Germany March 26th. 2018

[Marcel_Karssies]

A cold start of the day, when the fog lifted it was barely 1 degrees C.
I fished the lower end of the river but found only clear water.
At one spot I noticed a school of Bream (Abramis brama) so despite the
cold there was life in the water afteral.

I tossed a streamer at a lot of spots but no perch or stray pike to be found.
As all haunts seem void of fish I called in plan B and hoped for fish in
the major feeder stream of my second syndicate.

The sun had come out in the mean time and it actually felt a bit comfortable
outside.
My hope was that the flat shallow part of the feeder stream would warm up
and coax the chub in the open water.
At first I did not spot any fish but then I spotted a single large shape in the
shallows and made a cast towards it.
The fish initially moved off but at the second cast I determined it was a big chub
as it tried to inhale the sight indicator.
The strike putty did not taste that well but the fish then turned and took the
nymph, pretty unbelievable but the size 16 barbless hook stuck and I could
land the fish.

Next I tried a hot spot on the main river in the afternoon and found the dace at the
end of the pool in numbers.
Very cautious bites but at least I got three of them.

[JERRY NORRIS]

Well at least you had some action. That in one big chub. I'll bet it put up quite a fight. Nice pictures as always. I am waiting for it to warm up enough for the shad and white perch to start running. I have been making and tying shad darts in anticipation of the runs.

[Marcel_Karssies]

We had a few warmer days but at the moment it is cold again, the weekend however promises to be\
very warm and I might give the chub another try hoping for some more activty.

There are people fishing for shad down here but the most common shad species only enters tidal \
rivers and that is on the other side of the country.
The shad species that used to travel far upriver is more or less extinct but there are efforts to reintroduce
that species again now that rivers have gotten cleaner and dams have been removed.

My next outing will be a saltwater one .. it has been quite some years since I fished for searun browns in
the Baltic sea but next week I will go on a four day trip to Denmark after the fish of the thousand casts :-)

[JERRY NORRIS]

It is still cold here as well. They are forecasting snow for Saturday and again on Monday. Shad should already be in the river by now but the water is just too cold. That trip sounds like it will be really nice with catching fish as a bonus. Most of my fishing trips seem to be for fish of a thousand casts anymore. Someone just caught a 36" 12 lb. plus brown trout here in one of the local reservoirs, but that is about like winning a multi-million dollar lottery. Have a nice trip and good luck with the trout.