Fly Fishing - Update on the chrome are in and the snow is gone

Marcel_Karssies · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:20 am Post subject: Flyfishing Germany, April 1st.

Yesterday it was time again to visit our club water over the border in Germany for another
Go at the fish.
Recent visits showed us that life had not returned to the river even though the weather was
improving by the week.
On this day the sky was a bright blue and the sun shone with full force, too bad that a strong wind was blowing over the land.
We decided to visit the sheltered part of our little river to stay out of the wind.

The river.

Fish where nowhere to be seen, I suspect they where still in hibernation on the river bed.
It is still early spring but the forest floor is already in bloom, some parts are full of windflowers right now.

Windflowers

The main stream yielded no fish so we looked for fish in some of the small feeder streamers where we suspected more activity due to the shallower water.

Feeder 1.

Feeder 2.

At feeder stream nr. 2 I had my first fish contact which I suspected was a brown trout.
I misinterpreted the sinking of my strike indicator as being caused by the current when in
fact a fish was taking the nymph.
When I lifted the line I felt the fish but it was already too late as the fish threw the hook.

My colleague had more success and told me on the radio that he had run into a school of roach and had seen a trout jump further downstream.
He also told me that the fish would only take nymphs that where fished very deep.
I headed to his direction and positioned my selves at the undercut bank near a large tree.
I weighted the leader down so the nymph would drift over the bottom of the pool.
This tactic worked since something was pulling the indicator down.
A quick strike and my first roach on flowing water was a fact.

Roach nr. 1

In the deep I could see the sunlight reflecting off the silver bodies of the Roach.
There where a few more fish down there and soon I had a slightly larger fish on.

Roach nr. 2

After fish nr. 3 the roach wised up and left the scene.
There where quite large fish moving about but these larger specimens where not
inclined to take the fly.
There where still not many insects about so I guess it would take a few more
weeks before the fish would become really active.
Even the kingfishers where not in their usual mode as one passed right along me, normally
they would fly around me from a long distance.

We tried some other spots that we usual fish in summer but those did not yield any more fish.
The only living creature I came along was a muskrat that moved past me at the waterline.

Rat.

It was a beautiful day but it is still early in the season.
I am pretty sure that no trout where stocked as we would have ran into them somewhere along the way, so the wait continues.
Maybe I give the Mohne River a try in a week or two, one week later it is off to the Baltic
coast in search of the Sea trout.
Things can only get better now.