Saturday, May 3, 2014

Fishing the Alps

This past long weekend I had the chance to head to Mittersill Austria. I am going to try to keep this short and to the point and let the pictures do the talking. We got into the valley around 0830



We were able to see a sign of the National Park Hohe Tauern


We stayed at the Hotel Braurup, the service was out of this world, the food was amazing, and the fly shop was top notch, even the views were great


The Hotel had access to something like 90 miles of various streams and rivers, and multiple lakes. It would take you months upon months to fish all of the access they have. Be sure to visit their website at the Hotel Braurup


The first place we hit was the Hintersee and every where we went there was water from every direction



The views from the lake were out of this world



We heard and saw two very large avalanches in the back of the valley


After several colorful Brookies and Grayling we called it a day. Our second day started on the Felberbach. I spent the first part of the day watching and taking in the sites.



After a short bit we decided to head up to the Leni See



We went from there to a neat little restaurant and had a killer lunch and finished the day fishing the Stausee



The last day I got to fish there we passed by the Kimmler Wasserfalle




We headed up to the Finkau See, which no one in our group had ever been to. It did not disappoint. Though the weather was not the best in the world and it snowed a little bit the fishing was lights out. I see now why certain folks love Brook trout. These were the bigger of the fish we caught this trip, and they had some eye popping color and a ton of fight in them. We also found a cool little alpen haus up in the hills. 








We are thinking of heading back down in August and hike the higher mountain lakes. Slovenia is on the radar as well, stay tuned








Monday, March 3, 2014

Open Season

Our season fully opened here in Germany on the 1st, so now pretty much everything is fair game. I took a day off of work today to head down to the river and try to get some fishing in, and I was not disappointed at all. 

I had all of the gear I needed for the day


I got all geared up and went at it. The rivers here are a mix of rivers like back in the states. The Black forest has everything from free stone streams, to rough and clear chalk streams. 





I sure had some slippery hands today, I could not keep the several fish that I caught in the net. I did manage two, because the game warden was around, and hes a great guy, he showed me quiet a few places so when I caught the rainbow and brown I of course had to keep them. The rainbow and brown I kept to eat went about 16 inches each, nothing stellar but good table fare. 

Of course after such a rough day of fishing its good to have a cocktail at one of the local watering holes




Saturday, February 8, 2014

A quick day of fishing in Germany

I finally got done with my provisional license and now have my regular German fishing license. It really was not difficult to get, but it was not easy by any stretch of it. Fishing is vastly different here in Europe, and rules and regulations can change in a matter of feet on stretches of river. There is no such thing as public water in Germany, all water and fishing right are owned by someone, you have to find the person and get permission. Also, nothing is free in Germany, everything is pay to play. Land owners can not ease rules, but they can restrict them even more. We fish the Nagold River in Baden-Wurttemberg, and the land Baron states, all legal sized fish caught shall be killed immediately. The minimum size limit for this time of year is 38 centimters or 14.9 inches. Anything smaller must be released. After the written test you have 2 hours to complete a practical test. You have to catch and kill a fish in that time frame. In about 15 minutes I did that two fold

One of the fish sure had some pretty color to it for a Rainbow


The next fish was a tank, I will let the picture do the talking, both fish passed the 60 cm mark


As you can see by the blood I had to kill both fish the second they came out of the water because of German law, that's just the way it is, but these fish will not go to waste, I have plenty of folks at work that are already asking for them to eat. More to come later.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Back in Europe

We have finally made it back to Europe and are settled in. With the season currently closed here in Germany I have been hard at work trying to get m handicap card so I can play St Andrews, in Scotland. Once the season opens back up, we are making a neat little trip that I will write about later, stay tuned.