Trout season opener Germany - March 18th

[Marcel_Karssies]

Season opener for the river I fished over the border was March 16th.
Normally I would have waited for the weekend to fish but today was the best day weatherwise of the coming days.
So I asked the boss for some time off and voila within no time I stood at the river.
The river carried quite a lot of water which suprised me.

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Snowdrop

Since it was so early in the season the usual targets like the Roach and Dace where either casualties of the thecormorants or still in hiding.
There was however word of trout stocking so I tied on a small streamer and fishedsuitable pools with a small zonker streamer.
After some fruitless casts I managed to hook a spunky rainbow trout that put up quite an acrobatics show.

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Rainbow trout on black zonker streamer.

I probed the pool thoroughly and received another strike from a trout but I could not stay connected.
The signs where good, obviously the place was stocked.
At the other spots however I saw and felt nothing

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The stream.

I headed into the forrest to fish every deadfall or deep pool with a sinking polyleader and a small black zonkerstreamer.
The whole idea behind it was to catch any lurking trout but all I got was break-offs because I was hooking snags.

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The gear.

I figured that there surely must have been more trout around but with the river slowly returning to normal after floodingstage I expected fishing would be though. As with many rivers that are stocked in spring the meatfisherman will quicklyclear out the rather stupid hatchery trout.

Several footprints in the sandbars at the river showed me that other peoplehad fished there earlier
The first trout fishing day of the season was nice but it would sure have been nicer if I would be able to catch some more fish.Hopefully the weather will improve in such a manner that Roach and Dace will show up again to make fishing more interesting.

[saltfly]

Marcel excelent report as always with great pictures:yes:. Now let me ask:confused:. Is that a bamboo rod that I see?:thumbup:

[Marcel_Karssies]

A what? ... bamboo rod :eek2:
Nah, I do not fish with that stuff - plain old carbon is good enough for me.

But I have to tell you that you can not use the B.. word in presence of sensitive flyfisher folk.
Around the parts where I come from they like to refer to it as Split Cane rods.
Naming it Split cane elevates the gentlemen from the mere mortals that fish with cane poles which are called Bamboo rods by the general public.

Anyway I went out with my fine carbon fly rod today in the hope of copying that trout moment from last thursday.
To bad it rained cat and dogs last night which caused the stream I fish to reach flooding stage with a couple of hours.

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Stream

We looked at the coffee colored water and thought up a plan B namely to fish a lake search for yellow perch or pike. That plan did not work out either since the ice has only been off the water for a week and fish are still inactive.

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Lake

Hopefully it will dry out during next week so I can try for trout again in the weekend.

[goose70]

Thanks. Every year I look forward to your reports. I'm amazed at how similar your streams in Germany look to those in Maryland, and given your much higher latitude, I'm really surprised at how similar the emergent plant growth seems to be to what we're experiencing here right now.

[saltfly]

Well I'm finally able to get back here. :clap:

Well Marcel the English still call us the collonies:censored:. Soooooo in keeping with the fact, that they call them spit cane (we do to but we don't tell them that) we like to ruffle their up tight feathers every chance we get:devil2:, by calling them by their base matl. bwahahahaa:roflguy:

[spilunkr]

Marcel,

As always, enjoyed your report. Your off color opening day water looked like many an opening day back in Maryland. For me anyway, I occasionally fish a split cane rod for trout but for crappie an old bamboo pole is good enough.

Guy

[Marcel_Karssies]

The colonies ... hmmm, I once saw a sign referring to that in an English fishing magazine or book.
The sign stated "any poachers will be deported to the colonies".
Wish they still did that, would cut my travel cost to the US significantly :boat:

BTW today we had an outside temperature of roughly 70F and furthermore the waterlevel of the river I fish is going down slowly.
Just in time for the weekend the temperature will plummet to 50F and to top it all off it will rain again - cats and dogs appearantly.

[saltfly]

Marcel we would welcome you with open arm:yes:. You know give us your tired your poor your bla bla lba:usa: I think you may know the rest. You know you would have to learn to drink US beer:beergood:with us:chugbeer:. Now are you sure your across the pond?:oops: Your weather sounds just like what we're getting. 70 dregrees today havey rain tonite and tommow.:goodluck2:

[Marcel_Karssies]

Welcome with open arms... :2guns: I have to be carefull

Tired = yes, Poor = yes, Hungry - nah, just had a sandwich.
American beer, well I tested some and its like overhere - some is good, some is not.
Reminds me of a picture we had at the workshop in the brewery where I did my apprenticeship,
in the picture a horse was drawn that drank our beer out of a bucket - a bucket with the name of our
competitor was drawn at the back end of the horse :))

I might make another trip to the US this year, I am opting for a visit to Rhode Island to go on a second
Striper fishing trip. Still have to convince the boss though to let me go which is always a real challenge
even though I do my best to be impopular.

[saltfly]

bwahahahaha:yes: Yea you would fit in with us, just fine. wel if you ever get over this way. You will always have a spot on my boat.:thumbup: