Trout Fishing, Angelpark Fischhaus Letscher

Chasing Rainbows In The Black Forest

Angelpark Fischhaus Letscher, Zinsbachwiesen 7, 72213 Altensteig, Germany

Angelpark Fischhaus Letscher

It was time for my annual visit to Germany, to catch up with family, a short trip staying at four addresses over five day, but I was a little bit more excited about this trip as we had managed to arrange for Sarah's brother Emil to take me fishing for Rainbow Trout in Germany's Black Forest. Emil had visited England where I had taken him beach casting at Hasting, a far cry from teasing Trout, this was a second leg of our friendly rivalry, and he was at home whilst I would be the one watching and learning a very new way to fish for a species that until now, I have never really given any time to catching. We set off early at 7am, it was still dark and cold, and in the crisp morning sunrise I got to see the beautiful Black Forest covered in a light sprinkling of snow as we drove the hour to the venue.

England Vs Germany - Round 2

As we pulled up to Angelpark Fischhaus Letscher I was surprised to see how busy it was, lots of anglers milling about the three lodges and taking position in swims on the many small lakes which were arranged like any other commercial fishery and all fed by a small Black forest stream meandering through the complex. We took our tackle to the first lake where we met with Emil's friend Heinrich and laid claim to our swims by putting our tackle on some of the benches that surrounded the lake. Fishing started at 9am, which gave us plenty of time to set up, prepare the bait, pay at the fishing lodge, and even get a drink of mulled wine each. I also took time to walk around a few of the other lakes, some of which had thousands of trout, farming pools and some with very large trout obviously specimen lakes, but as I looked at our lake I could not see a single fish? the water was gin clear, where were they?

Berkly Powerbait Dough Paddle Tail

I had asked Emil about the rules and it seemed that Berkley Powerbait Dough was the only bait allowed and most of the emphasis was on how to kill the Trout once caught, a swift hit to the back on the head with a priest and then cut the throat with a knife before any unhooking or photos. Emil had kindly lent me a small 6' telescopic rod with a small 3000 sized reel loaded with 5lb line, the rigs were a little confusing to me at first as we used loaded floats attached to 5 barrelled swivels to reduce twisting with a 2 meter trace of 4lb line with a size 10 hook, and a few split shot about 12" away from the bait. It wasn't until I realised that the bait was fished like a lure and the float was only to aid in casting and even more so, to show other anglers where you were fishing so you could avoid tangling together. Emil taught me to twist two different colours of Berkley Powerbait together into sausage then divide up and rolled into small balls the size of marbles. then the hook was pushed into the bait and the rolled into an elongated tear shape, and moulded over the knuckle on your hand to produce the tail section of a shad. I was really impressed at how good the bait looked as it spun and vibrated mimicking a small fish as it was slowly pulled through the clear water.

Hungary Trout Chasing Dough?

As we chatted away, the rest of the anglers started casting, it was 9 o clock and fishing time, causing a slight panic as if we were late for something?, I looked along the bank and chuckled to myself as it looked like twenty odd spidermen were all shooting webs out across the small lake. I cast out and it was apparent that with approx 3 to 4 meters between each angler this was going to be tight, very tight. I watched the bait spin alluringly through the water, but apart from one fish that I had seen earlier, I could see that it was a pointless cast as I couldn't see any fish within 15 meters of my bait. Then as if by magic, the Trout were being introduced to the lake by the inlet pipe just to the left of my swim, there were at least 6 trout swimming around in front of me, I attempted to cast out, but I was slow, and I had to wait until a clear spot to cast into because everyone else to the right and left of me were all casting directly at the confused fish which were swimming in frantic circles chasing many different baits in many different directions, and this continued until the fish were out of casting range. It seemed like madness, and it was! but there was a method, very careful well timed casts and making the most of it when others were not fishing due to re baiting and unhooking were paramount to being successful. I was lucky enough to hook and land my first fish a little under a 1lb in this excitable moment of mayhem.

Winner Gets To Kiss The Old Trout

This was fishing, but not quite what I'm used to, but the excitement of seeing the Trouts following and hit your bait was a sheer delight, and when a Trout ignored your beautifully vibrating bait as it passed its nose, or even took the bait and then manged to spit the hook out just before you struck was so frustrating. As quick as the madness started it stopped, all the fish were either already caught or by sheer luck had managed not to see a alluring powerbait spinner, I decided to leave my rod out of the water and re baited the hook ready for the next wave of Trout to enter the mosh pit via the inlet pipe. During the next waves of introduced Trout I managed to catch 5 and Emily managed to catch 4 before our fishing time was up, We had decided the winner was the one with the most weight, it was close as all Emil's fish were big whilst I had 3 small and 2 bigger ones. We took our fish to a gutting station on the complex, where we weighed out fish. the scales were a bit temperamental but the weights seemed about right, but my fish weighed 2.45kg and Emil's fish weighed 2.25kg. Although I had somehow managed to beat Emil, the only thing that really mattered was that we had enough fish to feed the whole family who were coming around for dinner. It had been a really exciting days fishing, and although not the most challenging and more like shooting fish in a barrel, it had been a lot of fun, productive, and a very sociable day out, and one that I could recommend to anyone visiting the Black Forest, just make sure you can cook what you catch! And the way Emil cooked the Trout, seasoned with curry powder, paprika, worcester sauce then stuffed with onions and garlic butter was absolutely divine!

Curried Trout, Lecker Lecker!