Back from my trip to the German Traun. The trip turned out to be different than anticipated. Both my buddies (Rolf & Andreas) couldn't make it, due to various reasons. Well, that's a bummer in terms of nice company and catching up with some good fishing, good laughs, fine food treatings and plain enjoying the nice surroundings. Weather was just as expected: sunny and HOT!
The river was in fine shape: clear and low. Chest waders were definitely too hot for this condition. Good thing I also brought my breathable hippers. I also decided to try something different this time. Usually I fish with weighted nymphs. This trip I have been using a hopper-dropper combination all four days, just like on my trip to
Montana in 2005.
The hopper is the
Alien Bug and the dropper is a sparsely tied bead head Prince. The many riffles, under overhanging branches as well as the edges around the undercut banks were just the spots to cast this duo. Yet, it's still amazing how a fish of around 16-18 inches still manages to keep unnoticed in a spot with barely 10 inches of water. This
fellow hit the Prince nymph the moment I tossed it into a slightly deeper (we are talking about 10-12 inches of water here) channel of a fast riffle I walked by. Before I knew it he made a nasty run and came tail walking out of the water. Nice...
The predominantly browns just loved this enticing offering! Just seeing the hopper dive under made it even more exciting than the usual strike indicator jumping upstream. On several stretches the rig proved to be deadly. I wished my buddies were able to experience the superb fishing I had these couple of days. It's also interesting to see that some browns only had dark spots while others also had wonderful red spots. Looks like there are two (or maybe more) different strains of browns in the river.
Every once in a while a brave fish would grab the hopper. Most of them were missed simply because the hopper being just too big for them. I even caught several nice graylings, including a fat 18 inch fish. It's a darn nice sight to see a grayling come up and follow the offerings and eventually grabbing the nymph. Not to mention that these big graylings are tough fighters.
The
fine Italian food of the local ristorante was nothing short of amazing after an enticing day of fishing.
I'll end with some various pictures of the trip. The wonderful painting was found at the hostel lobby where I was staying. While I tried to grab this view of a typical village at the valley of the fore Alp region of Southern Germany this nun greeted me on her bicycle! You can see her riding away. Would you think that was Maria?...
The previous edition of No Comment is here.
I just ran into a bunch of new spare spools for the Hardy Flyweight and one for the Featherweight. The Hardy Lightweight reel series have been around for more than 50 years. I prefer the Orvis CFO reels as my lightweight reels but some prefer the Hardy reels. I've owned a nice Featherweight reel once. Not sure what ever happened to it. I think I sold it to a member of our fly fishing club.
Ever wanted to make your own font but you don't have the skills to design them?
Back from my trip to the German Traun. The trip turned out to be different than anticipated. Both my buddies (Rolf & Andreas) couldn't make it, due to various reasons. Well, that's a bummer in terms of nice company and catching up with some good fishing, good laughs, fine food treatings and plain enjoying the nice surroundings. Weather was just as expected: sunny and HOT!
The river was in fine shape: clear and low. Chest waders were definitely too hot for this condition. Good thing I also brought my breathable hippers. I also decided to try something different this time. Usually I fish with weighted nymphs. This trip I have been using a hopper-dropper combination all four days, just like on my trip to Montana in 2005.
The predominantly browns just loved this enticing offering! Just seeing the hopper dive under made it even more exciting than the usual strike indicator jumping upstream. On several stretches the rig proved to be deadly. I wished my buddies were able to experience the superb fishing I had these couple of days. It's also interesting to see that some browns only had dark spots while others also had wonderful red spots. Looks like there are two (or maybe more) different strains of browns in the river.
Every once in a while a brave fish would grab the hopper. Most of them were missed simply because the hopper being just too big for them. I even caught several nice graylings, including a fat 18 inch fish. It's a darn nice sight to see a grayling come up and follow the offerings and eventually grabbing the nymph. Not to mention that these big graylings are tough fighters.
