Fly Fishing Fabisch, the Weekly Picture Archive 2 - 2017

Be it about salmon, steelhead or other salmonids, there´s always special information to take into account. Even different salmon species may run up the same river at different times. With all that info, anglers tend to forget to try out small lakes or ponds. There are even private lakes like the one on this picture. Fishing private lakes is not cheap, prices are usually around 40$ a day. The advantages are that these lakes are usually clean, and there is no high water due to runoff or rainfalls. Sometimes, even a boat is included in the fee. I got two rainbows, 4 and 6 pounds, on the lake on this photograph.

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This bird doesn´d need to be fed. It can find all the food it needs among the trout and grayling populations in our streams and rivers. Of course we´re supposed to restock new fish in spring so it won´t starve next winter. The calm parts of the Wiesent seem to be suffering from a complete absence of fish this spring, but we do have shiny, fat, saturated cormorants. Unfortunately, the photograph is a bit blurred, but you can picture what´s going on on the river when the cormorant is hunting. Doesn´t anyone happen to have a Jeannie, who could end this nightmare with a wink?

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Yes, it´s stoneflies I´m talking about. These flies come from ancient populations supposedly living since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Huge specimens of 5 to 6 cm are tumbling through the air rather than flying. These flies love freestone rivers better than chalk streams. Fortunately for fish and anglers, stonefly nymphs are available all year round. Whereas green drake nymphs build little holes to live in, most stonefly nymphs live on the river bottom, only very few in the substrate.

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The photograph was taken during my annual flyfishing meeting in Velden on the Pegnitz. In this spot, it isn´t exactly easy to get to the other side of the Pegnitz with a roll cast. To make it even less easy, the space for your back cast is a bit limited. At the end of the tippet there´s is a bead head nymph, because if you make it to the other side, you might as well fool a fish into taking your fly. There´s no lack of fellow anglers wishing to know all about the cast. A few meters away, you may try yourself how it works.

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Even though the Wiesent has been hard-hit by cormorants, a few fish have survived the winter. Those black birds don´t love the fast-flowing parts. A few weeks from now the green drake hatch will enable us to figure out how many fish have survived the last hard winter. When all the fish are rising you can see how many of them are still around. Last week I managed to fool the grayling on the photograph with a nymph, which isn´t a bad sign after all. Unortunately, especially grayling are frequently victimized by cormorants.

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The photograph shows the uppermost pool fish in the Saalach can reach. The waterfall marks the upper limit of the spawning runs for local salmonids. Whatever swims upstream from there has probably been stocked. During spawning season you can spot specimens of grayling and trout the size of which you wouldn´t believe if someone else told you. The deep holes are also home to huge brown trout that have no urge to migrate anywhere. These brown trout could match many a big steelhead. Food is available in abundance all year round. Sometimes I like to just watch aquatic life in spots like this without interfering in any way.

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In fly fishing, beginners should concentrate primarily on their cast, and not on their way. After first practicing with lots of available backcast space, the second block is taught with diverse obstacles behind the casters (see photograph). Once this situation has been mastered, dries are tied on for the first time. By then the first day of my fly fishing class will be near its end. In these classes scholars as a rule also catch fish, so the Pegnitz offers everything you might desire for your fly fishing clinic.

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The quality of your equipment is not the only potential source of danger. Unfortunately for them, there are always oafs that start a trip down a river without thorough knowledge of its geography, and they might even do it alone. That´s pretty stupid even in Europe but even more so in Canada. There´s many a river valley that has a road in it, so you may have a chance of reaching someone in case you need help, but then there´s valleys where no one lives at all. Imagine drifting down one of those, into a canyon, and seeing and hearing a waterfall ahead... ! Better play it safe, just like on the photograph below, with a guide who knows his whereabouts.

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Anyway, almost every year comes up with a special motif during the time of the green drake hatch. This photograph was taken during a flyfishing clinic in Velden on the Pegnitz. There hadn´t yet been any mating flights worth mentioning, and no egg-depositing flights either. Of all the mayflies spotted, ephemera danica (green drakes) were but a minority, the majority being ephemera vulgata. When I checked the sediment on the river bottom with my kitchen sieve looking for nymphs, my findings indicated that 2018 will be a much better year for green drakes. Until then, we´ll just have to make do without green drakes for a few months!

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      ✆ DE   011 49 9126 288640,   Fax 011 49 9126 288643,     Ⓒ Wolfgang Fabisch