One of the waters we where allowed to fish was the Eschach.
This small stream flowed up in the mountains and was described in the hotels brochure as a very pretty and very difficult water to fish.
We looked at the map and picked out the village of Eisenbach as our starting point .


Eschach

The stream was small indeed, to catch fish there would be challenging.
At the location where we stopped the trees along the river had just been trimmed.
It was too bright for our taste so we drove back and parked near the first bridge we came across.
Tom would fish far upstream from the bridge, Hans would take the middle section and I would go downstream.
It was tricky to find a way to get into the canyon since the walls very steep and covered with deadfalls and large rocks.
When I arrived at the streambed I had a very deep pool behind me and a less deeper one in front of me.


Deep pool.

I fished the deep pool behind me with a gold bead nymph but saw no fish.
When I looked into the pool I figured it was more than 1.5meter deep, amazing since the rest of the stream was so shallow.
Next stop was the pool upstream from me, it was clear that you had to keep a low profile here to have any change of catching fish.
I kneeled down and dropped the fly upstream in the deep pool.



Pool and brown trout.

A trout immediately took the nymph, it was a nice and strong fish.
The skunk was avoided, hopefully this success would continue.
There where plenty of likewise pools ahead but I had no more hook-ups.
Since I did not see fleeing fish I figured that I had not scared all fish away.



Eschach.

I carefully fished all pools and places I thought would house fish and finally arrived at the pool where we had our car parked.
This pool was surely checked by Hans but I knew he was not a fan for lure fishing so that was
something I had to try.
The pool was at least 2m deep with a strong current so it was difficult to get the lure down for a longer period.
When I retrieved the lure next to the big boulders a really big brown came out from underneath the rocks and tried to hit the lure.
I had not expected this so I was a bit startled, unfortunately the trout did not appear for a second run.


Eschach.

I walked upstream to see how Tom was doing.
Tom was already out of the water and stood on a small bridge over the river.
He had also caught one fish out of three, all fish hit the dry fly.
We walked back to the car and waited for Hans to come and tell about his results.
I really got a Alpine feeling while fishing the stream due to the fact that the cows in the meadows above had these bells around their necks.
The rings of the bells where a constant companion while travelling along the stream.



Livestock.

We had enjoyed our morning fishing trip but agreed that this was not a water to fish all day in.
We would do some more exploring of the main river in the afternoon.
I learned a great deal while fishing this little stream.
Next time I will certainly probe the deep pools more thoroughly with a lure after learning that large trout hide below the boulders.