Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies

Loads of rain and cold weather had prevented us from visiting one of our close by German
Trout streams.
Last Sunday the weather was finally good enough to see if life had returned to the stream.
A visit in an urban section of the stream gave us hope, the shiners had finally appeared again
in the open water signalling the beginning of the season to us.
The shiners where present but they did not take the nymphs we offered them, the only contact I had was a short battle with presumably a trout that hit my streamer.

It rained for a while in the morning, sheltering under a bridge.

After fishing the urban section with no success we headed upstream and ended up in the forest. Spring flowers like Windflowers and covered the forest floor.
The stream we fished always carried loads of sand with it so many of our old honey holes
where filled in while some new ones had appeared.
With that bright sand bottom I knew that fish would most likely shelter along the edge of the
stream and behind piles of rubble.
A cast with a nymph along the darker coloured bank yielded the desired result, a trout took the nymph instantly. I felt a solid hook-up but guess what, the fish came off.

Spring flowers, Cowslip and Windflower

One thing that bothered us where the many footprints along the bank of the stream.
With the knowledge that most members of the German club where meat fishermen we decided to visit one of the locations where access to the water was difficult.
My buddy Joop soon radioed in that he was into a fish, both brown trout and rainbow trout
fell victim to the black zonker streamer.

Brown- and rainbow trout by Joop.

I fished for a while with nymphs hoping it would increase my chances to catch something
with fins. After a while I figured a deep streamer would probably be a more suitable lure to
fish early in the season.
I had fished a deep with the nymphs thoroughly but had no takes, when I dropped the
the trusty black zonker in the depths I was instantly into a small brown trout.

First brown trout of the season.

So I went from pool to pool to search for trout, the deep fished streamer soon yielded another
nice brown trout.
Meanwhile the rain clouds had gone and the sun appeared, the world looked completely different now.

Brown trout nr.2 of the season.

I released my second brown trout hoping for a rematch later in the season when the fish would be a bit larger.
The last fish I encountered on this visit was a brown trout so small that it could not take the streamer, time after time the little critter would charge at the streamer but it just was too small. I had no run-ins with then newly stocked rainbows which where of quite a good size.
With higher temperatures predicted next weekend I might make a return visit to the river to
make the most of the current present fish before the meat fishermen clear everything out.

jeremy · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:58 pm Post subject: great

beautiful fish marcel ... and, as always, great photography .. i especially like the last photo .. great angle and perspective, the fact that its a beautiful healthy looking fish helps too.

jinxed247 · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:12 am Post subject:

Great job! I always look forward to reading your adventures in Europe. I espeacially enjoy the photo's! Great job!