This summer is a little different than others. Many things didn’t go as planned: I had so much to do at work that I often felt too tired to go fishing in the evening (and this means something!). Then, while playing soccer, I hurt my ankle and had to hop around on crutches for three weeks, and most recently I caught a fever and was hardly able to move out of the bed or from the sofa. Well… it sometimes happens, people say.
A highlight surely was a short fishing trip to the Black Forest with my brother. Unfortunately a strong change of weather was predicted for this day, but in the end, it wasn’t as bad. The wind was strong, but the sun sometimes showed between the clouds, and we had excellent fishing. In fact, the trout took almost anything we threw at them, at least the small-midsized ones (mostly 20-30 centimeters, which is around 7-12 inches). I fished dryflies mostly, and caught several dozen fish during the day.
Some really big fish demonstrated us impressively, how they had managed to get this big: They either were super cautious, inspecting the fly so long until it dragged. Or they fought clever and hard, and used underwater branches and rocks to get rid of the hook.
In all, the day was a blast, with dozens of beautifully colored Black Forest trout, a wonderful landscape and a nice little stream with super clear water. Fly fishing can’t be better than that!
Here are a few pictures:
But my homewater, I didn’t fish much. If I did find some time after work or on the weekends, the fishing was a unpredictable as the weather. There were always some big fish, but the frequency was very variable. Sometimes there was almost a fish a minute, and then other times only a fish an hour. In the evenings, when I sometimes just walked along the water without a fishing rod, I saw good graylings rising to small caddis flies. Maybe it would be worth a try…
