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…

Trout/perch Zonker

Yes, it’s been a week since I posted something, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. Since my main goal is trout at the moment, but the weather just stays horrible, with heavy winds, rain and hail storms, I stayed inside and tied myself a lot of trout streamers.

 

I certainly won’t post all of them, but I do want to share these ones. This kind of streamer is getting very popular over here in Belgium.

It’s a pattern by Pedro Guridi, a very nice Chilean guy who lives in Belgium. He’s not only a very good fly-fisherman, but also a fantastic fly-tier.

He made a tutorial of his ‘zonker’, which you can check out here.

He made some other tutorials as well (nothing for pike though), which you can find on the website of his club http://thenymphmaniacs.com/

And with perch in mind, I already tied me some slightly bigger ones in different colour combinations as well.

 

 

If this weather doesn’t change soon, I’ll do like Erin Block so elegantly said it in her last comment “Fist to the sky… and fish!”.

Small stuff

I didn’t have much time to do anything the last couple of days, but the moments I did have to myself, I’ve used to tie some smaller streamers (since I plan to go more to the Belgian Ardennes for fishing this year).

 

These are actually for trout, but I think they will do fine for perch, zander, ide, chub, or any fish that feeds on fry (so I’ve tied me a box full of them).

Actually, I intend to try them out for perch tomorrow or the day after.

 

They are all about 5,5 cm long, tied on a Gamakatsu F314, size 6, with a 3,8 mm bead.

 

 

 

The materials I’ve used are, rabbit zonker strip, Krystal Flash and chenille (Krystal Chenille or Vampire Plush).

 

The first ones, I’ve also used some copper or brass wire to secure the rabbit strip (which you can see on some of the pictures), but the way they are tied, that wasn’t really necessary, so after a dozen or so, I’ve stopped using it.

I got my inspiration for this pattern from a book that I can highly recommend.

Not for pike or salt water flies, but every other type of fly fishing is very adequately explained

(dry flies, nymphs, streamers,… how to tie them and how to fish them).

The book also includes a DVD, mainly on Czech Nymph fishing.

 

Of course, since this book is brought out by Hends Products, every fly inside is tied with their own products.

I’ve been tying flies with Hends Products for a while now, and their stuff is really great, but to be honest, there isn’t much of a difference with other high quality products.

But the book is still worth checking out, whatever brand of material you use!

 

And I’ve tied me a couple of these as well

(just a variation on a Muddler Minnow).

This one is about 4 cm long, tied on a Kamasan B-830, size 10.

And now, I’m off to my vise again, because I’ve made a promise to Djuza
(from Piketeaser), and I intend to keep it…