Exclusive, overran and ugly

Last week I tried out fishing a complete new location. A branch of a river that is know to its healthy population of northern pikes. I heard from this water already a few months ago but never had time to find try it it out. It is an exclusive piece of nature. Even you have to register to a queue when fishing a single day. Its name… Stempfelbach I was really excited whether it was worth the effort. Read More

Y14 Rügen Pike Adventure, Chapter 1

Day 1

The sun rises over the endless reed beds that are softly blowing in the slight morning breeze. The water is calm and crystal clear. Some small baitfish are swimming around your feed when you wade slowly through the water. Everything seems to be peaceful. But appearance are deceptive……. There is something in the water with bad intention. This is the moment when you focus your attention to just on one thing. Strip line off your reel, lift the rod and cast the your fly. All your senses told you where to cast, you can feel it. You start stripping, 1, 2, 3, 4, a jerk in your line…. and you know this morning becomes a great Read More

Y14 Rügen Pike Fly Adventure

As every year it draws my fellows and me to the north for some for some Baltic pike fly fishing on the archipelago Rügen. Let’s call it a relaxed men’s retreat wade fishing for plenty of toothy critters. The last two years were a hell of a fun with a partially unbelievable good fishery. With the cooling water temperature the big pikes migrate from the open Baltic sea into the archipelago. They can now be found in the deeper water areas and wholes. The journey begins…… now.. Read More

19-10-2014

Sunday, again out for fishing on our recently discovered lake. This time together with my mate Mario. Although he is more addicted to spin fishing we tried our luck with the fly rod. The fly fishing on that lake has its up and downs. Recently more downs but the hope never dies. Read More

12-10-2014

So far I didn’t had luck with the big ladies this season. Now in spring the chance is high to draw them out. They need to feed as much as possible for the upcoming winter and more important for us fishing guys is that the all present water vegetation is dying and opens up area that couldn’t be fished during the year. Now see what happened. Read More

The Devil Flies

Here’s something you might every pike fly fisherman should have in his fly box at all times. Synthetics are in some situations unbeatable and especially big ones offer a great shape under the water and also create lot of pressure under the water that can be recognized by the pikes lateral organ even in the murkiest water conditions. And never forget the visual imprint! Read More

29-09-2014

Last Sunday, beautiful weather and I went out for fly fishing. Since a the last 2-3 weeks the weather calmed down and the sun came out. This will be my day. The idea was to fish the whole day from sunrise to sunset. And with the nice weather hopefully the pikes will be in good mood. Read More

Pike fly fishing tackle #The rod

What is the perfect fly rod for pike fly fishing? Do you thing there is an all satisfying answer on this? Asking this question to 10 different people you can be sure to get some different answers. 8 out of 10 will recommend a 9 weight rod and the rest tend to recommend maybe even a 10 weight. I rarely came across somebody who recommended differently. I love 8 weight rods that fullfill 98% of my pike fly fishery. Read More

31-08-2014

Once more I tried my luck, very early in the morning. The water, a real jewel in the middle of a metropolitan city. It offers so much to me. Recreation, Regeneration, and fun. And it holds the biggest pikes you can imagine. Pikes above the 45-50 Inch class. Every year many of those big giant pikes are caught. Read More

23-08-2014

It’s the early bird that catches the worm!

In this sense, Philipp and me went out, last Saturday, for some pike fishing in the hope that with the rising autumn the bigger pikes get hungry, leaving behind the pikes kindergarten. With the first sunbeams we were on the water. The water and the atmosphere looked so promising. But did left the pike babies behind us? Read More

Pikes of a lifetime

Today I want to tell you about big pikes, really big pikes. Since I began fly fishing for pikes I was dreaming about the big ones. The internet is full of happy fisherman with big fish smiling in the camera. All this motivates the ones sitting behind the screens. The tales from the old generation fisherman about descent pikes been fished centuries ago doesn’t make it better. Wouldn’t they have killed all them in the past there would not be only dreaming but also a serious fishing for them. Read More

Metropolitan pikes

Last year I got a recommendation for a new fishing water. A water in the middle of a metropolis, Vienna. The city I’m living. It sounded like a fairy tale. No long rides to the water, no high expenses driving around for hours, no wasted time that could be better used with a fly in the water. But is this water really that excellent as many people say? Yes i heard from many people about that water. So I gave it a try …. see what happened during Season 2013 …. Read More

Hucho Hucho

Recently Stefan, a good friend of mine and also one of my pike on the fly fellows had a fish of his lifetime at the other end of the line. As my addiction are the pikes, his is the Huchen or Danube salmon (Hucho Hucho). He had already some of this bigger trouts last year but all from the smaller category. So a decent fish was still missing.
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Spare time pikes

When the season is about to finish every minute on the water counts. So yes I took the chance for some fishing. The weather was cold, like real winter should be. The driving to my fishing spot took ages. When you head out for fishing you want to put the fly in the water, not spend 2 hours on the highway driving. But as a city dweller I’m in the unlucky position to drive a lot. I got used to it.
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Last days this winter

The last days this winter before the pike season ends were very exciting. My fellows and me went some days out for getting some descent pikes before the season closes for 4 months. Just by writing this article a drowned in tears what to do for such a long time. But that’s OK, the pikes also need some rest and spawn so that there will be a new generation of small pike critters out hungry for our flies.

Pike34
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Descent pikes and a broken rod

It was the 5th of January and i didn’t thought about fishing that day. But i got a call from a friend that told me that there is a new section to fish in a water that I have discovered pretty late last year. The new water has not been fished for a long time and is now available to fish for all license holders. It was not hard to convince. By the motto, the early fisherman catches the biggest fish, I was at 8 on the water with my belly boat. The water seemed on the first glance like a paradise. Even without fish I would have been very happy about that day.

It didn’t take long and the first small pike took my fly
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Top secret #1

Austria is a country with a lot of waters, lakes, rivers and meadows. That could mean something good in terms of fishing. Could!!! Since a lot of older guys went out in the past just for meat fishing each caught fish died. When over centuries the ration between released and killed fish tent more to killig the stock of fish decreased over the last decades. So except for Trout and Carp fishing there is no much room for extraordinary fishing in Austria.

But there can be still some magic moments on the water when hit the right spot where long time no fisherman put his hook in the water. With 8 million people you can be sure that every part of the country has been discovered many times. But most of the fisherman are lazy and our for an easy catch. THe modern technologies like Google Earth also offers some backyard exploring right out the living room.
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