Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Location: Enschede - The Netherlands

On the second full day at the Bode river the organizers of this trip had
planned a BBQ at 1900 hrs.
It was clear that these people where not valuing quality fishing time like
we did, what a bunch of …. to plan such an event during the evening rise.
After breakfast we would fish the stretch above the hatchery again.
As usual I was ready in no time and soon battled the first fish.
To my surprise something silvery came to the surface, a rare grayling had
taken a caddis nymph.

Grayling

It was not a big fish but still a wonder that it had survived the cormorant attacks
during the winter.
I was expecting to catch more fish especially browns in the pool but after the grayling
it stayed quiet.
I was fishing with an indicator but when I was standing waist deep in a deep
pool I figured that the nymph would never reach the riverbed.
I removed the indicator and tried fishing without it.
I made a cast upstream under some overhanging tree branches.
The line floated downstream and suddenly stopped.
I struck immediately and hooked a fish.

A rainbow trout from the deep pool

This method was working better than expected.
Since the pool was so deep I concluded that more trout had to be hiding there.
After a few more casts the second fish was hooked, this time it was a nice brown trout.
There where many trout in the river, the deeper pools and places behind large boulders
or deadfalls where good places to try.

Brown trout

We explored the river upstream and found that in almost all sections fish could be caught.
The main species was the brown trout with very sporadic encounters with stray rainbow from the hatchery.
I had expected bigger rainbows so I wondered at which size these fish entered the river.
At the hatchery I discovered that a part of the river was diverted towards the rearing basins
of the hatchery so that was probably also the means of escape of the rainbows.

A slow moving section of the river and brown trout

We fished at the first locations for some hours, after that we moved to a location well downstream of the hatchery.
It did not take long before we where in to more brown trout.
The fish where all small brown trout although a few bigger fish in the 40cm range where caught.
When the sunlight faded the fish started to picky the mayflies out of the air.
Since it was soon time to pack things and go I gave the dry fly another try.

Mayfly

Finally I had a good take on the klinkhamer when I was brutally interrupted by the other guys who yelled that it was time to go.
What a bummer, for a chance a fish was interested in the dry fly and I had to go.
We made our way to the village of Altenbrak and ended up at the bridge near our hotel.

Altenbrack and the bridge close to our hotel.

A host of my fellow flyfishers where standing on the bridge and stared below at
the rising trout
They had obviously the same priority listing as us, rise early to fish – stay out all day to fish –
eat midday or very late in the evening.
So instead of fishing we all attended the BBQ and spend the rest of the evening
talking about fishing which was also a pleasant way to spend the time.