Little Zonker - Baitfish

During the last months, I was digging up the Internet in search of streamer patterns and searching was not in vain. The most interesting and well-made patterns I found on Holger Lachmann's blog ( The One Fly ) that inspired me tremendously. Therefore I started to tie some small zonker-baitfish by one of his recipes that I modified a little. Since my home waters holds lots of chub and asp hope to use this streamers in the near future if time and weather will allow. If you dig up Holger's blog you'll find many streamer and fly patterns worth to be admired and tried to be reproduced. I take this opportunity to thank Holger for sharing his fly tying knowledge. 

Materials

Hook:                  Gamakatsu F314 size 4
Weight:               Lead Wire 
Body:                  Spectra Dubbing
Back and Tail:    Zonker Stripe / Krystal Flash
Eyes and Head: Holographic Eyes, Bug Bond 

Chalk Stream Madness

If you have the opportunity to go fishing, do it ! The more you're out fishing, the greater are the chances of a nice catch. My holidays were almost gone so I thought to devote at least half of the last free day to fly fishing. Blooming canola fields stretched like huge yellow spots between villages and forests. Since I was not willing to drive too much, I was choosing a nearby creek. I knew the water holds nice trout and grayling, it was a sunny day, the mayflies started their dance, all well and good till I got there. The water was more turbid than clear but I saw a few fish rising and thought a start with a dry fly could be promising. After a few moments I had the first fish in my net, a beautiful brook trout. 

 There followed several smaller fish, then I changed to nymphs. On a slightly high and turbid water, I couldn't be wrong by choosing a black flashback nymph. Soon I caught three graylings, one of them showed me only his tail. The last grayling was beautiful, over 16 inches long,with brassy scales and smell of thyme. Although the creek section I was fishing wasn't to long, it had a special charm, it passed through the village and the shores were full of flowering shrubs. The last fish I caught was a brook trout about 15 inches long. I had some great fly fishing on a sunny day in May. The way home leaded me through the yellow canola fields while pictures of the caught fish projected on my minds screen. 

The Baltic Sea Patient

I went for a few days to the Baltic Sea without to take my fly fishing tackle with me. Being on the island of Rügen, one evening after sightseeing the place I smoked a pipe and started to read one of the German Fly Fishing Magazines. One of the articles was called 'The Danish Patient' and refers to sea trout fly fishing. The bad seed has germinated very fast in my mind and I began playing with my thoughts of planing a fly fishing trip to the Baltic Sea for next year. I haven't decided yet if it will be Rügen, Fyn or some other island but I started to study this problem as soon as I arrived home. We'll see if during one year I'll get sicker or I'll recover. If it will be the 1st situation, I'll need an emergency therapy at the Baltic Sea with some fly fishing for sea trout.

Fly Fishing - Idrijca ( Slovenia )

My navigation system showed fewer and fewer miles till destination and I was thinking of the places beauty that I was going to pass through and the fish that inhabit those wild waters. Since I left home, memories of days spent on the water began to run on my mind, making me hope of a big catch. I knew from my colleague Dr.Omuro who arrived the day before, that Soca was swollen from melting snow but Idrijca and Baca were good for fishing. The passing from Italy to Slovenia captures the attention of the traveler by both beauty of the landscape, towering peeks furrowed by waters which made their way through the hard rock and stone fortifications dating from the 1st World War. Fierce battle have been done in these mountains and the water of the rivers were red for days by the blood of killed soldiers.

Day 1:

After breakfast, I got my fishing license and went to the known places on Idrijca valley. We decided on this 1st day to approach a river section that we fished many times. To improve the chances to catch many fish on this clear water with very shy fish, we chose 12 feet long leaders. I opted only for two types of nymphs, I knew they'd catch nice fish on this water. The result was as I expected and the first rainbow was tumbling into my net.

Not a very big fish, about 13 inch, but very combative. Upstream on a pool, I met some fishermen from Münster and after we exchanged some words I continued the fishing. There followed beautiful fish, 3 of them with dimensions around 19-20 inch. By the end of the day I caught 9 fish, all of them released after I took some pictures. Pleased with the results we conclude a superb day of fly fishing.

Day 2:

The next day we decided to approach another river section in which we didn't fished until that moment. My colleague decided to explore the area downstream and I took it toward upstream. After more than half an hour, I reached a deep water pool. At the first cast, I noticed a great strike and after a few jumps, I managed to bring a beautiful rainbow to my net. Taking advantage of the presence of one of the fishermen I met the day before, the moment was immortalised with my camera.

More fish, some around 19 inch followed in a short time. 

The opposite bank was very promising and led me to cross the river. Cause I suspected big fish, I changed my tippet (4x) and chose a larger and heavier nymph. Hidden by a rock, after a few casts in Czech style I felt a strong strike into my rod. After a few seconds I realised that I was dealing with a big fish who didn't hesitate to take a lot of line from my reel reaching almost the backing line. The few minutes of drill made my pulse rise steeply. With over 24 inch it was the biggest fish I captured during this two days.

There also followed several nice fish and at the end of the day I counted 15 rainbows. Time passed very quickly without to be able to fish the Soca river but I hope to return later this year and to find the waters of this river clear and blue-green like emeralds and then I hope to have on the line more wild and strong fish that will try to snatch victory on their side.