Algarve - Day Of The Shad

Fly fishing in the Algarve is not widely known, or at least I have not found much information on the Internet. Yet through the Internet I managed to meet Russell who is guiding in the southern part of Portugal.

Many waters dry up during the summer and the only fresh water fly fishing options are reduced to a few dams and bigger rivers. In dams you can catch large mouth bass and carp. My attention was captured by a river that marks the border between Portugal and Spain, Rio Guadiana. With a length of over 700 km, traverses the Iberian Peninsula from North to South and then it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The fish fauna is varied. Perhaps the most interesting fish for the fly fishermen is the shad (Alosa fallax), a herring-type anadromous fish which migrates into fresh water to spawn. The fishing season begins in April and ends in June. Besides shad you can fish for different species of barbel, large mouth bass, zander and carp. Fishing license is required and can be obtained from an ATM or at the local authorities in Olhão, Faro or Portimão against a modest sums. Getting the fishing license from an ATM is possible only with a Portuguese card.

I met Russell near Tavira where he picked me up and drove with his car to Mertola, a small town, forgotten by time with narrow streets situated on the banks of Rio Guadiana. The Phoenician, Roman and then Moorish influence merged of in this merchant place. Sulfur and silver from nearby mines were exchanged for grain. The place where we fished lies a few kilometers north of Mertola. A country road that meandered arid fields took us to an old mill on the banks of the river.

Until I had my fishing rod ready for action, Russell inspected the river and told me that we have a good chance to catch shad. Initially I thought it would be interesting to fool some Iberian barbel with the fly, having already some experience with their continental counterparts. I started fishing with a tandem of two heavy nymphs and soon I had the first fish. Shad's attacked in glee my nymphs. Twice I managed a double. An orange BH nymph proved to be attractive for a small barbel, unfortunately the only one during that day.

After some nice shads, Russell managed to catch two little zander on a minnow imitation. Meanwhile I changed my rig and I started fishing with sink tip and streamers. Great was my surprise when I caught a sea bass with a clouser minnow. There followed many other shads on a white / chartreuse clouser and on one of Russells flies, a sparkler (fish imitation tied only with pearl flash and a BH). The take on the streamer is extremely strong reported to the size of the fish and the best way to hook up is a short strip-strike. Shad turned out to be a real game fish making a lot of jumps until you manage to have it in the net. Some of the fish didn’t managed to survive the long and exhausting journey into the river.

I ended the fishing day on the Rio Guadiana getting new experiences and lots of great pictures. If you are interested into fly fishing in this area you can contact Russell. He can provide any kind of help (information, guiding, fishing tackle). More information can be found on his website GuadianaFishing.

...more photographic impressions from the Algarve...

Dry Fly - Fished Wet

On the last day of the Craft Beer Festival, I was sitting at a table with my buddy S. and lament about fly fishing. Although initially we planed to join our friend L. for some fly fishing in the Sumava region (southwest Bohemia), we had to change our plan and opt for a nearby river.  When we almost emptied the Double Jack glasses, I asked my friend:

"If you could choose, what would be your top five fish that you want to catch with the artificial fly?"

After our thoughts have crossed seas and distant countries, somewhat nostalgic S. said:

"No.1 in my top is a trout, a big one. At least I’d like to beat my personal record."

We parted that night with thoughts for the next day.

Punctual as promised L. was at 7 AM in front of my flat followed by S..

We drank the morning coffee on the balcony while L. tied a few " Mercers Missing Link” that he gave us to try them on the water.

We departed with two cars to a world of water, fish and insects. Our paths parted at some point, each heading to another river. Arrived at the water, we started to look for some action on the water surface. Lots of mayflies danced like fairies when suddenly a large stone fly sat on my hand. It was like magic. Fish didn’t cared to much about the food abundance on the water, so we went upstream. This time we chose a part of river where only dry fly fishing is allowed.

Fishing was more difficult than we imagined. The sun was high on the sky and we changed many productive flies for that water without any results. Somewhat frustrated, my eyes glued to a Chernobyl Ant left in the dry fly box. I had nothing to lose so I decided to give it a chance. After several casts, I had the first attack and first fish was caught, a small trout with a mouth as big as the foam fly I served him. I thought that the ice was broken and others will follow but still no interest for the goodies on the water surface.

Time passed in our detriment, when suddenly I noticed a very fine rise. Initially I thought it was a grayling and began to serve him what I thought was best from my box of flies but remained unsuccessful. Cast after cast, fish raised but the fly on the surface remained dull for him. I changed to a dry red tag tied on a hook no. 14 without the desired result ... and yet the fish was there and was active. The question "What am I doing wrong?" was haunting me. Meanwhile I changed the leader with a longer one with a 0.12 mm thin tippet and still no results when suddenly I had an idea. The fish didn’t eat on the surface, which meant that it only took emergers just below the surface. What to do? I stopped drying my fly and started fishing with casts at 45 ° to the opposite bank followed by mending. The second cast brought the take, I countered and soon had a beautiful brownie in the landing net. The trout was followed by a chub.

