-Away" keyboard. I have this gadget for months now but failed to use it properly. Not anymore!
 |
| Out of my archive.... |
Today, Friday, I took a day off. Did some shopping with my wife in the morning and around 10:15 I hit the motorway. Hhmm, it's a lot busier compared to the very early hours I normally travel at. But I don't mind, I'm going fishing! I'm playing a lovely CD by Emylou Harris, it's one of her latest and titled; "Stumble into Grace". Man, I love that album. This lady of country only got better over the years.
Around 12:45 I arrive at my beloved river. The weather is so-so, plenty of clouds and a maximum temperature of around 18 Celsius. I just hope it isn't going to rain too much today. I don't mind a bit of rain, as long as the river stays ok. The river is clear, no problem there. Slowly I put my rod together, tie on a new tippet and automatically go for my favorite nymph...hook size 12. In no time I catch my first trout and than an other one and an other one.... Pew, they are hungry today! There's one major thing, which strikes me... I catch a lot more BIG fish this year than last year. The river has improved somehow... I'm having fun and I don't care it is raining. My new raincoat does a proper job at keeping me dry and in almost every pool I catch one or more fish. Brownies, Grayling and....my first Rainbow of the season! I saw it jump first and I thought; "Hey, that looks a lot like a rainbow trout". Five minutes later....benggg!!! The rainbow takes my nymph and jumps clearly out of the water. Yippee!! It is a nice fish, close to two pounds and it fights well. Ahh, such fun..... A couple of minutes later I carefully release the fish into its element. Time for a cigar!
The rest of the afternoon is more or less the same. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't but the main thing is; I catch a lot of good fish. Around six o'clock I check in at the little pension where I will stay the night, have a shower and go out again. I have the intention to fish until nine o'clock but I feel too tired to do so. It also starts to rain more and more. "Just one good one more", I think and I park my car close to a deep pool, which is hugging the road. Carefully I approach the pool and start to fish it with my nymph. Soon I hook the first small trout. A little bit later I reach what I see as the "hot spot" of the pool and suddenly my leader zips through the water! An other big one! Wow, I can't believe it...an other big one.... What a day, what a day. The fish jumps and runs and jumps. A wonderful brown trout of about 2 pounds. Just when I am about to put my hand around its fat belly my rod jumps into the straight position.... the nymph came out... Well, I don't care...I've seen it, I fought it...that's what counts... I decide to call it a day. Back at the pension I change clothes and order myself a big steak. Ahh, it tastes good, the Germans do like their meat....
 |
|
June 12th, 2004
It was going to be tricky, weatherwise.... It had rained quite a lot lately and the river was rising fast. During friday I watched the rain going over the area on Internet and I didn't like what I saw. However, I did buy myself a nice raincoat just a couple of months ago and realized I have been a bit of a wimp lately, avoiding the rain and only going out if the weather promissed to be nice and dry. So, I decided that we should go. "We" being Rene and myself. Rene arrived at my house around 20:00 hours and
 |
| Lunch underneath the trees |
we took off for Germany at once. Most Germans went on holiday the day before so the roads were nearly empty, just the way we like it!
Over the years a noticed a small hotel right along the upper stretch of "my" river and I thought it was time to give it a try. Driving up and down in one day is a bit much sometimes so staying the night in a small local hotel looked quite appealing. We arrived just before dark. Inside it really looks quite nice. There is a big bar, with 2 locals drinking some beer and an elderly lady who introduces herself as "the mother".... Right from the start she talks and she talks and her son, who is running the place, is smiling from behind the bar. I can see him think; "I wished she shut up sometimes". Anyway, soon we have a nice foaming beer in front of us and God, does it taste good!
During the night it rains...it rains a lot. Damn! That is not what we need.... So, the next morning we have a late breakfast and take our time eating it. I had a peek at the river behind the pension and the water was brown so we think we have to wait untill lunchtime before we could even think about fishing. How wrong we are! Downstreams, were the upper river joins the main river, the water is just fine! Yes! So quickly we assemble our rods and put our waders on. Ahh, it is lovely in the river. Again the fishing is very slow in the beginning but around lunchtime it starts to pick up. Just before lunch I find a deep pool and start to flick my nymph in it. Whammm!!! WOW, a big trout slammed on the fly and jumps clear out of the water. It is at least a 2 pounder and my rod makes a deep bow out of respect. Yes! 5 minutes later I'm holding the beautiful wild fish in my hands. I admire the bright red spots and slowly release it in a slower bit of the pool. "This day is already a perfect one", I can hear myself thinking.....
