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Our one-day fly fishing trip to river Diemel resultet in just 15 trout. The online check of the water level was promising despite heavy rain on the day before. But a big surprise then was the colour of the water. Instead of being crystal clear it looked like 'coffe with milk'. Under normal conditions one can expect a bag of 15 fish per angler. 
At first we thought that around evening the water might clear up and we would get a great evening hatch. Sadly it remained turbid and only a few insects decided to hatch.  

               
               One out of 3 reasonably sized trout. A grayling did not show up.

               
                Perfect level but too turbid

May is primetime for catching chub on fly. The upper stretch of our club water hosts an incredible hatch of big mayfly and sedges (caddis). Fortunately, hardly anybody knows.

             
             

A reliable device for the perfect time is to observe the gorse bushes. When the gorse is in blossom insect hatches are at its top and fish will feed.

             

Recently there seemed to be pretty much bleak instead of big chub as we used to know from past seasons. But after 1.5 hours of casting a chub of 2 pounds was finally faster than the bleak.

             

Two hours after our arrival we were already sitting in the boat heading for a big bay covered with dense reeds. Expactations on that day in early May were high. Finally we finished with a few small pike mostly taken on Salmo Slider.

                         

On Sunday we did not discover a single fishing boat whereas on high season there can be seen twenty to thirty, as I was told later. The warm and unsteady winter caused the majority of pike to spawn four to five weeks before our arrival. We were definitely too late and there were 10 more fishing days to come!  
      
                              
A change of strategy, trolling instead of casting, brought at least some bigger ones. The breakthrough was Christophs 100 + that he took on a dead roach mounted to a SG Lipscull. Windy conditions with occasional rain proved to be best for trolling inside the skerries.

                

Although our boat was ideal for rough weather the waves on the open lake were often too high to allow safe fishing. Lots of fish seemed to migrate out of the skerries to Vätterns deep water where we could take at least a few of them.
 
                    

The best fishing day was Tuesday, 15 May. After a standard size pike for Christoph I hooked something on my 19 cm Hybrida that behaved complety different from any other fish before. Shortly after striking it broke the surface and stood in the air for a while. In front of the boat lots of pressure was needed to bring it up for netting. Through the crystal clear water I spotted the characteristic white stripe on the edge of the pectoral fins and it was obvious what I hooked. A char! Not a giant but a wonderful fish.

                    

At 11.30 a.m. Christoph hooked a pike on his sideplaner rod. While playing it another fish took one of his lures. As Nisse stayed at home this morning Christoph and I were now both playing a fish while still having to steer the boat. I put lots of pressure on the fish and had it in the net quickly. Then the unexpected happened: A third fish, now on my rod, striked. I don’t now how but finally we had all three of them gathered on our unhooking mat: 89 cm, 92 cm and102 cm!

                       

A few more fish followed throughout the coming days. A further highlight was the discovery of a huge bay packed with lots of bream and pike close by. The Parrot Slider guaranteed me a clear 5:0 victory that afternoon. Without my Slider I lost 2:0 in the evening.

Looking back and taking into account the miserable fishing conditions we are now happy with what we achieved.

              

                          
A few more pictures are coming pretty soon!

Some more pictures from Vättern

        
         small lure - big fish

         
         a 'beauty' from Alsen and below..

        
         .. a 'beast' with spawning injuries

        
         a good net can never be too big! 
        
        
        
         first-class accomodation
 
        
         'Lucky Nisse'
        
         
         'Angry Nisse' with the last fish of the trip

        

        
         serious car in Askersund!
 
        
         trekking tour in Tiveden national park
        
         
         crossed viper (vipera berus)
        
         
         can you see the elk?
        
         
         time for a hotdog-break

Spring has finally arrived last weekend and fishing is starting to pick up. Promising carp catches are reported from a nearby pond and also the river is in great shape. Chub are extremely greedy at the moment. My experiment with luncheon meat as hook bait delivered 3 chub of around 3.5 pounds each. But for the fly rod it is still too early. In four weeks we can hopefully expect some noteworthy insect hatches.

                          

                                        

                         

Memories and inspirations of a forgotten era.

• Fred Buller - Pike & The Pike Angler
• Fred J. Taylor - Fishing for Tench
• Hugh Falkus - Salmon Fishing
• T.C. Kingsmill Moore - A Man May Fish

Recently I was asked if I might be interested in a few days ‘work’ in northern Dalarna. Of course I was! A direct bus then brought me from Hamburg to a beautiful winter landscape in middle Sweden. Although my mission had nothing to do with fishing I nevertheless made it to a short visit to Burusjön. After 2.5 hours fishing with Neva and Sven, six arctic char and two perch came through the ice holes. But with only a single char I had to accept a defeat that day.  The mormyschka seemed to do a better job than my big spoon and a hook packed with several maggots.
                             
 
                          
         
                            

While packing up a herd of a reindeer crossed the lake completing a great days fishing in splendid nature.
 
                         

 
               
               casting into a 'fishy' 2012 season