A while ago I had heard good things about this part of the Danube, but I hadn’t fished here before. I intended to mainly practice for my trip to Sweden in summer, so I took my 8wt rod and reel, some streamers and heavy nymphs.
This stretch of the Danube begins at the mouth of the Iller, a river that brings cold and clear water to the Danube… accordingly, the water of the Danube benefits greatly from this tributary. The ground is clean gravel from the Alps, and you can see barbels and graylings standing in the open water.
The water is relatively strong at 70 cubic meters per second, and although water is shallow here and there, wading is exhausting under these circumstances. My waders got filled twice as the current pushed me into a deep channel… shit happens I suppose… especially if you are not familiar with a stretch of water.
A first rainbow took the streamer close to the bank, and it showed me immediately what the difference between a river and a small stream is: the fish was incredibly strong, although it finally measured only 44cm, it left me thinking, what a Swedish Seatrout or a Salmon might be able to do…. Really looking forward to SWEDEN!!!! I caught many more rainbowns and a few chubs. Chubs are especially frequent in the lower half of this stretch of water, as the cooling effect of the tributary Iller disappears slowly.
My personal highlight was a nice barbel which measured 62cm. I usually fish waters that do not hold many barbels, and so I have only caught small ones so far. This one was already a nice fish, although there were barbels much bigger that this….
So here are more pictures:
