Indian Summer

Yes finally! Unexpected yet so a very welcome surprise. Mid september the weather started to warm up again and the sun was shining as it were mid summer. So I took a few days off and headed to Austria. My buddy Rolf missed out this trip again and he's regretting ever still.

I went for a 3 days trip to the lower Austrian alps to fish the Mur as well as an old friend in Southern Germany. The Mur is a pretty intimidating river at first. It can be swift and steep for many miles on end to widen and slow down in pace.

The days prior to my arrival the warming started with a 5 inch snowfall in Austria. The melting of the snow made the river slightly higher as well darken the water. The day I fished the Mur the water was just clearing up, yet not as clear as the days after.

I decided to try the mid section of the Mur (8 km total length), which also happens to be the swiftest part. The sun was high and hot. The fish didn't seem to mind. The fish weren't big but they were eager to take the offerings. The way to fish this kind of swift waters is to search the slower edges.

This 3 days of warm inidan summer fishing was a very welcome break from a mediocre summer season.

I made a short video of the trip. This almost never materialized because I seem to have left an essential part of my tripod at home (the removable tripod head) as well my almost ancient digital camera taking a dunk on the first day. It has been wet before but this time it didn't survive the dive.

Thanks to my little GorillaPod I still managed to capture some nice steady video shots.






A note on my (more than 30 years old!) Orvis Tippet:
I fished my Orvis Tippet on the 3rd day. My trusty Orvis Tippet got a new grip (yes, that amazing Superfine grip!) at Orvis headquarters in Manchester Vermont early this summer. They did a great job at Orvis. I got a dozen locally baked doughnuts delivered at the Orvis rodshop as thanks. Orvis just checked my posting as you can see in the screen shot.