During the day it rains quite a lot but the river stays "fishable" and we do catch quite a few fish on our nymphs. We had our lunch deep in the woods so we would be protected from the rain. The cheese, sausages and white wine taste ever so good. Life is good.
 |
|
 |
| A horse checking on Ruediger.. |
May 29th 2004
Pffff, a lot of fishing means a lot of catching
up to do with writing it al down....
I have been lucky enough to have 4 more fishing days since
the last update, not a bad start of the season :-) (May 16,
18, 20 and 29 to be exact) However, the high pace of new
days meant that there was hardly any time to write it all
down. I know, I know, you have heard this before and I should
try harder. Maybe I should carry my laptop along
to the riverside so
 |
Empty mayfly skin
|
I can write things down right after the happened?
Anyway, back to the fishing; the water stayed quite cold
for a long time and the fishing was slow during the mornings.
However, as soon as the sun came out and we have had our
lunch things started to pick up a lot! If I look back at
it I see it as "sophisticated fishing",
after lunch it all starts..:-) It was really striking to
see how fast things changed as soon as it got a bit warmer.
I have this tendency to stick to the deep pools
in this small river but that didn't bring me much
luck during the start of the season. I should have known
that in the cold water (below 8 Celsius) the trout are
looking for stretches of water that warm up quickly and
were the insects start to appear.
 |
| Philippe fishing a nice pool |
Long, slow and mostly shallow pools! Once
I started to concentrate on those places my luck quickly changed
and I caught quite a few good trout. Most of them plump, colourful
wild fish. Man, I love those wild fishes so much.
Right, you won't hear me complaining about the stockie's I
caught....they are a nice perk! When the fish were rising I
caught them on a green Klinkhamer, I never knew that this fly
could do so well on "my" river. As a matter of fact,
I had some Klinkhamers in my fly box for years and years but
somehow I never got round using them. I always fished with
a Goddard sedge.
 |
Bas fishing the nymph
|
I have fished with Bas, my old pal.
Lino, a friend I met at my former job, and
Rene, a fairly new friend who joined
me on a wonderful trip to Argentina earlier
this year. Oh, and I should not forget Philippe,
a friend who lives close to my house and who
also joined me on our trip to Argentina. Hhmm,
seems like I have been entertaining quite a
few friends on this little river!
Both Lino and Rene haven't got that much experience with fly fishing yet
but both of them are really keen! It is such fun to fish with people who
are 100% motivated to get it right and who enjoy every
minute fishing "my" river. It isn't always easy for "beginners" to
fish
 |
| Lino wading a deep pool |
this small overgrown river. Casting underneath
the overhanging trees can be quite a challenge
but both Lino and Rene managed to adapt pretty
quickly. Bas and Philippe have much more experience
but still they have to get used to fishing and
casting the overgrown pools and runs.
During the last days we could really
feel and see summer coming. More and
more insects started to appear and the fishing
started to get better and better. We caught
many trout and quite a few nice grayling. We
also spotted our friend, the Kingfisher and
saw many large mayflies and caddis.
Ahh, I love springtime! The weather was so
nice that the farmers already managed to make
their first hay. Philippe spotted the skin
of a mayfly dangling from a tree and I managed
to get quite a good macro photo of it. It makes
me happy to see more and more large mayflies
but still there aren't enough around to call
it a proper "hatch". Maybe, if the
numbers keep increasing, we might be able to
have a real hatch in a year or 3.
 |
Lino casting his
line
|
Anyway, I hope you don't mind that I didn't
write much about all the details that went on.
The days just flew bye and writing it all down
was not easy. I hope (think) that the photo's
make up for the lack of text. And, as mentioned
above, you can now CLICK on the small
pictures (thumbnails) to see a larger photo in
a popup window. Now, if that isn't a
perk!
Tight Lines!
|
May 12th 2004
Right, it has rained a lot lately but
the last couple of days showed a lot of improvement.
The water levels
have
been going down in a steady tempo (I can watch it go
up or down in real time through Internet!) and I
have taken a day off work to go fishing. My
German friend Ruediger
has a whole week off (the bastard!) so we can go together.
I drive to Bonn the night before so we can have some
drinks
and
I don't have to face the morning traffic on
the German "autobahn".
 |
| Ruediger on the small bridge |
The next morning we leave Ruediger's house around nine,
the river is only a 15 minute drive away. The weather
looks good, although it is a bit on the cold side. It
just reminds
us that it is still early in the season.
When we drive along the river to find a first good spot
we can see the water level is high but it is hardly coloured.
So things are looking good!
It is always quite a job to get into our waders,
fix the rods, the leader, tippets and finally attach
a fly
to the
very end. Pff, around 10 o'clock we wade into the cold
river, the water temperature is only 8 degrees
celcius....a proper temp for a nice cool beer...not
for trout to feel happy we guess. And it looks we
are right
since we don't touch a thing. No bite, no nibble, no
strike, nothing. We don't see any rising fish, no
swirls, no dimples, nothing. The river seems dead.....
