Fly Fishing Nation: July 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Troutbumming - The Creeks Of Evil - Day II

Troutbumming - The Creeks of Evil - Day II
aka. I.F.B.T.
by Stephan Dombaj
feat.: Paulo Hoffmann &
Alexander von Dombois

Click here for the first day

What a night, literally made to screw us up: I forgot my sleepingbag what means that I had to sleep in my wet cloths – covered with my waders. Alexander got a serious cold and Paulo... well, at least Paulo enjoyed his night tinched by the sweet pleasure of torturing us with the Chili con Carne he had for dinner. Not to forget about the rain, the wind and the temperature drop-off in the night. Anyway, it was fishing time. Time to get up, time to explore a quite unexploited fishing water and off course time to show Alex some indian-fishing-bush-techniques (I.F.B.T.)

(The creek of evil)

Knowing from the very beginning that this would be a hard test for his casting skills we all were very excited to kick some troutbutts. This water was the very definition of a creek: Small... and I really mean it; abundantly covered with vegetation and without any signs of intruders in the upper area (no sings of other fishermen going thru the weeds and herbs) Some pretty beautiful babytrouts crushed on our nymphs... but there was more to come, I knew it.

(Rain-break)

While Alex and Paulo went upstream to mess around with some smallies, I tied a real-man-fly on. What happened then, was just to good to be true – I had awaken Creek´s Fatties... and they were hungry for more. The big and long bow was just the beginning – but a German-Cutthroat really made my day. Nothing more to say... just check out the pics.

(Swing for the win)

(Got it?)

(Fetish)

(Smallie...time for some big crackers)

(What about that one)

(Streamer for the win)

(What a beauty)

(BW)

(German Cutthroat)

(It made my day)

(Releasing that beauty to fight another day)

(Paulo´s turn)

(TL Buddy)

(Streamtactics...)

(Splitsecond before hookset)

(Hold it tight)

(...and away from the cover)

(Ambitious fighter)

(Portrait)

(Alexander and a 42cm fish)

(A real beast)

(Playing a bow)

(Nice fish)

(Green Hell)

(Alex plays a bow)

(Sun-Shot)

(Do your job, girl)

(...)

(Alex with a brownie)

(Portrait)

(Release)

(Lunchtime)

(Nymph-Bow)

(Scudfly)

(Crazy shit weed)

(Job done)

(What an ugly fucker)

(Fatty)

(Bow)

(Creekfishing)

(Cutthroat-Portrait)

(Another Bow)

(Release)

Feedback:

"It was a great experience fishing small German creeks with the guys from FFN. I learned a lot about fishing and casting under trees and bad conditions. Even though the weather was not that great I had a lot of fun an caught my first browntrout and my biggest (40cm) perch ever!

Thanks Stephan and Paulo for taking me with fishing!"

Alexander von Dombois

Monday, July 27, 2009

Troutbumming - The Creeks Of Evil - Day I

Troutbumming - The Creeks of Evil - Day I
by Stephan Dombaj
feat.: Paulo Hoffmann,
Alexander von Dombois
& Peter Volkensfeld*

It´s a frequent ritual to pack our thing and leave everything except fishing behind for at least two days. The deal was convincing as simple: One tent, two creeks, three guys and two days... time is running! Due to the fact that we spend a whole day at the riverside, it really ain´t a surprise that even the well known water reveals it´s secrets from another point of view. And sometime it is far more than you ever expected.

(The Creeks Of Evil)

The first water we had choosen was more or less frequented by flyfishers. Paulo and I had spend there some time before (Scare Tactics) and the Plan was to introduce trout and co. to Alexander who was the Creek-Newbie in the team. Although he´s used to Zeds, Asp, Pike and some more gamefishes including Shad, Macrele and Striper on fly he was a fly-trout virgin. (Check out his feedback below) The second water is a tributary of the first one and as far as we are concerned... it´s was totally unknown to us. Uncountable examples in the past had shown that water size is never an indicator of fishsize at all, so we were quite excited to blast some casts there...

(2nd day´s water)

1 Day - 1 Bang

"HOLY FUCK, ARE THEY SERIOUS?" - we got it bad. A parish fair... close to the creek! Damn it! Okay, it was time for purpose-lead optimism: A problem is a solution under construction. Sounds much better. Still focusing our goal to get Alex some trouts, we fished the areas upon and below, eventhough that specific part was very good for brutes...

(GTFO, MOFU!)

Anyway...especially the upper parts were a blessing since we found some schools of graylings rising for tiniest dries. Item to go: Size 22 "Oarscherl" (Austrian pattern) and 0,08mm tippet. Hell knows why, but these literally highly selective fishes were fighting like a drunk´n pillow - in comparison to their siblings in Austria. Nevertheless we enjoyed this pretty fine intermezzo as long as it lasted. As I said thousand times before, Fortune is a philandering bitch... that sent us rain-pregnant clouds. Long story short: Clear creek turned into coffee = Streamertime aka. time to slam some brutes. Beside the typical brownies we hammered some real nice perches (German Bass) up to 41cm. Alex´s 40cm perch marked a new personal best for his trophy gallery - and of course he lost his virginity. Wicked lockdown for the first day. Now that the stream got high and brown we were even more excited to see the small creek that shall not be influenced by the the rain.