Pike Fishing, River Rhine

Big River, Little Fish

River Rhine, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

No smoking in the harbour

A trip to the Black Forest to see family in Germany wasn't as innocent as it first appeared, Emil my brother in law, had a little surprise lined up for me. He had passed his fishing test and was now the proud owner of a German fishing licence, not as easy to get like ours in the UK, which you just fill out a form and pay some money, he spent 4 Sundays in a class room and then took a exam!! I wonder how many English fisherman, or even myself would pass this test? But what it did mean though, was that Emil (and a guest, that's me!) could now fish anywhere in Germany with permission from the controlling fishing club. I couldn't believe my luck when he said we were going Pike fishing on the River Rhine and Little Rhine's, which I understood as being smaller tributary's to the main river, I have to admit that I have a very soft spot for Pike, and are without doubt my most favourite fish to catch. and I was so excited to be getting a chance to fish the River Rhine for them, the longest river in Germany flowing 1233km, starting in the Swiss Alps and ending at Hook Of Holland before entering the North Sea.

The winning lures

With a small selection of lures and a small reel and travel spinning rod packed into a small holdall and enough clothes for three days, I set off for Germany, and believe me when I say this, but I only just made it by the skin of my teeth. Due to increased security, rods, even travel ones that fit in very small suitcases are not allowed in hand luggage, and I was thrown back to airport entrance via the back door by customs! 2 hours later with some stern talking, long queues, helpful airport staff, and sheer luck that my flight was delayed I managed to board my flight just in time, the rod ended up just in its soft bag and wrapped in clingfilm disguised as a fragile cargo package to be stored in the hull for twice the amount of money my air plane ticket cost, this could of been worst as sporting goods would of cost four times what my ticket cost! they are budget airlines for a reason! Frustrated I did finally arrived in Germany, and somehow managed to spot my rod which had just been placed on a trolley up against the wall in the arrival lounge, and thankfully it was still only in 4 pieces.

Do you have your papers?

The first day I had to go to the Neuenburg Rathaus  "town hall", where I applied for a tourist fishing licence. this was quite long winded, and took some time as the staff seemed to learn on the spot how to process the paperwork, I was the first tourist ever to apply for a licence in Neuenburg. My licence was then taken by Emil who then obtained a fishing permits from the AKV "Anglerverein Karlsruhe" We now had licences and permits galore, and nothing would stop us. and after a few days of family stuff we would be fishing, we talked tactics during the nights and showing each other rigs and videos, then it dawned on me, I only had Pike on my mind, but I had missed an important fact, we would be lure fishing, and other species were on the cards, big Perch and Chub, Wels Catfish, and a fish I've never caught before because it has only been introduced to a few waters in the UK, the Zander!!! oh boy was I excited, seriously I couldn't wait! and maybe not as much as Emil who was about to embark on his first legal fishing trip outside the comfort of a commercial trout farm for a species he had never caught before.

Savage Gear Real Eel, Stunning Action!

Well the day had arrived and with a short drive from the snowy black forest we arrived at the first of what was going to be three locations. This was a stretch of canal that ran off the River Rhine, beautifully deep clear water with a rusty tinge to it, dead flat without any wind, the sort of place would expect to see shoals of Chub or Trout laying dead still in the gentle current waiting for some passing food. Within seconds we were set up, both with light spinning rods, small fixed spool reels, 20lb braid, traces and lure attached, I opted for the newest addition to my lure box, a Savage Gear 20cm Real Eel in olive and silver colour, whilst Emil used Lieblingskoder rubber shad tails mounted on a jig head with a stinger treble as he had been advised to use by the local tackle shop. We leap frogged our way along the beautiful canal, without much success, and even with polarised sunglasses I was surprised to not even see one fish, we made our way to end where it joined the River Rhine and was unable to fish due to large floats lining the bank, something to stop boats beaching themselves, so we turned back, a few swims later and the water started turning cloudy brown, and we watched a large barge set to work dredging the canal, with a crane it was literally ripping trees out the water, Ironically I did think to myself earlier that it was very snag free, and now I knew why, and possibly this work has temporarily scared the local fish to further reaches, so we decided enough was enough and to go fish the big River Rhine.

