Our membership in a German fishingclub had given us access to trout fishing close where were living in the Netherlands. Things where different over the border and one thing was that members of a fishing club where often required to put in mandatory working hours on waterways, clubhouses and so on. Since our German club had an own trout hatchery it meant that there was always plenty of work to do.


A view across our hatcherty

Every member of the club had to put in a mandatory 6 working hours per year, which was actually not very much. At the end of March we had done 5 hours of work and now it was time to add another 5 hours. On the way to the hatchery we made a stop at the river and took a peek down the bridge. Recent rains had filled the river to a decent level so we could go fishing for a couple of hours after the work was done. At the hatchery we met with the local regulars and got our tasks for the day. First we had to clear out all the grass on the overgrown path beside the hatch ponds. After a couple of hours we had the job done and the path look civilized again.


Clean and presentable, the path that is.

Then it was off to clear out the branches that had fallen on top of the net that keeps herons and cormorants out of the ponds. It was midday when we took a coffee break and talked with our fellow members about the river, hatchery and the club. Our last task was to make a stone basement for a new holding tank but a heavy downpour made us take shelter in the clubhouse.


Little brown trout in the rearing ponds


Large Rainbow trout

When the rain cleared we finished our task and one of the regulars signed the working hours in our licenses. Although we had fulfilled our quota we would surely do some more tasks later in the season.
It was already 15.00 hours when we parked at the local watermill to start fishing. First though it was time for a cup of coffee. When we headed down the river the rains started again in full force. My fishing buddy Joop tried a deep pool below a small dam while I probed a fallen tree. My fishing spot was a good location but a washed up dead cat on the sandbar was making fishing impossible. The cat was stinking to high heaven so I made a wide berth along the cat and moved downstream. The streamers failed to attract the trout so I switched over to a goldbead nymph with a strike indicator. At a deep hole the indicator suddenly stopped and slowly went under. It was stuck on the bottom. I tried to dislodge the nymph from the obstacle when the obstacle suddenly began to move. I quickly pulled the line taut and after a while a nice brown trout surfaced.


Brown trout

The stench of the cat was too much my fishing buddy and me so we decided to move to another spot at the river.
Further downstream we fished an old disconnected part of the river. This old meander had a little flow in it and locals told us that trout would move in there during periods of high water. Not only trout inhabited this stretch, there was also word of pike, yellow perch and shiners. I hooked only a couple of trees though while Joop managed to haul in one shiner and a very small yellow perch. It was time to move back to the main river and try our luck there. The large goldbead nymph was not working here so I tied on a very small version of the same pattern. After a couple of drifts I had the first take and a nice shiner came up to the surface.


A roach, one of the most common species of shiners

In the mean time I heard Joop cursing at the fact that he missed three takes from the same trout. I hooked two other shiners at my spot when I suddenly heard Joop yelling something, He was to far away to hear exactly what he was shouting so I moved towards him. He had hooked into an unusual large fish. It turned out to be a 23 inch rainbow trout.


Joop and his big bow

It was his biggest fish ever in the river. The fading light was a sign that the day was turning to an end so we called It quits. Not a bad end for a working day.

Nice Rainbow. Should try night fishing for big Browns.

We'll it is a common secret that most big trout are caught during the night by the local eel anglers. Eels are highly regarded by the locals as table fare. It is difficult to fish the river in the dark because of very steep unstable banks etc. I will try this evening to see if any of the larger trout are active around sunset.

Hi Marcel,

Good pics. Your club seems to have a good relationship with the German club. How for are there montains from you?
Mark

Our club has no relationship to the German club, it is only that a few members of our Dutch club have enrolled with the Germans.
We have to owe it to Michael who lobbied for us to get us in.
I had the feeling they where not so keen on foreigners at first but I guess we are pretty assimilated now.
We are kind of secretive about that stream since we do not want to be faced with hordes of flyfisherman from our side of the border.
In the past I referred to the river as "Stream X" but nowadays I do not even mention it anymore.

There are no mountains down there but a few gently sloping hills.
Our German clubs hatchery lies on the slope of one of these hills. Just behind the clubhouse several springs form a little ditch flowing downstream. To be more precise the spring water flows through the hatchery. It is obviously clean and has a constant low temperature throughout the year making it ideal for rearing trout.

I have been fishing there yesterday and saw that somebody hauled out another big rainbow. It was about 24 inches and clubbed to death, sad to see such big fish waisted. I was down there with Hans and managed only one little yellow perch of barely 4 inch and a little gudgeon of a couple of inches larger. At dusk fish started feeding on top but that was just a brief period. It was almost dark so fishing down in the jungle was even more difficult. Maybe I get another try this saturday.