The last of the Mayflies

[martin_b]

The Ephemera Danica season is nearing its end here in southern Denmark. For me it has been an amazing three (or so) weeks with lots of fish, and even contact with a couple of the really big ones. I'll get those next year...

My friend Kristian and his buddy Brian came over to catch the last of the hatch a couple of days ago. It was Brian's first dry fly session on a stream; he lives in a place where coastal fishing is pretty much the only option. So he was excited to try for a wild brown trout on a dry fly.

First we went to a very small stream that has provided some excellent fishing for me this season, but not much was happening there. It was very hot and damp and no bugs were hatching. Brian's first cast to a likely looking spot was rewarded with his first brown trout on a dry fly, so his day was soon made.

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/brian.jpg

After a couple of fishless hours we decided to drive to a nearby town to grab some pizza for lunch and wait for the promised change in weather. While eating, it started pouring down, and it kept raining heavily until late evening. We finished our lunch and headed to a different stream I had only heard about. It turned out to hold a lot of nice wild brown trout that would eagerly hit a Danica imitation; a few flies were coming off in the rain, but it was clear that it's almost over for this year.

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/1.jpg

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/2.jpg

Kristian with the first fish from the new stream:

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/3.jpg

Taking a break in the woods:

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/4.jpg

Yours truly:

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/5.jpg

Kristian again:

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/6.jpg

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/7.jpg

My last fish of the day:

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/8.jpg

Safely returned to fight another day...

http://www.holmbangsoe.dk/webimg/smallstreams/lastmayflies/9.jpg

Martin

[ofuros]

Enjoyed your journey martin_b,
You are so lucky to live so close to such beautiful streams....and the
unkind weather didnt dampen your spirits.

ofuros

[flickfly]

Great photos & post martin_b ! Nice meadow stream also

[Satoshi]

Wonderful! ....as usual.

Satoshi

[Apache Trout]

Great report Martin!
Love the spots on the brown in the last photo.
A.T.

[willowgrub]

What beautiful little streams . what is the ownership of the land they run through ? That is what most of the lowcountry spring creeks in my province of Canterbury would look like if somebody cared enough for them . despite all the green advertising we dont look after our little rivers very well in this country

[martin_b]

The ownership of the land is private - as is 80 percent of the land here in Denmark. Most streams here are club water where local clubs lease fishing rights on landowners ' streams. Virtually all streams are leased by a club and you can get fishing rights by either club-membership, day-ticket or, as I often do, by asking the various landowners (ie. farmers) for permission. Where are you from, willowgrub? We have many streams here too, that are not very well looked after.

[willowgrub]

Hi Martin , I live about 90 kms south of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand , in a town called Ashburton . Most of the small lowland streams in New Zealand flow through private land , some do have legal public access following the course of the river , or the course the river had back 60 years ago when a lot of the surveys were undertaken to provide new farmland for the returning WW2 soldiers . Fortunately the culture of NZ farmers is to allow people access if they ask first . Here it is only the Government who “owns “ the fishing , the land owners can only control access . It would be illegal for a fishing club to own rights to any waterway , although I can see the care and protection that provides demonstrated in the photos . We have so many choices of rivers and lakes to fish here , and the populations of trout in many rivers is relatively low ( but big fish ) . I think this has made us too casual about accepting damage to a few streams . Recently the pace of development has meant more rivers are being degraded or threatened , anglers and environmentalists are concerned . Typically the problems are , animals damaging riverbanks , discharge of nutrient rich farm waste and the taking of water for irrigation .
Absolutely nothing unfamiliar in that to most trout anglers world wide .
Having said all that , there is still plenty of average and good trout fishing , the typical fish in most rivers is 1.5 to 2 kg , and with out trying hard I can usually get one or two fish of 3.5 to 4 kg every year . There is a searun trout fishing culture and each year a few people in this town get fish over 5kg . Typically that style of fishing involves hours of casting lures on sinking lines or using spinning tackle . I am hearten to see that there is still some nice fishing in the highly populated areas of Europe . If enough people care things get saved . Regards willowgrub