The opening day for trout on the Danube River has never been this cold! For several days already the temperature had been below -10°C and I had feared that the river would be frozen…
After five months since I fished the last time for trout, I had been praying for this day to arrive… I had tied flies, scouted the river banks and checked the water level at least once a day, prepared rods, reels and lines, sorted my bagpack, and long in advance took this day off at work… so I would have been desperatly disappointed had I not been able to go fishing!
When I got into the car that morning, the mercury showed -15°C… usually not the kind of weather to play in the water. Some problems the temperature brought with it were obvious: ice in the rings of the rod every other cast, cold hands and feet… but others I had not thought of: For example that the nymphs and streamers would freeze to the reel when they touched it… or that not only in the rings ice would build up, but on the line itself, and even on the hook! With water temperatures around 0°C, even by submerging in the water the ice would not melt. The surface of my waders were frozen and after a while, the reel was completely deadlocked with ice… but for a little more than 5 hours I endured the cold, enjoying every minute of fishing in my favorite river.
The next day promised to be better: Temperatures climbed during the night, the clouds opened up and even the supersticious would have been confident, it was full moon.
And although usually great confidence can only be betrayed, it paid off after only a few casts! I don’t really remember why I suddenly lifted the rod, but probably my intuition still works even after several months without a trout… I felt a strong resistance and heavy shakes and saw a huge fish flashing. “A chub?” was my first thought, because the head looked big and bulky and the fluke dark… but the second time I saw the fish, it was clear that this was a brown trout! And a really good one too! The fish did not fight extremely hard, but with such a fish on the line this early in the season, I was super nervous! The relief was great when I had it in the net! It measured 57cm, and surely is a great start! Probably the best opening fish ever… perseverance always pays off!