Fly Fishing Fabisch, the Weekly Picture Archive 1 - 2020

Right now is a quiet time, as far as flyfishing is concerned, this leaves us time to talk a bit about the good old times. It has been fifteen years now that a group of EFFA members visited the Doubs in Switzerland. Well, only one bank of the Doubs is Swiss, the opposite bank is French. This also implies that the regulations differ considerably depending from which side you are fishing. While the Swiss side allows only flyfishing, anglers on the other bank are using floats, worms, maggots, and what have you. The size limit also is considerably smaller in France.

I usually visit the area of the Bulkley River in September and October. The last two years I drove by in spring, on my way to prospecting activities in the Yukon. Of course, the entire scenery is looking completely different in spring, as compared to fall. While the snowline is slowly moving downhill in fall, the mountains are packed with snow in spring. The nights can still be quite cold, especially near mountains.

Most people who hear the name of Vancouver will think of this city in the Southwest of British Columbia. This is the city this text is about, even though there is another Vancouver 500 km down South near Portland, Oregon. Vancouver BC is a bustling city on the Pacific Ocean, and there´s action 24/7. Vancouver City has a population of 632,000, Greater Vancouver just short of 2.5 millions on 2,700 km2. If you approach Vancouver by plane you will for quite some time fly over the mountains north of Vancouver. They are known by the name of Coast Mountains.

I realize many people nowadays have other problems to ponder than their hobbies. I´m only writing about my way of coping with the issues at hand. First of all I will accept all the instructions issued by the government, unless they would evidently cause damages to my family or myself. Unfortunately some of our fellow countrymen behave like complete morons, as though we didn´t have any problem at all. In the queue in front of the pharmacy or at the grocer´s, they simply will not keep the necessary distance the way everyone should, get as close to you as they possibly can.

Now would be just the right time to start flyfishing clinics. Whether we are talking about clinics for beginners or advanced students, be it on the Pegnitz or the Wiesent, or clinics for beginners with two-handed rods on stillwaters, all the lights would be green if it weren´t for the Corona virus. The bookings for clinics are good, but god only knows if and when these clinics can take place. To be able to hold my annual meeting I would need nothing short of a miracle, but these don't come around frequently. We´ll see what will happen.

From my home to the beat on the Wiesent where I hold fishing rights is a drive of about 25 km. The maximum distance you are presently allowed to travel for fishing during the lockdown is 50 km, so no problem. The drive is extremely relaxing these days, hardly any traffic at all. My Touran, built in 2005, has a two liter Diesel engine with 140 hp and does not need me to step on the accelerator too hard under these circumstances which results in a consumption of 4.5 liters per 100 km, in both directions. Once I get to the Wiesent, there isn´t another soul in sight.

The Pegnitz river emanates from a karst spring in the very town of Pegnitz. It is a spring creek which is not as famous as the Wiesent, well known in the fly fishing world. The whole area called Fränkische Schweiz (lit. Franconian Switzerland) is a region dominated by karst. In one place the two rivers are only about 20 km apart. A short ways downstream from its spring the Wiesent is joined by the Fichtenohe. Although the Fichtenohe contributes considerably more water, the resulting river is called Pegnitz. The distance from Pegnitz to the junction into the Rednitz is about 110 km.

The Corona business starts getting tedious. Whether it is about casting clinics, the holiday flight to Canada, freedom of movement, everything has become uncertain. As I am a rather active person, I feel this forced inactivity as rather stressful. And then there are many experts, university professors among them, who see the present restrictions as far exceeding the necessities. According to Wikipedia (in german language), the flu epidemic in 2017/2018 caused 25,000 deaths in Germany, but the effects on the economy were not nearly as harsh as compared to now.

Wolfgang Fabisch,    Nürnberger Str. 45,    90542 Eckental/Germany

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