Water is still high and murky, and not only me, but also my friends have difficulties finding trout. Nature is two weeks delayed this year – the month of march was rich in snow and the nights are still really cold.
But today it was a wonderful sunny morning. Originally I had planned to got to the EWF flyfishing fair, but the weather was just too good, and in the end going fishing is always better than just talking about fishing.
I fished all those spots that seemed promising – deep riffles, overhanging banks and trees that had fallen into the water, but only a couple of small browns showed up. In many of these places I had caught good fish the previous years, but usually further into the season… So I wondered where these trout were and something came into my mind that my friend Rolf recently told me:
Big browns are apparently limited in their lifespan by food availabilty in winter. Their energy requirements rise with increasing size and with every year of their life winter becomes more critical. Sooner or later they will starve when they cannot find enough food to sustain their large bodies.
This fact does not seem very spectacular at first, but it means that a good spot for fishing in spring is not just the one with the best shelter. Spots that are productive in summer can be empty of fish in winter and spring – simply because there isn’t any food at this time of the year.
Thinking about this I focussed on spots that are relatively open and get a lot of sun in winter and spring an therefore have more water vegetation – and hopefully just a little bit more water insects and the like (=trout food).
And at least today, this concept seemed to work out! I caught a wonderful brown trout in perfect condition, measuring exactly 50cm, a really good fish!