One of the most memorable days this year, was my first encounter with big stoneflies. We don’t have them in the chalk streams of my region, and so far only once have I seen big stonefly nymphs in a river in South Tyrol. Back then I picked one of the dry nymph shells from a stone and embedded it in resin – it still sits on my desk and I admire it daily, they are incredibly large and beautiful insects.

My buddy Patrick had told me stories of stonefly hatches in the Wutach River where he fishes, up in the Black Forest. I imagined how thrilling it must be to fish this wild river, away from villages and roads, and cast giant dry flies to intensly colored native brown trouts….

preparations

When I received an SMS sometime in May, in which Patrick asked if I wanted to join him for a stonefly session, I did not hesitate a second! In preparation of that little fishing trip, I had quickly tied some stonefly nymphs, but how would I imitate a stonefly on the water? Searching the internet did not help much – most people were fishing foam flies similar to Chernobyl-Ants, which I really don’t like… can’t tell you why, but a dry fly consisting entirely of plastic, does not feel good to me.

I finally came up with something consisting of a big bulk of CDC on a d21 hook, some bucktail and a rooster hackle. It floated well, had a diffuse silhouette and cast well even with a thin tippet on a 4wt rod… I was satisfied with the result.

a richly set table

Arriving at the parking site after a two hours drive, I immediately spotted the first big stonefly. Completely fascinated, I chased it with my camera almost forgetting about the fishing. But it would not remain the only stonefly that day, they were sitting on the stones and gras near the river bank, sometimes in clumps of two or three.

But stoneflies were by far not the only insects that day… there were swarms of cherry spinners and various other mayflies in all sizes and colors. On top there were numerous beetles and tiny mosquitos – the table was richly set for the trouts.

feather bundles and strong browns

Still, they rose very willingly to our XXL-dries and it was a fascinating sight when this huge featherbundle disappeared gurgling in a trouts mouth. I missed several good eats and lost fish in the fast water, because I wasn’t able to keep up line tension. The native Black Forest browns are furious fighters, they change direction quickly and with great force. Even small fish give you a battle that you won’t forget so quickly.

We had already fished a while into the day, and we were wading upstream in a rather straight, fast flowing section of the valley. On the right was a broken tree hanging into the water, producing a little eddy behind it. And in that eddy, some fish was rising, as an occasional small ring betrayed. While I was fishing a little further left, Patrick made a cast upstream into that eddy… only when the fly had drifted almost back to him, it dissappeared FLOP into a wirl… Patrick lifted his rod, expecting another mid-sized brown, and was taken by surprise when suddenly a giant brown trout (50+ cm) broke the surface of the water and sped back towards the tree. I heard Patrick shout and saw him trying to follow the trout, while keeping the line tight, so that the trout wouldn’t tangle the line into the tree… a not so easy task on the slippery granite of the Wutach Valley. And so, only seconds later, the trout came off…. In shock we both stood and mumbled some words of astonishment and frustration… Patrick’s hands were shaking. This would have been the fish of the year! Browns of that size are very rare in this part of the Wutach.

With some time gone by, I realize that this is what probably makes it all so exciting – you can never be sure who will win the game. The fish has its chance, and the truely big fish have become big for a reason. I also lost several fish around 40 centimeters… that day was a true XXL-dry-fly-celebration.

Patrick with a very nice Wutach brown.

But some fish made it to my net, and I was able to take a closer look at the magnificent colors of those Black Forest browns. They weren’t exceptionally big, but they were exceptionally beautiful.

On some spots, I would still stand today trying to trick that trout, that almost drove me into madness… but Patrick pressed me on, and every bend of the river, every riffle had another finned challenge waiting for us… with this much action and challenge, the beautiful landscape and the gorgeous brown trouts, it became a day to remember! We only stopped fishing when it finally became so dark, that we hardly saw where our flies landed…. What a day!