Bernd Ziesche | Wednesday, 5 April 2017
Right now spring has arrived to Germany. Almost 20° Celsius outside and a lot of different species of fish start to get active. Excellent time to fish for some of them or maybe all of them!?
In my area we are not allowed to fish for pike perch (Zander) from April 1 to May 15. During this period all pike perch are spawning and for that they are protected of course. So last week I had the last chance to fish for them and so I did. It was a perfect end of the winter season and I managed to catch another nice one though. Still very few fly fishermen have discovered fly fishing for pike perch to be something great. Fly fishing for pike here in Germany has become very popular during the past ten years. I am sure in ten years from now fly fishing for pike perch will have become the same popular! In many waters we have both pike and pike perch as well as perch. All three of them offer a great chance to catch a grand slam. I have done it a few times yet.
During the last weekend Marina and I went to Denmark teaching fly fishing for coastal Sea trout. We had a fantastic time fly casting, fly tying and fly fishing all day long. Only the fish weren't much willing to show up this time. Well, that's what we call fishing... ;).
Back from Denmark I went fly fishing for asp and carp (and others like ide and rudd) in different lakes and managed to catch some of them. Fantastic fishing when these fish are starting to get active in the beginning of spring when for quite some time nobody did fish for them. Significant different (more natural) feeding behaviour compared to how it will be later in the season. Carp are often pretty smart in indentifying a fly to be something better not to eat. One truly has to get them curious mostly. So my strategy here most of the times is built around curiosity.
In summary I have caught ten different species of fish during the last week. Brilliant I love to switch from one species to another one. Fly fishing these days is so much more than just fishing for salmonids.
Today we are starting to get our stuff ready for a three weeks trip to Gotland, Sweden for Sea trout fishing starting on Friday. We can't wait! But of course we will meet a few more fish before we are leaving on Friday!? ;)
I hope you'll have some proper fly fishing, too!
Great week to all of you!
All my best
Bernd
P.s.: Great to watch Ashly having caught her first Toman! Nice video, mate!
Some pics from the last days....