In August I got slowly but completely sucked into fly fishing. What was supposed to be an occasional holiday hobby started to turn into something I had to do also regularly in Belgium, so I spent hours and hours trying to figure out where can one fly fish closer to home (and in general I was using YouTube 90% of the time to learn about fly fishing techniques). In the meantime my brother stopped by for a day (we could not go flying as the plane I booked had a technical issue, so we went for brunch, bubble tea, and acted like tourists in Leuven), and I also took more of my friends (Hao and Jade) flying. The weather was finally great, life was good. I got some cheap waders from the Decathlon (and more and more gear), I went back to the Schulensmeer with Willem (caught some small fish), then I went to discover a not too distant smaller river (Mehaigne) making my way across the language border for the first time (to fish), but the real turning point came when we went away for a weekend to Stavelot with Clio. This was the first time I was properly fly fishing, wearing waders, standing in a larger river with clear water, surrounded by the forest, and I was enjoying it very much, even before I caught the first fish. And what a beautiful 30 cm brown trout that first fish was! I never knew that there was such beautiful fish in these rivers. An hour later I caught another one (slightly bigger, but less colourful) using the same dry dropper fly (a dry fly with a nymph under it). At that moment I knew that I will have to do this more often. And by the way the weekend was very good outside of the fishing too, we stayed at a nice hotel with great food, had a small hike, etc. But I knew I would come back to this river. The next week I was out cycling when I decided to have a look at one of the nearby tiny rivers (the Ijse), as I saw on the Flemish fishing map that there was supposedly even trout in its waters. I was very sceptical, but as I stopped on the first small bridge where my route crossed the river and looked down, I immediately spotted a fish. I got curious, so I left the asphalt roads and slowly made my way along a couple of kilometers long section of the river (following a shared walking/cycling gravel path), and to my biggest surprise I have seen an abundance of fish and a seemingly unexpectedly healthy-looking ecosystem. Three days later I went back with Clio, and managed to catch two smaller (20 cm) chub on the dry fly. While the fish seemed unbothered by my biking along the river just a few days earlier, this time it was very difficult to get close to them. This tiny river was definitely proving to be an exciting and interesting challenge. A day later I finally managed to do my German airport-hopping day-trip with the plane, landing at 4 different airports (3 in Germany, of which 2 were new for me). I made 4 videos out of this day, which were published over the winter months: Charleroi (EBCI) to Trier-Foehren (EDRT), Trier-Foehren (EDRT) to Koblenz-Winningen (EDRK), Koblenz-Winningen (EDRK) to Aachen-Merzbrueck (EDKA), and Aachen-Merzbrueck (EDKA) to Charleroi (EBCI). At the end of the month we flew to Bologna (arches everywhere, the two towers, good pizza and pasta), then we made it to a villa near Fano to celebrate the wedding of Nora and Cole (a.k.a. my cycling padawans from COVID, who also came to Girona with us in 2022). It (the weather) was very very hot, but similarly nice. Unfortunately on the second day of the wedding I started feeling sick, so I did not get to enjoy the last day in Bologna afterwards.

