On with the blog!

My summer in the Belgian Ardennes was the first thing I wanted to post, but I have so many pictures and stuff I could write about that I simply don’t know where to start, so… nothing happens. And since I want to move on, I decided to skip it (or do a piece now and then, or… we’ll see) and carry on.

 

The last two days for example, were exceptionally warm for this time of the year (over 20° C),

so I spent my afternoons at the ‘Hawthorn’ club water, chasing rainbows.

 

And I caught very well on this type of streamer.

Just a little bit of flash, a rabbit strip zonker and a deer hair head with some dumbbell eyes in it.

I actually tied these streamers this summer for chub (with great success by the way). Here are a couple of nice ones.

But as I said before, the last two days, they worked very well on these kind of beauties.

 

Especially a black version.

Now that I have that whole ‘Belgian Ardennes’ thing out of my head, I’m able to move on, so from now on you can expect a lot more posts on a more frequent base again…

Quick update

Since the opening of the pike season over here in Belgium, is still several weeks away, everything evolves around trout at the moment (that’s also the main reason why I didn’t post much lately).

 

At less than half an hour from my home, I can go fishing for beautiful rainbows at the ‘Hawthorn’ club water.

So this is the water where I spend my fishing time at the moment.

 

And this is my setup,

My favourite 7 weight, with (at the moment) a floating line, and two of these (very easy to tie) flies/streamers on my leader. I say flies/streamer, because you can fish them very slowly (imitating for example a damsel nymph) or strip them faster (like a streamer).

 

And it works very well. This afternoon for example, I was on the water for little over two hours, and I caught six of these beauties (all between 40 and 48 cm long). I lost a very fat 50+ trout as well, but it will still be there tomorrow, so…

I also bought me a new ‘fishing camera’. I say ‘fishing camera’, because that’s exactly what it is. You see, in the last two years, I broke three ‘normal’ digital camera’s. The first one fell into the water (well actually,… I fell into the water and the camera with me,… but that’s the same thing). The second fell on a rock. And the third one was ‘killed’ by the rain.

So it was time to spend a little bit more on a camera that is a little more ‘forgiving’ to us clumsy fishermen.

 

So I bought me a Nikon Coolpix AW100. It’s waterproof (up 10 m) and shockproof (up to 1,5 m), which is exactly what I needed (it has loads of other gadgets as well of course, like GPS, compass,… although I really don’t care much about such things).

I can’t say much about it yet, but I already held it underwater, which didn’t harm it (and that’s already a very good sign) and it still took nice pictures afterwards. I didn’t drop it yet, but since I only fished in a 9 m deep lake from a bellyboat, it was probably not the right time to test that anyway. When I do start to have problems with it, I will certainly post it.

 

‘Waterproof’ also means that you can take pictures under water. Which is something I had to test of course, but I still have much to learn I think, because in fact, rainbow trout don’t like posing for a camera under water (please correct me if I’m wrong). I took several pictures, but this is the only one with (part of) a fish on it.

But I’m sure it will deliver some nice shots in the future…

Restocking trout

 

This afternoon, some nice German fellows delivered a nice quantity of trout at the club water. And I surely didn’t want to miss that.

400 kg of rainbows between 800 gr. and 1 kg (that’s already a very nice size to catch).

 

This is Steven emptying one of the many barrels.

But after a whole week of horrible weather in Ireland (and it’s the same over here in Belgium now), you do think twice before hitting the water again.

 

Although I have to admit that after seeing this quantity of blue/silver beauties, I do feel an itch.

So I’ll light a candle that the weather changes soon. And if it doesn’t, well… f#”!ck the weather, I’ll go out anyway…

Restocking pike

From now on, I can call myself a proud new member of ‘The Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Fly Tying Club Belgium’. And my first time on the club water, was to work, well,... if you can call it work anyway, I just had a great time.

 

Because this gentleman delivered a nice quantity of pike.

 

I had the honour of releasing the first one (this is one of the smaller fish).

 

They are all between 1 and 3 kg (but they will grow!).

 

Then we did a tour on the lake to release them.

 

And a nice lake it is. 9 hectare with a depth of 9 m, reserved for 30 members maximum.

It’s stocked mainly with rainbow trout, but there’s also pike, zander and perch. So once we’re back from Ireland, this will be the place I’ll spend most of my fishing time.

 

You don’t get to be a member so easily. For example, you need a godfather to introduce you.

So I proudly present my godfather, Phillippe (aka the Grey Piker). You see him here testing my new Pikesaber (which he approved).

I’m very happy that I could enter this club, because the water is only at a 30 min drive from my house, it’s beautiful and quiet, and it’s loaded with fish. So you can expect a lot more posts from this location…