Making foot prints

We never made it to the River, on the way, in a large field I spotted a long narrow lake feed by a small stream, lined with dead reeds, it reminded me of the drains I fish back home, I asked Emil if we could fish it? the answer was yes, and so we stopped, we started at one end and worked our way along to the end, it was about 2 meters deep at the deepest but the majority was about 1 meter deep, and was narrow enough that it was easy to cast the lure to the far bank. the retrieve with the Real Eel had to be a lot faster so it didn't snag the bottom, I was constantly bringing in clumps of dead leaves from the lake bottom, but I did see a Pike follow the lure to the surface and turn around last minute, probably as he saw me, then disappeared into the murky water. At least I knew there was at least one fish here. and as then as if by magic, and possibly the same fish I had just seen had grabbed Emil's Lure. He was in and landed his first ever Pike, a stunning little Jack. The fish was nicely hooked in the scissors of the jaw, and unhooked easily and due to being under the 50cm size limit was quickly released to grow bigger.

Get in Emil!, can only get bigger!

I didn't know before I arrived in Germany but Freshwater fish over an allotted size limit are to be killed, Emil had advised that the laws in Germany are very seriously taken, hence the fishing licence exams, and even hefty fines for failure to fish without a priest!, I wasn't absolutely sure if it was law you had to kill a captured fish which was over its size limit, or it was culture thing, where it was normal to kill what you catch as a hunter, or even if you could release it, if you wanted too. I was a bit confused, as some of the conversation was getting lost in translation . Being from the UK where catch and release for freshwater species is the only practise, with exception of Salmon and Trout, I had no option to but to abide to the laws of the land I was in and trust Emil would do the right thing. I have to admit that catching a big Pike or any fresh water fish and then killing at this point wasn't very appealing. And to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure why either, I happily kill salt water fish and trout for the dinner table, I just never looked at fresh water fish as food before, UK big fish are known and even named, they make their home waters famous as anglers flock to attempt to catch the venues star specimen. I've even known and caught a Pike with one eye called Nelson, either way it was a bridge that we wasn't at yet or even guaranteed of crossing, so I carried on with wonder at what might happen.

We had no more takes at the lake even though Emils little Jack had given us renewed optimism, we decided to drive off to the harbour on the River Rhine. Little did I know this was an hour drive away, and seemed a little excessive considering the abundance of water around where we was already fishing, but we had been advised twice, by the tackle shop and a local fisherman to fish there, so there we did go. And Wow!!!, this was the first time I got close to the River Rhine. Its absolutely enormous, very fast flowing with cargo barges the size of ferrys, loaded with shipping containers speeding up and down along their super highway. luckily we wasn't going to tackle this beast, but fish the more tame harbour area. where a defensive wall protected a canal section of the Rhine which allowed the cargo barges out of the main flow of the river to unload there cargo directly to the industrial buildings with smoke bellowing out of their chimneys. And what a back drop! not only was it snowing, but the chilling sounds coming out of the factory's added to the awe inspiring ambiance.

"Don't tell him your name Pike"

I hadn't had any luck with my lures, and Emil kindly let me use one of his bright pink shad tail Jig because I felt that would give me a better chance of catching a Zander, but also because it had accounted for the only fish of the day so far. It didn't take 4 casts before I was in, the fight was actually really good on the light rod, and the fish put up a seriously good fight in the very deep water and even though it wasn't the main river the water was still pushing though very hard, when it surfaced I was shocked to see it was a just a small Jack. The fish was still full of energy when I unhooked him in the water, and he immediately managed to flick himself free as I had chinned him, but due to his small size I didn't have the best grip, this didn't seem to upset or phase him though, as 2 casts later he was happy to throw himself at the same lure and I hooked and landed him again, this time he was definitely a bit more chilled and happily posed for a quick photo. The rest of the session was quiet and no more fish were to be had, the sun was setting and the temp was dropping fast, It was time to call it a day, and what a lovely day it was too, we had explored what seemed like untrodden paths along a crystal clear canal, and found a secluded lake bang in the middle of agricultural field, and even fished bear face in the most unnatural of industrial settings. We had both caught a fish, not big fish, but at least we didn't blank, the amount of water here would take someone a lifetime and more to learn, we had only just scratched the surface and had a quick look, I've no doubt these waters are full of specimen fish that have never seen a fishing line before, and I suspect that I will be returning in the summer, when we would be more likely to catch, because the fish are a lot more active , well, it would be rude not to, my licence does last a year!