September had me feeling sick and out of energy for a good week, but that did not stop me from getting more fishing gear. Back before the Norway trip I initially got two 5-weight rods (an 8’6″ #5 Orvis Encounter and a 9′ #5 Orvis Clearwater – two because I did not want to go to Norway without a backup, but with my current knowledge I would definitely spend my money on something else instead of the Encounter kit, but then again, this was not supposed to be such a serious hobby back then…). Now I got a lighter and smaller 7’6″ #3 rod (Vision Onki) which was better suited for the Ijse. As I laid my eyes (and my hands) on my first machined aluminium reel (Vision XLV) I also started to appreciate quality fly fishing gear more, and just like it was in cycling (or with the bass guitars), I began to understand why “better” things can cost so much more money. Nevertheless, I was equally happy catching trout in Norway with the plastic reel on the Encounter kit, as I was when catching the first “Flemish brown trout” in the Ijse (just a 15 cm one, but felt like a big success) with the machined aluminium reel. As soon as I fully recovered from the virus I went back to the Amblève (this time more upstream of Stavelot), and managed to catch my first rainbow trout (a ~35 cm one, with a nymph, kind of Euro nymphing, but not yet with an optimal setup). I had some really difficult fishing here, catching only this single fish over two days, trying to experiment with techniques, and realising in the process that what seemed easy in theory was actually a pretty difficult learning curve. YouTube videos are useful, but they cannot replace the actual experience of spending time in the water. Still, even with only one fish over two days, I enjoyed being in nature and continuously learning new things in a new environment. I was so busy fishing (or thinking about fishing) this month, that I only went cycling one time… I also went flying once (which is a much more normal amount than in the case of cycling): I made a day-trip to the Aviodrome Aviation Museum that is situated just next to Lelystad Airport. The flying was good (the video is yet to be made), and the museum was much nicer than expected (and not only because I finally made it to a Boeing 747). I went back to the Ijse multiple times and caught a lot of chub and (a bit less but still numerous) trout with a lightweight Euro nymphing setup (using a long microleader), and learned a lot in the process. Euro nymphing is typically done with long (10’+) rods, but in the close quarters of the Ijse a short rod worked very well in the “deep” pools or the occasional faster broken water (I was basically using the top 3/4 or a normal Euro nymphing rod, so the feel and the rod’s reaction was very similar – as I was about to learn that). Oh, an even though I though fishing vests were stupid, I also got one of those and I have to admit they are practical…

October started as eventful as September finished. First of all motivated by my overwhelmingly positive experience with Euro nymphing, I also got a nymphing rod, and a matching reel: a Vision Nymph Hero 10′ #3 rod and a Vision XLV Nymph & Dry reel. My setup is the following: WF3F Nymphmaniac fly line on 20lb Bäkkäri backing (although the chance that any of this actually reaches the rod while Euro nymphing is practically zero), microleader with 3X Vision Nymphmaniac Hi-Viz tippet (~2 rod length) + 4X Two Tone tippet (~3′ split in two with a blood know with short tags left for visibility) + 2 mm tippet ring + 6X/7X fluorocarbon tippet (depending on conditions/fish/nymphs). I have only fished this setup in the rest of 2024. On the first Friday I went to test this setup in action on the Lesse in a fly-fishing only area near Villers-sur-Lesse, and I caught (and released as always) 3 big brown trout (35-40 cm, which is still big for me) and a big chub (~45 cm, my largest fish so far). I also lost a few fish, so there was plenty of action. Towards the end of the day I spotted rising fish so I quickly switched to a dry fly setup (by removing the microleader and putting on a normal tapered leader), and while for dries this was definitely not an optimal rod, I still managed to hook a fish literally on first cast, but it got away just before I could net it. Still, it was a great day on the river. The next day I flew to Sint-Truiden with Clio where we had lunch at the restaurant of the Droneport (the airport). On the way back we flew over the course of the UCI Gravel World Championships where the women were racing that day. Then on Sunday we went to check out the men’s race (with Willem in it). As 5 years have passed since I did my initial medical exam for flying, I had to go again (I am still good), it is a bit shocking that it was already such a long time ago… I went to fish the Ijse three more times during the month, and especially the first two times I caught a ton of fish (in the first afternoon 13 chub + 4 trout, and the second day 24 chub + 2 trout + 1 roach, with chub up to almost 40 cm in length). With the trout season closed I was trying to fish the places where I expected less trout. However on the third and last outing (which resulted in barely any fish) I caught a nearly 40 cm trout, which was almost shocking; I never expected trout this size in such a tiny river. It was one of the biggest trout I have caught until then. It was also very pretty. Anyway, with the spawning season getting close, and the activity getting significantly less with the dropping temperatures, I decided it was time to let the river rest. (Legally speaking after September you are not allowed to target trout, but in Flanders fishing, and especially fly fishing stays legal for other spices in all waters, plus the Ijse is strictly catch and release all year round – which is very good -, so in practice, one could still fish.) We also tried some new foodie places in Leuven (Japanese pancakes, bao buns). At the end of the month I started tying flies myself! This of course this also meant that I had to research and buy all the tools and materials that I actually needed.

