It seemed like we skipped summer this year and headed over straight for fall this year. At least the cool temperatures and the frequent rains made me think summer was cancelled. All this rain could only mean high water for the little stream we fish in. This weekend we went fishing anyway since it was the best way to spend a little free time. We held our usual coffee break at the watermill. As we stepped out of the car we could hear the water roar. A look over the bridge confirmed our fear, brown soup was flowing down the river.
There was still hope though, our target would be the dead river arm we had neglected in the past. This dead arm still head a tiny spring fed feeder ditch so a little flow was present. Most importantly the water was clear in contrast to the main river.
Clean water from the dead arm joins the brown soup.
I fished a pheasant tail nymph close to a sunken tree and immediately noticed that something was nibbling at the nymph.
After a few drifts the float suddenly went under and I struck. I had caught a little golden colored Rudd on the fly. It was a small fish but on I day like that it was at least something.
The dead river arm was quit small so after a while we had fished it completely our scared all the present fish away.
A little Rudd on the Pheasant tail, still way to go before it reaches its 12 inch max. size.
We tried fishing the main river on several locations but it was no use, the water was just to high. So we decided to take a look at our nearby trout hatchery and get some fresh coffee there.
A load of rainbows at the hatchery, I get never tired of looking at the fish in the rearing ponds.
At the hatchery we enjoyed our spring water based coffee and sandwiches and talked to the local boys. They told us to check out the origin of our river where two very small feeder streams joined. From their experience these upper reaches where often clear enough to fish even during high water conditions. We had only visited the two feeder streams on one occasion in the past. They where so darn small that they barely deserved the name ditch.
One of the two feeder streams of our "big" river.
Still during our last scouting trip we followed some tracks along a cornfield near one of these ditches. These tracks came from the local anglers. To our surprise these little ditches had some surprisingly deep holes. Tracks made by the local anglers where obvious signs for us that fish where present. So we went upstream and moved down a steep bank to one of these feeders. It was total jungle down there so we decided to wade and fish any deep hole we encountered. Joop soon had his first takes but could not hook the fish. I was more lucky and got a little Roach on the pheasant tail.
Fish nr. 2 of the day.
How further we moved upstream how more interesting the stream became. One pool was so deep that I could not wade trough it, there had to be trout there. Joop finally got his fish in one of the deep pools, a nice brown trout of 12 inches. So we ended a day of high water with fish caught and new locations discovered. If it was not for the high water we would probably never have fished these feeders.
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