Urban perch fishing

This afternoon I went back with two other members of my club to that crazy spot where I caught all that perch on Monday.

And I figured out what leads to this temporary massive catches (I think).

Monday and today, the wind came from the same direction, blowing all residues of dead plants (which won’t last) into this narrow part of the canal, attracting lots of small baitfish and of course lots of perch. I’ve tried fishing there every day, this week, and sure there was perch, but far from the amount of Monday and today, and no plant residues to be seen.

 

But like I said, today the fishing gods were on our side again.

This is Dirk, our president with one of the many, many fish we caught today.

 

We honestly (all three of us) lost count. It was strange when we didn’t have a single bite on each cast.

Here’s Jean-Pierre with one of his.

 

The fish weren’t as big as last Monday, but the numbers made us all forget about that.

This is me with another one.

I know this is exceptional, and it won’t last, but that doesn’t change the fact that we had a fantastic afternoon!

Pike flies

Wind, rain and heavy hailstorms, so an ideal moment to get behind the vise. And I spent quite a few hours behind my vise today.

First I had to finish this order of baitfish patterns.

 

Bleeding black

 

And yellow/orange

Then I wanted to make a bigger version of a ‘Lonesome Tom’ pattern, but since I’ve made so many brass wire dubbing brushes lately, I was really in the mood to tie something different. So I changed my mind along the way.

 

I wanted to tie three like this, with a length of about 20 cm (instead of the usual 14 cm).

 

But, with these two, I made a collar of white and chartreuse artic fox (tied in) and an epoxy head (with sequins inside for the eyes).

In the next flies, I really like the colour of the rabbit zonker strips, but the hair is a lot shorter than the zonker strips that I normally use, so I tied in two of them.

And there’s something really weird with my orange bucktail, no matter how I change the light, it always looks pink on a picture (so you’ll have to take my word for it, it’s orange).

 

And I also wanted to tie three like this, but I changed my mind again (twice).

 

Here I made a collar with three dubbing loops of artic fox (yellow/black/orange) and an epoxy head.

 

And here with three dubbing loops of marabou.

 

Here, I made the tail with yellow and orange grizzly saddle hackles and tied in yellow (bottom) and orange/black/orange (top) artic fox for the collar.

I did some experiments on something new as well but I’m not yet sure where I’m going with it…

Tying session

Last weekend I had to give another tying session on pike flies. This time with the “Vliegvissers Ijzervallei”, which is my own club, so I was less nervous this time. And it was a success again, lots of people came and were very interested. Although it was a bit difficult for our three new members, sorry about that guys. But it was a very pleasant (and late) evening again!

Successfully testing perch flies

Pike fishing isn’t really working well lately, but in this one water I always have lots of perch following my pike streamer. So I figured, why not go fishing for perch, for a change. So last night I came up with these little creatures and this morning I went out to test them.

Actually it was a double test, since I received this 5 weight ‘glass’ line to test from Fario Jan (still my favourite fly-shop).

 

So this was my setup: my favourite 5 weight (Guideline Fario), a ‘glass’ line on the reel and a 2,5 m leader of 20/00 fluorocarbon (maybe a bit heavy for perch, but there's a lot of zander swimming around in this water as well, so I didn’t want to take the risk).

 

And I was in for a big surprise!

This was my first cast of the day. At first I thought I was just lucky, but I missed a fish on my second cast and caught another fish on my third cast.

And it just went on and on…

 

This turned out to be the killer colour combination (olive/green).

I’ve fished for about two hours, and caught more than 40 perch!

 

Most of them in this size (20 to 25 cm), but there were a couple above 30 cm as well.

This next picture was taken by a guy who passed on his bike and stopped to see what I was doing, which was very amusing actually:

 

“Man”, he said, “I fish here myself with lures and spinners, and from time to time I catch a perch, sometimes even a pike or a zander, but what you’re doing is something I have never witnessed before. How do you do that?”

I didn’t say that I probably hit the right spot at the right time (maybe not very nice of me, but I couldn’t resist), so I just said to him: “that’s fly-fishing man, and this is how you do it”. After which I cast my fly, let the line sink for a few seconds, started stripping and hooked this beauty. You should have seen the look on his face!

Either way, I think my test was a success, flies ok and line ok,

and… A LOT OF FUN!

Pike flies

I feel like a little boy with a new toy, with this new fly pattern, I just can’t stop playing with it!

Here are some redheads...

