I was invited by a group of Austrian fly-fishermen to make a small workshop at their club water Große Mühl close to Aigen. They would like to see current Czech style of nymphing and other fly-fishing techniques and also a little talk about the management of the water. Bernd, my host, asked me to show different fly – fishing techniques, and he also took me to different places in this beautiful piece of water to show how to fish under different conditions, in ripples, pools etc.

Manuel and Nicholas, another two Bernd´s friends attending the workshop, were waiting for us at the river. We started with a short lecture and presentation of suitable equipment, construction of leaders and selection of flies, for this size of river I recommended a 3-size rod of 9 feet. I chose my Sage SLT, the Bentley between rod limousines I also presented fishing and luckily I caught few fish In the early morning, the fish were not too active, but a little movement with nymphs was the right trigger for takes.  It gradually improved, and we caught a lot of fish. Manu tried also my rod to see effect of well balanced equipment. He is about to buy a new rod

Morning session ran away quickly and we moved for a local beer and starter to the famous Mackerel Grill grill, and next for schnitzel, of course. After the great lunch I could not move, but the fishing had been so good, so we got up from tables and moved to the upper part of the fishery. Under a bridge on the confluence of the channel from power plant and another small inflow, I had opportunity to present devastating effect of the of well balanced equipment and team of two 18-size nymphs I noticed the significant improvement in the fishing of all the three guys, small changes in construction of leaders, technique and also in reading of water and made big difference !!! And practice, practice, practice!!! And move, move and move

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Nik and Manu had to leave at about 5 pm, and Bernd next took me to the uppermost part of the fishery, to the big pool above a weir. I have to say that the last hour of fishing was simply amassing, trout started to rise and used team of wet flies and it was simply devastating. Oh.

I would like to pay a little attention to the management. Bernd told me, that they cooperate with BOKU Viena and a Norwey univeristy, and they got simply advice: not to stock anything, only protect wild fish and let them naturally reproduce, and in suitable places improve habitats for fish by putting of structures, e.g. big boulders and death wood. AND IT DEFINITELY WORKS!!!  I caught several tens of brown trout in the size from of 10 cm till 35 cm, all in great condition. BEST MANAGEMENT’, NO MANAGEMENT!!!

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I hope that guys enjoyed the day at least like me and I´m looking forward to the next visit when we will more concentrate also on the local grayling. And in September, we will make another small workshop.