Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Location: Enschede - The Netherlands

Flyfishing Germany – April 30th.

The cost of the Dutch royal family to taxpayers is only surpassed by the
English royals.
I can only think of one benefit that comes with the royals and that is so called
Queens day on April 30th – an official holiday.

Among some of my friends it was tradition to visit the Möhne river on Queens day so
this year we once again headed out for the German hills.
We left in the morning witnessing a clear blue sky and sunshine quite contrary to the
weather report I had checked for the region we would visit.
The clear skies lasted all the way until we came in view of the large Reservoir below the river we would fish.
Over the lake clouds rolled in with stiff breeze that producing whitecaps on the water.

We started fishing at the lower section of the river, a short distance downstream from that
point the lake began.
A view from the bridge show fish rising, my friend would start fishing there.
I moved upstream to some of the pools where I had success in previous seasons.

At the sections I fished I could see juvenile fish from an undetermined species in the stream.
I fished with a nymph that yielded one little mini-trout.
To probe the deeper pools I switched to a streamer which I thought was the best method
to pursue the early season trout.
My good spots from last season did not yield fish to me though, all I encountered was one
good fish that threw the hook.

Since my relatively unused Orvis waders proved untight during my recent Denmark trip I was wading around in my old silver label waders – also leaky.
The leaks where more severe than I had anticipated so I had to take a small break
to empty the accumulated before I continued fishing.

As I moved downstream towards the lake I ran across my friend who had also encountered a small trout and had missed a huge chub.
I started fishing at the place we saw the rising fish in the morning.
The fish where still rising, most likely chubs from the lake.
Several roach and a small perch intercepted the pheasant tail nymph I fished.

During all this fishing the clouds had thickened, the wind had increased and it felt like the temperature had gone down.
It was close to midday when we assembled at the car park to head to the fly-fishing shop of fly-fishing Europe that ran the Möhne river we fished.
I needed new waders and even though I would try to send in the Orvis I opted to buy an
entry level Simms wader since the next big trip was coming up in a couple of weeks.

After the shopping it was time to get something to eat.
One of our favourite haunts of the past had just reopened after a year of closure so we where eager to check that place out.
The restaurant was open but to our dismay the waitress told us that they only sold coffee and cake midday. We however ran on pork chops and wheat-beer so we left right away, the next best place was a n Italian restaurant where we got a quick bite to eat.

The morning session was a bit disappointing, in the afternoon we would visit to so called Senior Citizen stretch aptly named after it’s easy access.
With the weather being chilly not a lot of insects where on the water and we did not see that many fish cruising the river.
My friend caught two trout while fishing a streamer and when some fish started to rise he caught them with a dry fly.

I had found a spot where there was a lot of activity but the fish where very picky often pursuing the streamer and then turn away at the last moment.
So streamers did not convince the fish, next thing was to try a nymph.
I dropped the nymph near the adjacent bank and the indicator moved with a steady pace
downstream, I struck and was in to a decent rainbow trout.
The rainbow trout made a series of violent headshakes and before I knew it he threw
the hook, bummer.
Would my fishing day without landing a decent size trout?, a disturbing thought.

Later towards the evening even the very sporadic rising stopped.
The sun had appeared briefly through the clouds, the temperature was however steadily
dropping.
In a last ditch effort we decided to fish the section near that restaurant that would only serve us coffee and cake this afternoon.
I checked out the bank adjacent the so called beer garden of the restaurant, way in the past I had always caught fish there.

As I tossed the nymph rig near the stone wall of the terrace a fish jumped on my strike indicator, a good sign.
On the second cast the same fish hit the nymph and put up quite a fight.
It was a decent Rainbow trout, not a monster but a real acrobat and my day saver.

All in all we had a reasonable day, it could have been better but on the other had it could
also have been a lot worse.
Hopefully we will return there for a rematch with some better weather this Summer.