The birth of the ‘Jerk Tom’

I’ve put my latest flies to an extensive test yesterday, no pike caught though (Belgium isn’t exactly ‘pike paradise’). And the action in the water is just fantastic. If you use short fast retrieves, this fly just swings from left to right like a genuine jerkbait, but it has the advantage that when you stop retrieving, it slides slowly downwards (which a real jerkbait will never do with such elegance, if they even do it at all).

And since this fly is based on a ‘Lonesome Tom’ pattern,

I will simply call this one a ‘Jerk Tom’.

Here are two more in chartreuse…

Pike flies

Just some more tandem flies (the same as yesterday), but I felt a bit ‘Pink’ today, so…

Chartreuse is next…

Pike flies

Lately, I’ve become a big fan of tandem flies. They just have a fantastic action in the water.

And although some people think that it’s insane to put so much time in tying a pike fly, I really don’t  care. Why? … Because I just love tying them!!!

Last week, I’ve been tying a lot of ‘Tandem Flash Flies’ (which I intend to do an extensive post on later) and ‘Tandem Lonesome Tom’ patterns, but this evening, I felt like using feathers for the tail instead.

I just can’t wait to give these a try!

Which will probably be tomorrow…

Tying session

 

Last evening, I had to give a tying session on pike flies at

“The Hawthorn Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Team”. And it was a great success!

I even broke two records: one, it was the longest tying session they ever had, and two, we only tied 3 flies (yeah well, that’s the difference between pike flies and nymphs, I guess).

 

Everybody was very enthusiastic, for which I’m very grateful, because I was really nervous to start (because these people are no amateurs when it comes to fly-tying!).

So thanks a lot guys!

 

Here we are, halfway a ‘Lonesome Tom’ pattern.

 

They were particularly interested in the possibilities of brass wire dubbing brushes.

 

I have to admit that it felt really good to be appreciated in this way.

So… up to the next one

(which is next week)…

Nostalgia

When I was about 10 years old, my parents bought themselves a little cabin in the Belgian Ardennes, to spend their weekends. It was a beautiful and quiet location, in the woods, along a small stream, which I can enjoy a lot right now, but when you’re 10 years old and you’re in the middle of nowhere, well… that wasn’t my idea of fun at all. So I started fishing in the little stream that passed nearby, to pass my time. First with worms and stuff, but I soon learned that spinning was a lot more active way of fishing and therefore a lot more fun.

 

And I did catch my share of nice trout

(that’s me, many years ago),

 

although the whole ‘catch and release’ idea was still a bit strange to me at that time.

But in the first couple of years I was there, I only saw one fly fisherman. I was immediately fascinated by what he was doing, but he lost more flies in the trees than he actually hit the water, and he didn’t catch any fish at all. So that whole ‘fly-fishing thing’ just seemed to be a bizarre way of ‘catching nothing’.

Until we went to Bohan (yes, the same place I spent my entire summer) to visit my mothers cousin Cyriel and his wife Erna, and then everything changed. Cyriel was the first person that I saw casting a fly gracefully to a spot where he expected a trout, and actually catch it as well! At that point, my whole idea of fishing changed. Actually my entire life changed after that moment, and I let my parents go to their cabin while I took the train, bus and a part hitchhiking to arrive in Bohan (with a small tent and a lot of fishing gear) to cast flies at trout and chub.

At that time (sell phones were yet to be invented), I had to send a postcard to friends and relatives from time to time to tell them about my adventures over there. So what kind of a postcard do you send? One with a fly fisherman on it of course. And what did I find? A postcard with Cyriel on it, unbelievable! The only postcard with a fly fisherman on it, was my mother’s cousin and the very man that brought me into fly-fishing!

"Oh yeah", he said afterwards, "that’s possible, because a photographer came to me one day to suggest such a thing, but I didn’t believe him at that time".

 

I had to look for a long time in lots of boxes full of old stuff (because I definitely wanted to post it), but I finally found one.

This is Cyriel, years ago in the river Semois. And for those of you who don’t speak French, “Pêcheur de truites” means “Trout fisherman”.

This summer, I was looking for some postcards as well, and of course I looked for a fly fisherman again. And although I didn’t find one with just a fisherman on it, I did come across this one.

 

And guess who’s on it?
Yes, Cyriel!

So believe me when I say that it brings a very warm feeling to my hart, that after all those years, the man that brought fly-fishing into my life, is still on a postcard to represent fly-fishing in my most loved region of Belgium!