Lesley's first Carp

Lesley used to be a hardcore carpfisher. You know the ones with the Bivvy domes, rodpod, homemade secret flavour boillies etc etc. Nowadays he fishes only at sea from his boat or Hobie kayak.

A couple of weeks ago I caught my first carp on the fly and after talking about it his carp bug started to come alive. He wanted to come along and catch a carp. First I didn't really think it would be a good idea, flyfishing for carp is not the most easy thing to do. I compare it a bit to bonefishing, first you have to spot the buggers, then you have to be able to sneak up to them to get in range. If you come to that part then placing a fly in front of a carp is the next feat you'll have to do. All in all I thought Lesley would never be able to do that since he hardly ever flyfishes and isn't a skilled caster.

But the weather was nice and had some hours to spare. We went to some small pools next to the river "Lek" where I knew that carp were around. After spotting and spooking many of them Lesley managed to hook a small one. It was a "great" small carp and Lesley was a happy dude.

The rest of the day remained carpless, just one bream but they don't count.

The carp are busy with other things at the moment....nudge nudge say no more....

Dutch Seatrout

April 2009, somewhere along the coast of Holland

Seatrout, a species that many fly fisher love to catch. Every year many Dutch fly fisherman undergo a pilgrimage to the sacred beaches off Fyn in Denmark, wading and casting for this silver bullet, a "1000 cast" fish they call them. Spending hours upon hours casting into a absolute nothingness, .....most women do not understand this . Many Dutchmen undertake this voyage each year in spring because our country lacks any kind of trout. Holland is a very small and densely populated country, our waters and rivers have been heavily polluted and industrialized over many decades. Thus no seatrout around these parts,……. so we would think. By now you have a fairly good idea where this story is taking you, ……if not get help or go fishing.
Last year during our many sea bass fishing trips to the Blokkendam we have seen glimpses of these fish now and again. On many internet fora we could see lucky fisherman posing with trout which they usually caught in the rivers. Often calling confusing them with salmon. So with some rumors in local fishing stores and spotting the occasional seatrout we began to wonder if the seatrout population around Holland was coming on strong., and most importantly if they were catchable!!!
This spring we got word that many coastal fisherman were catching seatrout during their beach sessions. That would mean that they were coming in closer to shore and were actively feeding. Since there weren’t many people around to ask about the fishing we decided to see it as a big challenge and just go out. Most friends were skeptic and produced big grins when we turned to the subject.
Our first real specimen hunting trip didn’t turn out that well. We decided to fish from the Hobie kayaks instead of the skiff. However the wind was to strong and the waves were to high to safely cruise along the shoreline. Big skunk.
A few weeks later the odds were in our favour, 8 seatrout all thick and in perfect condition were caught and a several trout were lost whilst fighting. How’d yeah like them apples!!
So the seatrout were around and in close vicinity of the shore. Since I am no worshipper of those devilsticks I prefer to take the fly rod. Yeah the odds are against me most of the time but f*ck the odds. When it comes to Seatrout, fly fishing and trout fishing go hand in hand. Still Lesley thought it would be wise to take at least one devilstick aboard the Hobie. (in the end it made a good polling stick on the muddy flats)
The first few runs/ drifts were with no success, just one flounder on a rapala. The tide was just starting to come in slowly and it would take several hours before it would reach maximum. After 2 hours of fishing Lesley managed to hook a trout, a small one but nevertheless a trout. One nil for the spinfisher. Because of the slow start we decided to follow the contours of the sandbank that lay bare. Lesley went up ahead and the moment he got round the bend his rod was in a tight bent. Just as I began to reel in I saw a trout rolling in the surface.

We hit the sweet spot. Several snapshots of Les’s trout and I changed my fly to a small Silliskin sandeel on a size 4 hook as a dropper and a black ragworm fly at the end. I decided to drift along the bank and cast towards the beach. As soon as I started my sandeel was hit by a trout and pulled my 7# in a beautiful curve. I have been twice to Denmark and I have casted so many flies into that open sea and with no success. The place where hundreds of men gather to fish and where seatrout are so abundant, and now just an hours drive from my home I am fighting my first ever seatrout……that’s bloody amazing.

The seatrout was in a perfect condition, fat and shiny. Some scales missing but still very beautiful in comparison to many other trout that have been caught. Most seatrout have broken fins and big suckerfish attached to them which leaves holes in there sides the sizes of euro’s.
After realeasing and making sure that the fish was ok we fished further into the small lagoon. Several minutes later I saw another wave surging towards my fly, I paused stripping and twitched the rod, just a splitsecond later a heavy pull janked the line from my hands and a fish was rolling and jumping in the surface. The fat pig was really big and didn’t want to give up so easily. After some time the fish was landend and handshakes exchanged. The measuring tape reached a stunning 70 cm. Off course Catch and Release with this beauty, ...although it is tempting :)
Feeling very satisfied and not seeing that many foraging trout we decided to call it a day.
A new leaf has been turned, seatrout in Holland is a fact and even more a species that can be hunted on fly.

I’ll be back for more.