The end of our trout season is near, the nights are cold already and the trees are wearing their coloful autumn clothes. Only few days remain, in which I can fish for my beloved browns…
One spot especially, I had planned to fish again this year. Some weeks ago, my brother had hooked here into an underwater tree, which suddenly began to move, and after only a few seconds this story ended abruptly with a broken line. What had happened? My brother was left shaking, not knowing what this had been.
I was with him that day, but everything went so fast, I was not able to tell if this had been a fish, let alone what kind or size… but something told me, I had to try this spot again and so I did yesterday evening. The weather had been sunny all day, it was still relatively warm and the last rays of sunlight were touching the treetops.
But for almost an hour, nothing happened… I tried all kinds of nymphs and streamers, but not even the tiniest fish showed up. Was this a good or a bad sign, I asked myself. I was playing with the thought that a large predator might have decimated the small fish in this pool…. but this did not really help me in any way.
I changed my position and cast into a deep riffle from a different angle than before, hoping to get down deeper. And suddenly a bright flash in the deep betrayed a large fish. I cast again, and suddenly felt THE TREE. And it moved! And it pulled line from my reel like I have seldom seen!
Of course instantly my heart was beating heavyly! This was the moment I had hoped for! But I had not yet seen the fish, and I was very excited to see what it was… was it a trout at all, or a pike maybe? It pulled heavy into the current, I had to apply quite some pressure to keep it from the rocks and some tree branches in the water. But it all went well, I again praised my large net, and so I was finally able to measure 58cm on this fish! One of the biggest of this season, and a perfect fish to end it! It cannot get much better!