Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject: Flyfishing Germany, Sept. 23rd.

Last Saturday we attended the annual Fisher king tournament of our German fishing club.
This tournament was attended by the senior members of the club and consisted of a few hours
fishing in the river and at the well stocked pool below the watermill.
At 07.00 hours we gathered at our pub annex official meeting place in the middle of the countryside.

The first session on the river left us only 1 hour and 15 minutes to fish.
Time was short and since fly-rods where not allowed on the second part of the tournament
we decided to rig the spinning rods for this session so we where ready for leg two right away.
It was time to break out my ultra-light Fenwick 4’-6” spinning rod.
With a small twister I managed to catch two small perch from the river in a town downstream
of the watermill.

Perch on twister.

After the river session we returned for a solid breakfast at the pub.
With the breakfast finished the whole circus moved to the pool below the watermill
to fish for the limit of five trout per angler.
People where staring at me when I entered the premises armed with my UL spinning rod.
Most of the local guys where fishing with pretty crude gear which looked to me like it would be better suited to fish for mackerel at sea than trout in a river.
We where supposed to fish with a float and worms but I tied on a small black zonker streamer instead.
I moved away from the crowd to the end of the pool and tossed in the streamer.
By slowly retrieving the fly across the pool I quickly caught my limit of five trout.
At noon the whole circus went back to the pub again for dinner and the weighing of the
catch.

After dinner the new Fisher king was officially announced, the festivities would continue in
the evening for the so called Kings ball.
While the locals headed home for a rest or preparation for the evening event we had different plans.
Driving all the way back to the Netherlands was impractical so we would fish until it was time
for the ball.
The normally off limits pool below the mill was now open to members of the club when they would buy a special ticket .
So we decided to buy the extra tickets and off we went to the mill.
This time we entered the grounds with fly rods.
The pool was full of trout and with some luck we might encounter the odd brown trout that
survived last years massacre.

Meadow Saffron, typical autumn flower

When we walked over the weir at the millers house we met the residents, a retired
veterinary surgeon and his wife.
So instead of fishing we where sitting high above the pool drinking coffee and chatting
with the friendly inhabitants of the mill.

Coffee at the mill

My fishing buddy Joop was seated in such a position that he saw all the trout roaming below
in the pool.
The sight was too much for him so after a while he made a comment that we had to go fish since there was so little time.

Joop in action at the mill.

In the beginning the action was ridiculous, anytime a fly went in the water a trout would race towards it and grab it.
The pool was filled with chunky rainbow trout that put up a good fight, many fish went airborne.

Rainbow trout

This action did not last long since the trout pretty soon figured that the shores where an unsafe place to be.
Still the black zonker streamer was irresistible to most trout although the fish became more wary by the hour.

More rainbows

At the end of the day I had caught at least 20 rainbows from the pool and although the action was fun I wished I had caught them elsewhere on the river.
I do not have to catch trout every day but just one per session on the river would be nice or at least the sight of moving or rising trout would be sufficient.
Next year the stocking regime of the river will be changed, fish will be stocked more evenly during the year.
Hopefully in the upcoming year we will encounter trout in the river during all months of the season.

September 28th is the date for a new adventure since on that date the die-hards of our Dutch club will be off to the Danish Baltic sea coast.
Our mission is to catch seatrout and cod in the sea and grayling and trout in the rivers. It will be my second time in Denmark this year and I know it will be good especially if I have the luck to catch at least one fine strong seatrout again.
To be continued....