Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Location: Enschede - The Netherlands

My boss found it necessary to close shop on Friday so I decided to visit our little stream in Germany.
The snowdrops have blossomed out, the windflowers still have to appear.
Insect life is slowly starting with the first butterflies and bumblebees scooting around the countryside.
When I passed a ditch I could witness quite some algae growth.

Algae

En route to the stream I could witness an aerial battle between a northern lapwing and a common buzzard.
The buzzards where flying over the field when the lapwing flew straight for them to chase them away, the buzzard was I guess just irritated being twice as large as the lapwing.

Common buzzard.

When I came at the stream I noticed that the shiners where still absent.
I guess it takes some time before they become active again.
I suspect it must become quite a bit warmer before we see them again.
Fishing with nymphs would be not a good idea in these conditions so I tied on a small streamer.
The streamer got some interest of little yellow perch but they just chased the fly.
The first good spots did not yield any fish.
Further upstream smack in the middle of a village on a rather desolate stretch I got a small rainbow trout.
When I unhooked the fish it managed to slip right into the water again.
I fished the stretch thoroughly but could not produce further takes so I headed out of the village and into the jungle.

In the jungle I saw a rising fish, now I knew where they where hiding.
A cast near the vicinity of the rising fish produced a nice brown trout.

Brown trout

I caught the fish in a rather long deep pool, where there is one fish there is always a chance to get another so I launched the streamer at the same spot.
A few cast later and I was in contact with a small brown trout.

Brown trout nr.2

Off course I had to try a third time and with success, another nice brown trout came to the surface.

Brown trout nr.3

The pools upstream from me yielded no fish, still the water looked very nice considering the flooding we had last week.

At the stream.

Being so early in the season the water was still clear.
When the algae bloom will start visibility will go down quite a bit.
With so many shallow stretches the clarity of the water was a disadvantage since the fish could spot you easily.

Some more stream images.

I heard some voices in the jungle and saw some members of the
worm brigade fishing upstream from me.
I circumvented them and headed deeper into the jungle.
When I came across a deep stretch bordered by some big trees I dropped the streamer under the bank and behold a rather large trout came out from below to intercept the fly.
The trout only caught the tail of the streamer and thus the streamer slipped away and the trout went back to its hiding station.
On the second attempt the trout raced out of its cover and nailed the fly.
When I was ready to land the fish the hook came out, no fish for me.

Deer tracks.

With all the deer tracks on the banks of the stream it was just a question of time before I ran into them.

Deer

I had a late start fishing this day because the temperature in the morning was quite low.
The weather forecast told of shower with possible lightning in the afternoon but being so far east that weather would probably not reach me.
Late in the afternoon I saw the clouds rolling in and decided to call it a day.
It was a great day to be outdoors and catching a few trout was a big bonus.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Sounds like a great day, spring is definitely in the air and summer not too far behind!

ncwatermanpg · Location: Raleigh

that first brown looks special. really nice pictures, thanks for posting them!