Harz trip day 2 – June 23nd.
On our first full day we dubbed about where to go fishing.
Our driver had never been to this river before and had not much experience in river fishing.
The day before he had blanked and on two occasions he almost went for a swim due to
the geography of the riverbed.
We decided to fish one of the more easier stretches in the village of Treseburg, that
that stretch was dubbed the “senior citizen stretch” due to the easy wading and fishing conditions there.
The easy stretch.
A sunken road provided access to the hotels on the other bank and made for an easy entry into the river.
The riverbed was broad and the bottom was more or less flat, cover for the fish was provided
by weed and some bigger stones.
Upon arrival fish where rising so catching fish where available.
Even up here in the mountains the cormorants had been visiting the river in winter time
in great numbers so I was curious how much the damage would be.
Sometimes delivery trucks drove trough the river.
The PT nymph also worked at this slow flowing stretch although fish where actively pursing the light coloured mayflies that where dancing over the water.
The trout would jump clear out of the water to get the mayflies.
I tried fishing a mayfly which resembled the natural in size and colour but I just could not
get the fish interested.
At least my nymphing skills yielded some more of these pretty little browns for me.
Brown trout.
Selecting the easy stretch was a good choice, nr.3 of the party finally caught his first
fish so his confidence was rising.
We had arranged to meet other members of our club in the afternoon for dinner in the
valley.
After dinner we would then fish one of our “secret” spots we had discovered on previous
trips.
The “secret” spot.
After dinner it was off to the secret spot to see if there would be an evening rise.
I was quickest with changing into the waders so I raced off to a location I had fished
successfully last year.
Fish where rising now and then but not in such a manner that I would tie on a dry.
I have to confess I have a preference for nymphing since that method yields the most
fish for me on the river back home.
Still fishing the dry is one of the most exciting methods to catch a fish,
Due to the stronger flow I decided to use a brown goldbead caddis nymph I had tied during
the last meeting of our flyfishing club.
The place met up to its reputation as I soon battled my first larger brown trout.
Going up in size.
I was doing great with the nymph, it seemed the brown caddis pattern was liked very much
by the trout.
Since a commercial trout hatchery was nearby I had hoped to run in to one of the escaped
rainbows but they did not show up.
Instead I continued to catch browns.
Brown trout.
After sunset I fished downstream from the hatchery and finally ended up fishing
a deep pool where the river winded around a steep cliff.
Fish where feeding in the surface at the opposite bank.
Downstream of the hatchery.
Once again the trout won since all my offerings from the dry fly box where ignored.
Back home most browns would fall for a properly drifted Klinkhamer but these fish
where very selective.
The naturals where picked up in flight while my drifted fly was completely ignored.
It was clear I was not properly prepared to fish dries in this environment where so many different insects where hatching and flying around.
The river and fish showed me I still had a lot to learn.
Germany - Harz trip day 2 june 23rd
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