Fly Fishing Fabisch, the Weekly Picture Archive 2 - 2016

The good news is that Lake Hintersee can take a lot of bad weather without getting unfishable. Just as fast as bad weather may come, the sun will eventually be back. Over 25 years ago I held a week long flyfishing clinic in the area. Lake Hintersee is perfect for beginners in our sport. After two days of practicing on the lake we took on the regional rivers: Königsseer Ache, Berchtesgadener Ache, and Schellenberger Ache. The lake as well as the rivers still hold trophy trout that might surprise you when you least expect it.

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Not the Best Weather (But We´ve Seen Worse)

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If you drive by and the weather is looking good, you just might think of putting in day of fishing. In the right season you might find very good salmon fishing. All year long, however, you might get hooked on trophy size rainbow trout. Your best chance are the salmon runs, as the rainbows will follow the salmon upstream from Fraser Lake. Where the Stellako runs out of François Lake there is a lodge run by a Swiss gentleman where you may obtain your classified water license, mandatory on the Stellako.

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Flowing out of Lake François: the Stellako River

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This photograph was taken rather early in the year, when we were on our way from Egg to Switzerland. I had spent the night in my friend´s cabin right next to the Bregenzer Ache. It had been raining all night and fishing the Ache would have been pointless. Luckily, we had made other plans for the day, but I couldn´t resist shooting this scenery from uphill. It bore the fog of a rainy night, yet promised a pretty day to come.

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What´s the New Day Going to Be Like?

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This specimen comes from the lower Wiesent, a beat leased by the Roundtable of Franconian Flyfishers. From what I have experienced there seems to be a pattern that every third year has a relatively weak emergence of Ephemera Danica. On the Wiesent, however, even a weak year is a wonderful sight to see. The Pegnitz, on the contrary, seems to be having a real weak emergence this year. During flyfishing clinics in April and May I had difficulties finding enough nymphs and catching them with a sieve to show them to my students.

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A Timeless Beauty

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The first visits to the Quick Bridge have always been spectacular. At times you could spot up to 20 steelhead from the bridge, and usually a quite a few of them fell for our dries or nymphs. After 2006 seeing seven or eight fish seemed a good situation, later the situation worsened still more. In due course, we caught less fish. 2015 seemed considerably better. Well, flights and RVs for 2016 are booked, and we´ll see what kind of surprises the Quick Bridge holds in store for us this year.

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Always Worth a Visit, the Quick Bridge

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You all know how it goes, once you get into talking, time flies. Actually I had planned to find a motive for my weekly picture and by chance we spoke about Lake Hintersee. It holds a fishery managed by the Hotel Bräurup and is within a 15 minutes drive from the hotel (though it has the same name, it is not identical with Lake Hintersee near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria). We drove over and found two flyfishers casting for occasional rises. This lake, not affected by floods even in heavy rainfalls, is a real alternative to the alpine rivers in the area.

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Snugly Tucked in Between the Mountains - Lake Hintersee

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If you approach this river without a (pontoon-) boat, you will find few places allowing access, and they´re hard to find. The Morice is quite long. I have walked many a kilometer along its shores without finding a place allowing me direct access to the river. The banks are quite steep, even immediately next to the bank, your chest waders turn out to be too short. Nevertheless it is a fantastic river embedded in gorgeous scenery.

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Fly fisher, hard to find

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The valley I meant to explore had so far been altogether unknown to myself. That is why I chose the wrong way for my first approach. Unfortunately, even a very limited kit for prospecting is a good deal heavier than the tools of a flyfisher, so I was pretty happy to find an alternative route before ending up on a remote alpine pasture. On this alternative route I passed by this building in its idyllic surroundings. My first thought was: this place should be a sanitarium for stressed fly fishers!

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Idyllic Setting by a Brook

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The little valley ends in a small pool feeding a waterfall dropping about 10 m. All along, I haven´t been able to find any spot allowing access to the gorge from above without the help of a rope. Access from below by climbing up is equally impossible, I´d refuse to even think of it. Should you fall in, and manage to survive, your cellphone won´t be of any help either, even if it, too, survived the fall. Even above the gorge, you hardly reach any net at all. I admit having a tendency to test my limits. In this remote area, however, I prefer to be careful instead of taking excessive risk.

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There´s No Way of Getting out of Here without Help

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Just about in the middle of Terrace the Skeena flows around an island by the name of Ferry Island. This island is not too small; after all it is big enough to hold a campground with 100 lots. The photograph has been taken on the south side of the island and shows the old bridge from Highway #16 to the Center of Terrace. This very south side of the island is always worth a try with a flyrod. A friend of mine caught a steelhead of 1.04 meters on a nymph a few years ago. Another point to consider: so far, fishing there does not require a classified water license, and you also may fish on weekends without hiring a guide!

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The Old Road Bridge in Terrace

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