Just back from my annual trip to Southern Germany (also known as Bavaria). This trip can be summarized as way too hot for the month of April. The temperatures (25-28 C or low 80's F) were uncommonly high for this time of the year. But all together great fishing weather! This time I went to Southern Germany with my friend Hans. We were going to stay there for a full week, so for change of scenery sakes we decided to take an outing to the Deutsche Traun as well as the Torrener Ache in Austria.
Although we fished the last week of April, the whole month of April has been just too warm & dry. We usually see this kind of weather in mid June. The past winter was too warm already with hardly any snow, so river ran extremely low. I've seen the river this low during the end of the summer!Don't know if this will stay this way further on this summer? My guess is that the fishing next year will be hurt by the current hot spring. I talked to the manager of another stretch of the Weisse Traun and he was considering closing down the river for a few weeks in May. Closing the river will disappoint quite a few fishermen who wants to fish in May but it's probably the best thing to do. But we'll see how the weather stays during the course of summer and fall.
Surprisingly the fish were still in great condition. I enjoyed some superb fishing using nymphs. My buddy is a dry fly fisherman and with the low water conditions, the fish were almost forced to look up. The upper stretch seems to contain less food than the lower part of the river. The fish, especially the rainbows, caught on the upper stretches were a lot slimmer for their size. The browns were overal in much better health. I even caught a handsome grayling, which is pretty rare for this part of the Weisse Traun.
The fish were pretty spooky because of the low water levels, but this also made sight fishing with nymphs a deadly method. I sometimes caught rainbows feeding in just ankle deep sections. As soon as a feeding fish was located, it was just like hunting: crawling on the knees to get as close as possible without spooking them. More often it was a one cast chance. It's a real kick to see the fish move ever so slightly to the side and detect a take. The more faster sections with deeper water levels, it's the general nymphing with little strike indicators.Deutsche Traun
Our day on the Deutsche Traun was quite different than the other days. This day the sunny blue sky was substituted by an even grey sky. The slight drizzle was a nice welcome to the warm and sunny days.The Deutsche Traun is the result of the Rote Traun joining the Weisse Traun in the town of Siegsdorf. Yet the fishing in the Deutsche Traun near the town of Traunstein is a whole different ball game. The river is slightly larger in size, but it's the fish that really makes fishing a different experience. One can catch some serious big fish. Fish (rainbows, browns or grayling) in the 20-25 inch range isn't uncommon. And boy do these fish kick ass!
I hooked at least a half a dozen fish in the 20 inch range, but most of them got away due to my tippet (4x) snapping or the hook simply bending out. I did manage to land two big fish. One in the 20 inch range which had a unusual high back, just like an American football. The other one was in the 23 inch range. Much slimmer but still very muscular. A bite out of the tail fin showed that these fish aren't wild fish from origin. But the fishing sure is exciting. Once hooked these fish explode and head for the river as if there's no tomorrow!Torrener Ache
Our next outing was the Torrener Ache near the town of Golling in Austria. This little stream runs through a national park and the scenery is simply breathtaking. Under a blue sky the teal colored stream looks just like magic. The cold water and the pebbly bottom seems to contain much fewer nutrients for the insects. The population is mainly brown and brook trout. The small but beautifully spotted browns are so pale they just seem to disappear on the light colored bottom.
The gin clear stream is typical for this part of the world. Talking about water, being somewhat adventurous, I got wet after crossing the stream by jumping from one side of the stream on top of a fallen tree to the shallow bank on the other side.Wearing breathable hippers rather than chest waders, the splash of the landing meant I had to take off my hippers to get them dry. But heck, the scenery was superb and it was hot and windy. Half an hour later I was fishing again. In spite of the small fish, the Torrener Ache has to be seen to believe.
Here are some of the many shots I took during this trip. Enjoy!
Previous trip reports to Bavaria in 2006 and 2005.
