Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Location: Enschede - The Netherlands

As usual we where trying to catch a few trout in our favorite stream.
The night before the trip a very heavy thunderstorm came down,
there was a big chance that the river would be flooding next day.
When we drove off in the morning we had decided on a plan B.
Plan B was to visit a nearby lake where we had permission to fish.
We would check the river at the watermill and decide then where to
go.
Luckily the water was pretty clear when we checked the mill.
Since there where so few trout in the river during the last couple of months I
decided to stick with the pheasant tail nymph.
Our usual honey holes turned out to be empty so we had to look for the fish
in other places.
With my delicate nymph presentation I soon fooled another one of these little
Gudgeons.
I seemed to encounter these little fish a lot in these last days of the season.

Gudgeon.

As I was wading into the river Joop saw the shape of a trout moving by.
If Joop would not work in retail he would most likely be a poacher, no trout
would escape his eyes.
He fished close to the bank, out of nowhere a trout shot out to nail the streamer.
The fish missed and Joop cursed himself for failing to catch the fish.
He did not gave up though, he would just tease the fish from it hideout.
After five casts the trout came out again and this time luck was in Joop’s favor.

Joop in action with the split cane rod

From our talks with other members from the German club we had received interesting
information of a part of the river we had not fully explored yet.
We had been there before but the jungle was so thick that we barely made it to the waters edge.
You really needed a machete down there to make any headway.
The new information promised easier access to the river although the
walking distance and the shallow river seemed to put off most anglers to fish there.
We knew from experience that the shallow river hosted a myriad of deep pools and
undercut banks that had their fishy surprises.
Walking distances did not matter to us since the best fishing spots usually
where located where few people would bother to go.

The river far away at the tree line.

When we came at the end of the field road we saw signs of human activity.
Two paths led to the river below although they looked like there had not been
many people there during the last month.
There where some very nice pools down there which would surely hold fish.
The meandering river had washed out some nice holes near trees and bends.
It really looked like a jungle down there.

Holding station for fish.

While Joop walked eastwards to explore this unknown stretch I decided to see
what was hiding under the tree roots.
The strike indicator did not move on the surface for long.
It went under and I struck, a typical bite of a roach.

Roach.

I hauled four fish out of that little hole before we had to leave because
of pending appointments by Joop.

A juicy piece of apple, most likely bait for Muskrats.

If we had a little more time on our hand we would have surely encountered more fish.
This might even be a place to get one of the bigger remaining trout in the river
or a place to encounter the grayling they had stocked last year.
As we moved back to the car we came along a nice trap, luckily I had breakfast in the morning.
We could get a re-match soon though, next week we would go fish again and this spot
would be further examined.