Flyfishing Germany - April 29th.

[Marcel_Karssies]

Today I went to the upper section of the river I visited yesterday for some semi-urban fishing.
It was always odd that most fish seemed to be present in the build up area instead of the open field.
Maybe all those trees around the stream in the village where an effective barrier for predators that would have a field day on the open sections of the river.

I came across fish in the surface and determined that they where dace.
Dace are always eager for dries so I tied on a klinkhamer and targeted a nice size fish.


Dace on the Klinkhamer.

After the distubance the school was gone so I moved upstream for the deeper pools in search of stray trout and roach.
I found a school of roach downstream from some obstacles in the water and tied on a gold bead pheasant tail with indicator.
Casting was tricky but finally the nymph landed neatly between the debris in the water.


Roach.

I could see a Roach going for the nymph and so the indicator went down and I struck.
The other Roach wised up and ignored my offerings so it was on to the next spot.
I knew trout where stocked recently but the lack of signs showed me that most of these fish had been cleaned out already.
In one deeper pool hordes of Roach where standing in the current and I figured that a trout might be mixed in with them.
I tied on a streamer and to my surprise a nice perch came from the depths following the fly.
It did not take the fly though and after several fruitless attempts I decided I would get the perch later in the day.
Next stop the weir at the mill, a few casts in the current and a brook trout was on.
Unfortunately the picture of the brook trout turned out bad so no picture this time.

I tried some other sections of the river but there was not much going on there so I took a small break and fixed some leaders and reorganized my tackle bag.
Then it was back to the pool for the perch.
After a few casts it was fish on, the perch had actually struck a small white streamer.


Perch.

Like yesterday the wind was blowing very strong and most of the stream was covered by blossoms and other tree debris.
Some of the Dace or Roach where rising to insects but it was impossible to make a decent presentation with the dry fly.


Blossoms on the water.

On April the 30 th. it is the birthday of the queen, a public holiday here in the Netherlands.
So I have an extra day of fishing tomorrow, I will once again go to Germany and maybe I will come across anonther brook trout.

[HJS]

Marcel - Do you know the Latin name for the "yellow" perch you catch in the Netherlands? We have a very similar perch species here (Yellow Perch Perca flavescens)... same coloration as yours... but your perch seems to have a slightly different body shape than ours... your is a little more beefier. I remember a few years ago you posted a pix of a few yellow perch that would have been super jumbos here in the USA. Gotta be a different species than ours.

[Marcel_Karssies]

The latin name for our perch is Perca fluviatilis and they can grow to a pretty large size.

[JMadert]

Marcel, you are certainly a diverse angler ... from saltwater species to sea-run trout to roach, dace, pike and perch at home. You have all bases covered. Great report.

JM3

[Jeffrey Rasband]

eeeew trash fish! hahaha j/k

I agree with the above poster, the modern fly angler must adapt to fishing a variety of water for a variety of species. Im just as happy fishing for carp, chubs, etc... as I am trout. The main difference is the scenery. I grew up catching fallfish in the creek in my backyard and let me tell you; they're the same size as trout, fight just as hard as trout, rise to dry flies just like trout, and if it werent for the inferior aesthetics/ weird noises they make, they would be just as popular!

[Marcel_Karssies]

Flyfishing was virtually unknown in my country because there just where no trout present.
Long ago when the standard of living rose and more people could afford a vacation abroad flyfishing was picked up.

At first people flyfished only abroad but then they tried this technique at home with succses and so the home grown flyfishing scene developed.
All species of fish that eat flies are now targeted in salt- or freshwater.
One major difference with US fishing is that we lack the extended bass and sunfish family,
there are only three native predators for flyfishing (pike, perch, zander).
Shiners or minnows are important for the local flyfishers, they are very common and most of them take flies.

Since I am not spoiled enough to have a real trout fishery close I can not afford the luxury to call certain fish species trash.
On the other hand like JM said I can fish anywhere, be it for searun browns in the Baltic or Tarpon in the Everglades.
I like to catch as many species as possible.

That fallfish you mentioned looks surprisingly familiar to our chub.