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 ! 

Poison Ivy & The Armies from Zorch

About Fishing and Catching Fish...

The desire of fishermen to catch fish is unbounded. During time, catching fish was the primary goal of this occupation but is it still the primary goal for us? The answer is yes and no.

Spring shown to be generous with somewhat higher temperatures, blue sky and sun. For nearly a week I studied the section of a river on the google earth maps. The water was promising from what I have seen on the Internet. Without to waste time we got into the car and went fishing.

Arriving at the scene we were fascinated by the beauty of those places. A wide river with gin clear water and almost black ground delighted our eyes. After preparing our rods, we sat down on a bench by the river and looked for signs of activity on the water surface. Tiny flies swarmed but fish didn’t showed up.

Hard hours followed in which we tried to fool fish with dry flies. Then we changed to nymphs and streamers without any take. We took a break and thought about how we can turn score in our favour. We chilled our thirsty throats with great beer and smoked cigar enjoying the warm sun rays.

Before we started again fishing, we turned around some rocks to see what kind of candy was hiding behind them. There were plenty of dark mayfly larvae and gammarus. We changed on dark PT and gammarus imitations but our efforts were unsuccessful. Frustration grew larger and time was passing in our detriment. Later, my friend had a briefly contact with a nice fish who broke the line and won the fight.

We returned on the bench where we started, we sat down and meditated a few minutes about the fly fishing day that just ended. The fly fishing God wasn’t too generous to us but we were happy cause we had a great time outside and a deep gratitude filled our hearts.

For us the purpose of fly fishing is to spend as much time as possible in nature, to meditate, to forget about our worries, to get out of the daily routine, to relax, to observe and enjoy everything around us. Fish are just the cherries on the cake. 

Friday the 13th...Story About Withdrawal

After the winter abstinence, withdrawal has become increasingly evident. Itchy fingers, restlessness and ever longer periods of daydreaming of fish and waters plagued me. Nothing else left to do but to get my medicine. I chose a Friday 13^th for the treatment. Temperature went slightly over 0 degrees Celsius in the morning. No barrier of mother nature could stop me. I passed the point of no return and the desire to feel my opponent on the the other side of the line was unbounded. 

Water with semi-urban location, quite covered with branches and bushes on both sides, the shallow and clear water made every presentation extremely difficult. The cloudy sky was a pain in the ass and I could barely view some fish. The probability of catching some trout tended more and more towards the values of water temperature. Fish were inactive. No surface activity and not even nymphs seemed to be interesting. I changed five flies casting on a sighted fish but the trout was giving a shit about my nymphs and presentation. Frustrated, I went into the water to see if it is alive. Water was still very cold and the fish swam slowly away without to care too much about me.

After several hours without results, I found a deeper part of the river where to my surprise I managed to fool two quite fatty fish. The drill was unspectacular but I was happy. They were the first fish caught this year. I caught another two on the way to where I parked my car.  There shown signs that winter lost match this year. Snowdrops flourished on the river banks. Happy that I received the much needed piece of heaven, I warmed up with a cup of tea from the thermos bottle and drove home with a big smile on my face.  

Rise 2015

It's been almost two months since the year started and winter gets weaker every day. The cold season made me slow down engines a little bit. I didn't left the lair even I was thinking about some fly fishing days in the snow. Kept myself busy with fly tying on the fireside on days when thermometers were showing temperatures bellow freezing point. I managed to set some fly fishing goals for this year, to plan my summer holidays and hope to find the necessary time to share some of this little secrets with you. Certainly my blogger activity from this year is lacking and I predict it won’t change much in the future cause I have to put a lot of energy into the professional field. 

To get some fresh energy I decided together with my working colleague and fly fisherman Dr.O to drive to Munich on the 24th of February cause of “Rise Fly Fishing Film Festival”. About 170 persons didn't manage to fill an entire theatre but the atmosphere was relaxing and everybody waited with suspense for the great fly fishing movies. The show was split by a short break. During the first part they showed parts of some movies.

In “Those Moments”, 6 guides are presenting their fishing grounds, Alaska, Andros Island and British Columbia.  

“YOW – Icelandic for yes” is a funny surf and fly fishing movie with great coastal landscapes and a lot of humor, definitely worth to watch it.  

“Carpland” takes the viewer on a tour trough Idaho, Michigan and California to catch the big daddy of  cyprinids. 

“Out Of Touch” is about extreme redfish fly fishing on the Louisiana coast. The message is very clear, switch your phone off and enjoy the time while fishing. It was my favourite from this festival. 

All movies were very entertaining. After the break they played the main movie “Backcountry North Island”. New Zealand is a Mecca for those who want to catch capital brown trout. The movie contains the stories of seven fly fishermen fishing for giant trout on pristine places in the Kiwi backcountry. Great landscapes and huge fish. In my opinion it is worth 7 points out of 10. 

The festival was good and we had a great time. Now there is not much left till fly fishing season will start and soon I’ll be “out of touch”. :D 

Christmas Flies ...for Christmas Island

Winter is the main tying season for many European fly fishermen. A friend told me about his fishing trip on Christmas Island beginning of 2015 and I thought it would be nice to tie some flies for him. I took Dick Brown's Bonefish Fly Patterns from the shelf and chose some patterns (Christmas Island Flash Charlie, Christmas Island Special and The Bonecrusher). Hope the flies will bring him some nice fish. 

Wish you all a Merry Christmas ! Cheers !