S. followed my advice and saw his rod bent. It was a big one. I thought he caught a big chub but after several minutes of struggle proved to be a brownie. Happy like two children we looked at each other without saying a word. Our eyes and souls were laughing. What a splendid day and what a hard fight until we got to this result. It was the biggest trout caught by S. till now. The fish was over 17.5 inches long.

There followed some nice fish but none like that. Meanwhile I called L. and heard that he had a great day too. At home we watched the pictures we took and had some IPA. ... and there is a fly fishermen God who occasionally makes our dreams come true.

EWF 2015

This year between the 18-19^th of April held the 10th EWF (European World of Fly Fishing) edition. This event is well known to the central European Fly Fishing scene. Unfortunately I missed last year's edition being gone fishing but managed to be there this year. Like every year, attended many personalities of the fly fishing and fly tying scene. This time M.Mauri, Jan Gordon, Gary Borger, Ed Berg, Ken Middlemist and some others showed their casting and tying skills. 

This edition was for us a special one because our friend Dr. Liviu Neagoe together with his wife Smaranda presented their fly fishing project for this year. It contains 3 guided tours in some remote and pristine areas of Romania. The locations they have chosen are special not only cause of the extremely beautiful landscapes but also cause of the historical and ethnographic aspects. Their stand was constantly assailed by interested visitors about the Romanian fishing grounds. Those who attend will experience some unforgettable fly fishing days. They put a lot of heart into what they do and the excursions are well planned down to the smallest detail. On this occasion we wish them success in the future endeavors and to those who will participate, a lot of fun. More information about the tours and rates can be found on their website. The last edition of the Scale Magazine contains a great article about how Fly Fishing Romania started.  

The organization of the event was also very good like usually. After we’ve done the regular shopping round we stopped on a table for some beer and a Bratwurstsemmel. For the thirsty and hungry visitors, beer flowed in abundance and barbecues were full of stakes and sausages. 

Next edition will be between the 9-10^th April 2016 and we hope to meet you there !

EWF - www.erlebniswelt-fliegenfischen.de/en

Fly Fishing Romania - www.flyfishingromania.com/

Scale Magazine - www.scale-magazine.com/current/index.html#/158

Cheers

V.A.R. & S.S. 

Spring Day...

”He had a strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by: his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 

Rivers are like people, in a permanent change. Some rocks or stumps remain forever in the riverbed as some scars that remind you of something that happened years ago. The human physical appearance says nothing about peoples virtues and inner qualities, in case of rivers their greatness and beauty say nothing about the gems hiding under their surface.

After more than two years, during this spring, I spent again a day on one of those chalk streams which at the first sight would not be so interesting for many fly fishermen, narrow riverbed with banks covered by vegetation where casting is a true act of acrobatic. This water offered me many wonderful moments and didn’t disappointed me this time either.

The surface activity was modest compared to other times. Small pale mayflies were in abundance, so I decided to fish a modified jingler, one of my favourite dry flies and managed to fool some grayling and few trout.

During afternoon the sky turned cloudy and the dry flies lost their appeal so I swiched on nymphs. Shortely after that, my decision was rewarded. My opponent from the other end of the line proved to be a strong one but after a few minutes I managed to see him, a colourful splendid rainbow male, a real gem. I said goodbye to this creek promising that one day I’ll come back. 

About Fishing and Catching Fish...Part II

"A trout is a moment of beauty known only to those who seek it."
Arnold Gingrich

After almost a month, we spent another day on the banks of a river that fascinated us with its beauty, although not very generous with fish. The suffered failure (if we can call it like that) was attributed to the low water temperature. Armed with new strategies and a lot of hope, we started a few km downstream from the place we fished last time. The water temperature had risen by 3°Celsius over nearly a month. Small flies danced on the water surface without to trigger any fish attack, a scenario that was already known to us. The water was gin clear and the sun was generous on that April day. Rhyacophila larvae with a length smaller than an inch were hiding under the rocks. Compared to the previous session, fishing was shown to be equally difficult. The dry flies we wet have proven to be ineffective. In a later I had an attack on a PT with orange hot spot and managed to capture the first trout in this river, unfortunately also the last of the day. The extremely hard work was rewarded with an almost 10 inch trout which was more valuable to me than some other bigger fish I captured. My advise to you is to enjoy every second outside on the water, the hunt is better than the pray !