Hhhm, what is going on? After a while Ruediger's brother
Stefan joins us and we decide to move upstream's. Slowly
it is getting warmer but it is still quite cold,
I decide to put on a warm fleece sweater. Ah, that
feels a lot better. We split up, Ruediger stays close
to his
brother, I move upstream and stumble into a beautiful
pool with a smooth, deep run. A couple of casts
later I'm into my first fish of the day. It's a nice
brownie of about one pound. The absence of
it's dorsal fin tells
me that it is a "stockie", put into the river
only a couple of weeks ago. Oh well, better
a stockie than
nothing! It feels a lot better now I have landed my
first fish and soon I'm into an other one. Again a
stockie. I
don't mind, it is giving a good fight and after a couple
of minutes I slowly release it into the cold water.
Things
are starting to pick up! More and more flies are coming
of the water. Some small Cadis, some small
mayflies
and lots of tiny black flies I can't identify. Downstream's
I see a good rise under a tree but I can't
cast to it from my position. I see Ruediger coming
around the corner and I tell him from a distance that
he should
try... Later he tells me that he did manage to catch
it and it was a real nice brownie. Good for
him! I'm hungry like a wolf so I take of to a nearby chip
shop. Ruediger hates the kind of food they serve there
(I'm
not that keen myself) and decides to wait until the
local
restaurant opens at 4. After I have filled my
stomach with greasy chips and a "curry wurst" I
return to the river.
 |
| The brothers together... |
I can't find Ruediger and his
brother so I just start to fish on my own. All the
way upstream,
to the point where our stretch starts is not a good
decision... There's some heavy work going on and
the run-off creates a mess in the river. Further downstream
this mess
is more diluted and I find a great pool full of rising
fish. Wow, I catch good trout after good
trout and after a while I change to a dry fly. My
choice
is big fat Klinkhamer and the trout just love it!
The fishing just can't get any better. I'm a happy, happy
man!
After 2 hours I had enough, my body is tired and
I'm very thirsty. Time for a pint of beer! When I
walk
back to my
car I see the big 4 x 4 of Ruediger's brother so
they must be close. I find them fishing downstream
of
the little bridge where I went upstream. They have
had some good fishing as well so we all feel
good.
Together
we drive to our favourite pub to have some beer and
some food. I choose for a big salad, to balance out
the grease I ate earlier on. We finish it off with
a fine cigar and at 7 o'clock I decide to call it
a day. Ruediger
and his brother decide to fish on for one hour more
so outside the pub we say goodbye. Two and a half
hours later I'm back home, tired but happy....
|
April 18th 2004:
Since we didn't do much fishing last week and the
weather has been fine during the last couple of days, we decided
to give it an other try. "We" being my friend
Bas and myself. We're both members of this little
German club with almost 25 km of water!
 |
| Bas fishing downstreams |
It is only a
small river, downstream's the widest places
are not more than 20 meters wide and upstream's, were
we fish most of the time, most places are less than
10 meters
wide. It is more a brook than a river.
That does not mean it is less fun! We love this brook
because it is difficult to fish at most places. The
brook flows
mostly through rough woodland and most pools and runs
have to be fished "indian style" because
of the overhanging trees and bushes.
It is still early in the season and today is much colder
than the days before. When we reach the river after
a swift drive down the empty German highways (autobahn)
it is only
10 Celsius. The trees and bushes are
still bare, it is early indeed. But we will not complain
because it does not rain and we're going fishing! Quickly
we assemble our rods, tie on our nymphs and start fishing
the cold, clear pools. Bas starts
downstream, I go upstream. A bright coloured kingfisher
shrieks as it flies over, ahh, I love those birds....
 |
| Ruediger's brother casting |
The fishing is slow but we do manage to catch a few
brownies
and some grayling. Slowly it is getting a bit
warmer but the temperature never gets any higher than
14 Celsius. In one pool I catch a brown trout still
full of
eggs... The fish does not look healthy at all, it's
stomach very swollen, I think it did not manage to
lay it's eggs when the time was right....
Time flies and soon it is time to have a nice
riverside lunch. Bas has brought a big cool box full of goodies..
Smelly French cheeses, sausages, bread and a lovely
bottle of Chablis. I have parked the car sideways
so we can use it as a windshield and we sit in our
comfortable "foldable" chairs.
Ahh, life is good!
The afternoon is over before we know it and around
half past five we call it a day. Time for a hot cup
of chocolate
and a wee dram of German "schnaps". Feeling
a lot warmer we drive back to Holland. It was a good
day and we can't wait to go back when the season is
really started.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
