It was time for another trip over the border.
I went fishing with Joop and Michael today in search of
more trout. First stretch I fished was the guest stretch. Mayflies where present but not yet
in very large numbers. I did notice some new species though; I took the liberty to make
a photograph of this latest mayfly arrival. We first took a coffee break and enjoyed the
cake Michael’s wife had prepared for us. We always have good catering when we go fishing.


Mayfly

There where many rising fish at the watermill but that was the “No fishing stretch”, it figures.


At the watermill

In one of the pools of the guest stretch there was actually a trout feeding on mayflies.
I tried to catch it with a streamer but only ended up decorating the trees with flies.
Disturbed the pool so I had to move on. Got two shots at very small brown trout lying
underneath undercut banks but could not cash in on the strikes.

I wanted to visit a place where I knew for sure I would catch a rainbow trout.
Unfortunately I was overtaken by a couple who where wandering though the forest with their golden retriever (not on a leash). Guess what happened, I am almost at the pool
and suddenly the dog jumped in. Goodbye trout. Does the hurting never stop, aarghhh.
All I could do was move on in search for quit waters.
I walked all the way to the end of the guest stretch, Michael had the same idea but I was
a tad quicker. So I was in the good spot first. First cast yielded a very firm bite but the fish had
hit the tail of my Zonker streamer and missed. I suspected the fish was still around and
not happy about missing his meal. I made a second cast and this time I had the fish on.
A nice rainbow was putting up a good fight.


Finally a fish.

I guess the Germans had transported many trout to the eternal hunting fields since we had not
encountered many fish in the pools anymore. Maybe it was time for some restocking, or maybe better fishermen. On the way back to the watermill we encountered two members of the local worm brigade. Even though Michael, Joop and yours truly had caught and released each a rainbow trout we told the worm guys that we had blanked and that fishing there was useless.
We are extremely good liars when we meet people who clubber every fish they catch to the
eternal hunting fields. At the bridge over the river we took a last view at the water.
A trout was just nailing a mayfly from the surface, those are the things that make flyfishing special.


At the bridge

We left the guest stretch to fish the river in the next city. First we tried to catch shiners in the
canalized part of the stream in town. Fishing down there in the town always made me feel like
I was in a zoo so I suggested to move to the fringes of the town. Down there a small weir gave
some more opportunities for shiners and maybe a trout. When we arrived there a member of
the worm brigade just left. Fishing was no good he said, well I guess all fisherman are liars.
So we tried anyway.


At the weir.

Since the worm brigade people where not exactly mobile with all their heavy gear, boxes, chairs and so on we decided to make a small trip through the jungle so see if there where some
more interesting stretches in the river. We found them, difficult to get at but very worthwhile.
Michael had left us because he had to work. Joop and I where probing the new stretches with nymphs for fish. We both got takes from trout but missed the fish. We could add some interesting locations to our database for future visits.



Newly found locations, they looked fishy.

Light was beginning to fade so we called it a day. We had all caught a fish and had seen new places to fish. Another beautiful fishing day came to an end.