At the beginning of November (well, we actually left on the 31st of October, but I will allow it) we spent a very long weekend (3 nights) in a holiday house just a few minutes of driving away from the earlier already visited fishing spot near Villers-sur-Lesse. It was a very nice accommodation with a lot of light and space in the living room/kitchen, a big terrace (with a slightly chunky cat), and a fireplace, so we could make it nice and cosy in the evenings. I spent the first full day fishing (going back to the house for lunch), which resulted in catching my first grayling – although it was tiny (~15 cm), but it was a grayling nevertheless. And it was with a fly that I tied! I also caught two bigger trout, but they were not the target species. The next day we went for a very nice hike along the Semois (and of course we spotted more fish there too). Finally on Sunday I did some more fishing in the morning (one bigger trout and another nearly 45 cm chub, no grayling unfortunately), then we went on a small walk to get some hot chocolate and a crumble cake before driving home. It was a very relaxing weekend, I want more of these in 2025. Right afterwards I went to the Smart City Expo in Barcelona with work for three days, which was actually a nice team-building experience. On the 15th I went back to the Lesse once more to try to catch a bigger grayling, but for the first time in a long time, I did not manage to net anything. I actually saw three fish, had two hooked, but probably got cocky during the fight (or I was simply too busy trying to start the GoPro recoding instead of paying attention to my line tension) and lost both fish. I learned my lesson. The next day I had another marginal VFR flight where I had to change my originally planned route due to low clouds, but I still managed to have a look at both the Semois and the Lesse from above this time, which was a nice combination of flying and fishing. As I did not want to end the fishing season with an unsuccessful session, the following day I went back once more to the Ijse to see how the river is doing, but it did not take a dozen casts to catch another ~35 cm trout (which was of course cool, but as I said, it was not trout season anymore), so I did not stay very long. I only managed to find one chub and roach along other places of the river, but it was getting pretty cold these days. The first snow fell (and melted almost immediately), I went to a fly fishing expo (which unfortunately had a lot of other people too, I don’t know what else I expected :D), we made a longer walk along the Dijle (until the road went underwater) and across the forest, and Liverpool defeated both Manchester City and Real Madrid, leading both the Premier league and the league phase of the Champions League into the new year (and beyond). Arne Slot turned out to be an unexpectedly great successor to Klopp.

In December things really slowed down. I spent some evenings tying flies, I started riding the indoor trainer (Zwift) a couple of times per week again (barely making it to 5000 km for the year, which meant that this became my second “worst” season on the road bike since I started in 2010, but honestly I did not really mind), and we visited the Christmas Market as usual to get kürtőskalács (Hungarian chimney cake) for Clio. I flew to Namur to do some touch and goes (for a first time in ages) as the last flight of the year, then we went back to Louvain d’Anvers for a pre-Christmas dinner before ending the year with some relaxing days at home. We went for walks (with usually a coffee and a cake somewhere), I tied flies (now also dry flies), played the bass, and even went for a ride outside (making it a Festive 50.0 this year instead of a Festive 500). On the 30th I went for the one and only fishing session (of maybe two hours) of the month which resulted in one single fish from the Ijse, but given the temperature that was already more than what I expected. I will be back in March. Fingers crossed 2025 will not be so wat as 2024 was.

I normally end these posts with some numbers, but (even though I mentioned some number above already) I think I got better in not caring so much about the numbers (or achievements), and I can be more happy about just doing something and enjoying the moment. A holiday is not defined by how many nice pictures I can make or how many sights we can squeeze into a day, a bike ride is not just a distance and elevation gain value added to the yearly totals, a flight does not need to be about how many new things (procedures/airports/etc.) I can present in the next video, playing the bass is not about how many hours I managed to practice this year, and fishing is not about the number of fish caught. Sure here and there numbers might make things more interesting, but in the grand scheme of things, they are not important. So no yearly totals for the first time this year, except for saying that it was a totally nice year, and I hope the same for 2025. Thanks for reading!