River Neckar(Germany) 

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Pics and fishing contrib.S.Madera

This fly fishing zone lies at the feet of the Castle of Weitenburg. The fishing zone (info 2020) is approximately 10 km long and big part of the area runs across the golf fields of the Weitenburg Golf Club.


The river is here about 20 to 30 meters wide. It winds through meadows, woods and villages. It rises in the Black forest, flows for 370 km and it is tributary of the Rhine river, where it flows into it in the city of Mannhein. In its mid and lower part it becomes a large river and it is a navigable water. In this higher part the Neckar is a well-suited river for fly fishing.


We arrive in the morning, park the car and get the first feel for the water on the bridge at the feet of the Golf club. A fly fishermen is stalking some rising fish. The spidernets on the bridge rails are fulls of olive dun mayflies, some translucent spinners and some other smaller midges. Olive duns are also in the air!


The river is well wadable, most of the bottom covered with water-weeds and can get slippery. Among tiny rises, there seem to be some big fish close to the opposite bank.


A respectable sized rainbow engages a hard fight with its full repertory of jumps and flights before getting netted. It took a little black midge pattern. The next couple of casts and the next fish is on, but it snaps the thin leader with its first powerful run.


The hatch seems to reach its climax, in each pool there are rising fish. Most of them are small trout, but there are some nice ones too.


A nice brown trout caught on a little olive emerger pattern.


Walking farther upstream we reach a very promising beat. The right side of the river is here hard to explore. There is no path the terrain is rough. The hatch has now stopped and, despite the appealing surroundings, further attempts with nymphs are not succesful.


The river host not just trout, there are also large chub. We spotted few very big barbel too, but they were idling and not in the mood.


Sunset is approaching, I decide to have a look to a very slow flowing pool. There was nothing to see in the afternoon, additionally it is kind of "dangerous" as golf pool 7 foresees to cross the river in one shot. A signboard warns of flying golf-balls and discourages people from lingering in this area. However, in the evening there are no more players and actually the mayfly hatch is starting off again.


Centroptilum luteolum duns are hatching and the big fish are now breaking the surface with gurgles. It is a challenging place, slow current, difficult to access and very suspicious fish prowl here. The weather is turning awful. In the distance heavy dark clouds are roaring and summoning closer to us.


Now the bigger trout are coming out, but the weather does not play in our favor. In a couple of minutes the first warning drops become a torrential rain, with lighting and thunders. We have to escape and night falls before we can enjoy the cup de soir.


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