There is one thing that is the highlight of a fly fishing year. It is the late fall with all its colors, the dropping temperatures and the hungry pikes that want to feed up for winter. I like it.

This is actually an old story but I was too busy to tell it earlier. It all starts somewhere in September and reaches its end of October through December. Usually the season should be already over but call it global warming or not, it is far too warm for mid December. Last year the waters east of Austria didn’t even freeze at all. That’s not normal but gives advantages to every fish population. We have now a million of little baitfish that had the best conditions to grow up. Because of almost no snow last winter there weren’t big floods in spring that are usually decimating juvenile fish. It seems that somehow the fish profit from the global warming. Ahhh… don’t take me seriously :)

But that’s the problem this year. With the immense overpopulation of bait fish there is plenty of food available for the pikes. It wasn’t easy to convince them with an artificial fly. It got better with more and more cooling water and dying vegetation that provide shelter. But still it is far behind last years catches. In the end mostly small pikes were caught. The really big fish weren’t there. That’s also the reason why I concentrated more on trout fishing because it was a more rewarding fishery so far.

Nothing can be compared to an Indian summer pike fly fishing action. Although the conditions weren’t the best I had a very nice fishery this fall. And all those small pikes I caught give me hope for excellent years ahead of me. I’m happy!!!

Have fun with the pictures and I hope I’m able to share my passion with you

greets
Philipp