Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Location: Enschede - The Netherlands

On September 1st. I went on a small trip with Harry to explore the Diemel river near where it entered the federal state of Hessen.
This was the river where I caught my first ever grayling some years ago.

After a drive of 2,5 hours we arrived at our destination.
In preparation of this trip I contacted one of the local Fisherman that roamed a German fishing
Forum I frequented also.
This contact provided valuable information about where to get permits and good spots to check out.
This particular stretch was new to me, I had fished the river a couple of miles upstream though so I more or less knew what to expect.

We parked our car near the river and took a look down the bridge, there was a lot of water moving down the stream.

We got into our gear and walked down the stream for a suitable spot to enter the water.
On the water I realised that I had forgot my camera while Harry had left his sunglasses at home.
We decided to swap those items and soon I was fishing the left bank while Harry probed the water on the right.
After a few casts a trout attacked my strike indicator which was off course a good sign.
It did not take long before I caught my first trout.

First trout.

I was on a roll, in the mean time Harry had no hits on the fly and started to look desperate.
The fly that did it for me was a Tungsten bead head pattern from which I had only two in my fly box.

My top fly.

Besides the trout I also caught a couple of Grayling, it was the first time since years that I had caught one of these beautiful fish so I was pretty pleased.

Grayling

After standing in the water for a hour or so I suddenly got a bright moment when I realized that my landing net was actually attached at my camera bag/
It had become such a routine to take the camera with me that I had not even realized that I had it on, how stupid of me.
I traded the camera for the sunglasses and gave Harry one of the other Tungsten pattern so he could try it.
Harry had no luck with that pattern either, when he finally changed to a very hefty Tungsten pattern he got into fish, a nice Grayling fell for a tan nymph with a green tail.

Harry’s Grayling

When I fished one of the deeper pools I ran into a hefty fish, the fish gave quite a struggle before I could reel it in.
I had not expected such a large fish there, it was a very nice coloured specimen.

On the Nymph.

Harry was also doing well and caught plenty of fish on his side of the river.

Success!

When I reached the front of the road bridge I was thinking that the shallow water right to the concrete foundation might be a spot for fish.
When the nymph landed into the fast flowing waters the nymph was intercepted right away, I had to remember that spot for the next visit.
Upstream from the bridge the water was pretty shallow.
To my surprise I noticed something blue and white on the river floor, it was a cap of a Beamer wheel.

Als ich unter der Brücke ins freie watete wurde das Wasser flacher und
die anbisse weniger.
Ich schaute auf den Flussboden und sah zum meinen erschrecken ein
Abzeichen von einen Beemer liegen.
I would have to wade carefully now, maybe the rest of the car was lurking somewhere in the river.

What people throw in the river.

Suddenly other flyfisherman appeared on the bank.
It was my contact from the German Flyfishing forum so we entered out the river and had a nice chat with the locals about the fishing.

The shallow section of the river.

Time had flown when we looked at the time we saw that it was already afternoon so we decided to take a break and look for a place to get something to eat.
After the break we headed to a large weir upstream from our previous location.
When we arrived at the weir we came across our fellow German flyfishers, they did not look so happy anymore.
When we saw the river we knew why, the water had risen strongly and looked like a brown soup.

We decided to fish anyway and stepped carefully into the river.
This time luck was on Harry’s side, he was still catching fish in the brown soup while al my attempts to get fish where fruitless.

geworden und ein ganzes stuck hoher wie am morgen.
Oben am Wehr war es einfach zu tief und trübe für uns so dass wir
abzogen nach die Flachstellen.

Harry still able to catch fish in the murky water.

Harry offered me one of his heavy Tungsten nymphs but that still did not produce fish for me.
When I finally extend my leader a couple of feet I finally was on track again/

Finally into fish again.

Wading had become though with the rising and discoloured water.
The weather was deteriorating and with the high water an evening rise would be out of the question.
The decision to called it a day was quickly taken and we vowed to return to this river when conditions where more favourable.
Despite the conditions we had a marvellous day on the water, especially catching the Grayling was the crown on my fishing day.