Are we crazy?

This morning I got up at six a.m. to go swing some flies at pike in the Belgian Polders with 3 other members of my club.

We fished with four guys (all used to fish for pike), for four hours straight, in some of the best pike waters you can find over there, and we didn’t catch a single fish.

So you’re probably wondering why I even post this,… well here’s the reason.

 

As I neared our starting point, the sun came up in such a beautiful way that I parked my car to watch it for a couple of minutes (and took a picture).

 

Even at the place we met, everything was still looking so beautiful, quiet and promising that we were already in a good mood before we even started fishing.

 

This was our day to catch some nice pike!

 

But,…

we tried,

 

and tried…

and,… nothing.

So why do I post this?... Because this is fly-fishing as well. And if you can’t enjoy this, you’ll never be a true fly-fisherman in your life! I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day, and just by looking at these pictures again tonight, my whole body feels warm and satisfied again.

So… are we crazy?

Or are we born with some extra ‘happy’ gene?

What ever it is,… I never want to loose it!!!

My personal favourite mess

As I was sitting behind my vise this evening, suddenly I realised that I didn’t post much lately. And then I started thinking about what I could post.

Yes, I went fishing every day this week (from an hour to three hours a day), and I caught pike every time (except this afternoon), but only a few each time, and the size of the fish wasn’t worth writing about either (don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every second of it), but I never even considered posting it.

 

So I took a look around me and thought, why don’t I post this mess for a change. So here you have it, …my own personal sanctuary.

 

And at another angle.

I took a picture of the board in front of me as well, …but I like to keep a secret now and then, so I didn’t post that one (sorry!)…

Finally on the water again

A friend of mine came to visit me for a couple of days. A very nice guy, but he isn’t interested in fishing at all, so no posts, no fishing and no tying. And although we had a great time together, I really had to get out there today.

 

I had some time this afternoon, so I went to a water that I wanted to try for a while now.

I never go there because as you can see there’s no room to cast from the banks.

 

But it is ideal with a float tube. But the float tube I had… well let’s say that a sofa from my living room is probably more manoeuvrable in the water. But I got me a new one last week, so I didn’t have any excuses anymore.

 

And there’s pike,

so I will definitely be going back there this week with more time…

About Ezine updates

Maybe you’ve noticed that I don’t post it anymore when there’s a new issue of a fly fishers Ezine (I’m always late anyway). And if you didn’t subscribe already yourself, you’ll see it on almost every fly fishers blog nevertheless, so I just update the picture and link in my column on the right and I will keep doing so.

But I do have to say that the photography in the last ‘Catch Magazine’ is just unbelievably beautiful! So go check it out!

And I’ve added a new one as well, called ‘the tight line’. It’s not strictly about fly fishing (it involves a lot of lure fishing as well), but it’s worth checking out too.

Polder pike

This afternoon I went fishing with Dirk, for an hour or so (it was my dad’s birthday, so I kept it short). And although I have hundreds of pike flies in my car, because I always want to be prepared, I wasn’t prepared for this water. Why? Because weed guards were the key to fish properly here, and those… I left at home, damn!

But Dirk came prepared… and got rewarded!

 

With this fat lady, which I had the privilege of landing (which feels good as well), and witnessed the ecstasy of Dirk catching her (which was very enjoyable, I think we’ll have some laughs about that later on, because he was very funny),

so I really wanted to share her with you, because she’s a real beauty!

Well done Dirk!