Fly Fishing

Marcel_Karssies · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:58 am Post subject: Trouting last weekend, Germany

Last Friday was a beautiful day down here in the Netherlands. Bright sunshine and warm temperatures, this was an ideal day for fishing. There was one problem though, work.
I stared out the office while my buddies Joop and HansA had the day off and where fishing for trout. My other fishing buddy HansF had the bright idea to visit the other guys after work.
In the afternoon the weather suddenly turned bad. Dark clouds and hail sounded in a weather change. When I got back from work I phoned HansF, we would go anyway.

Doing my best as usual.

We found the other guys at the river; they had caught a fish all day and only had one hit.
No stocked fish yet. We fished for a while at the watermill stretch without any success.
No fish meant it was time to move; we went to another stretch and made a small detour via the hatchery. A parked tractor at the hatchery with the tank trailer behind it was a telltale sign that stocking would be eminent.
HansF managed to get a small Dace (shiner) on the dry fly at the other place.
The small Dace where showing themselves for the first time when they where feeding on mosquito’s that where flying just above the surface. Even the bats where out of hibernation so things where going in the right direction. I had no dry fly equipment with me so I tried to catch the Dace with a subsurface nymph. They would not fall for it.

Signs of spring, cowslip.

Another trout less day ended, sadly a rather common experience for us. Still hope sprang eternal, next day we would get a rematch. Next day I headed out with Niels to the watermill stretch. After I waded in Niels remarked that a trout was coming our way. It swam right between me and totally ignored us. Niels said he was going to catch the fish by hand.
He did, he just scooped it up. This was such a depressing sight that it crossed my mind to pick up golfing instead of fishing. While wading I encountered another disoriented fish. Seems they had been just put in. Those trout had lived all their lives in small ponds and where wondering now where the heck those walls had gone. Niels managed on little brown and a shiner. I saw or felt nothing. Later in the day HansF came around. While I was standing in the river trying desperately to catch fish I received a call from Hans. He had made three casts and was into a nice Rainbow. Some guys had all the luck, or where just better fisherman.

The Rainbow HansF caught.

After a couple of hours Niels called it a day and I continued fishing with Hans. The lower river stretch was yielding no more fish so we went to a stretch that had yielded fish for Hans in the past. I called that part of the river the cow’s swimming pool. It was a slow flowing stretch in the forest just in front of another watermill. The banks where made up of extremely slippery dark clay, one wrong step and you would look just like the pigs from the nearby meadow.

One wrong step and you could join the pigs.

There where several pools where the cows had access to the river. This caused the muddy water, it did not look pretty. I tagged along with Hans and searched for movement in the water. When I heard Hans curse in the distance I knew he had missed a fish. I looked him up and was told that he had several hits of a trout near a bridge. I fished the bridge also and soon saw a fish chasing my streamer.
The fish was so eager to get the streamer that it actually scooted over the muddy sandbar at the shore. I missed several strikes but managed to catch two nice sized browns in the end.
Hans mumbled something like “I should have kept quiet” but it was too late, I had hit the jackpot at the bridge.

Number one…

Number two…

It was a pleasant fact that the fish where larger than the usual guppy size. Apparently the fish where stocked right at the bridge and where staying put there as stocked fish often do. I just hoped they would disperse quickly before the meat fisherman found out the fish where there. We checked the place next day. Hans got three hits then it went quiet. We ended up with no fish, business as usual Smile

waterwhippa · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:45 am Post subject:

Looks like beautiful water. Very pretty trout as well. Is that public water or a private beat?

Marcel_Karssies · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:26 am Post subject:

It is private like all German waters, they do not know the word public Smile

We are members of the club that leases a particular stretch of the river.
Together with two other clubs on the river they form a syndicate so we can fish 15 miles of river.

Like most German clubs they have a short stretch of river available for so called guest anglers who can purchase a day ticket. Often the guest stretches are not exactly the best or prettiest locations. At our club it is not that bad, we fish the guest stretch most of the time.

The problem is the availability of fish. Germans don't practice catch-and-release (it's illegal by law). So every year the river is cleaned out in rapid pace by the local anglers. The fish do not get the chance to obtain a natural behaviour pattern or grow to some length. We try to find the leftovers and otherwise engage the local shiner population. At least the countryside is very pretty.

waterwhippa · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:53 pm Post subject:

Did you just say that catch and release is illegal? If so, what is the purpose behind this logic? If you ever make it over the pond and want to fish here, look me up and we will catch and release as many trout or steelhead that we can get our hooks into.

KodiakCommando · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:19 pm Post subject:

WhAAAAAAAAAAA, catch and release it illegal Exclamation

Wow i don't understand that at all, what bad does releasing a fish do. You say germans keep all their fish but if catch and release was legal they could still keep all their fish. I am befuddled to say the least.

Marcel_Karssies · Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 5:50 am Post subject:

What can I say, the Germans where always a little strange Smile

HansF · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject: Springtime??

Hello,

Some other pictures from the German stream.

Greetings Hans F.