Hello fom Vienna

[damo]

Hi everybody,

I´m an Englishman living in Vienna, Austria (Austrian wife). I´ve enjoyed travelling around Austria for its great fishing but most of this is 2 hours or more drive away from home.

I´ve now got a 3 year old boy and an 8 week daughter, so a 4 hour round trip is a luxury - instead I´ve got a season ticket for a small stream which flows in the hills outside the city and takes half an hour to get to. It means I´m able to make more, but shorter trips.

This will be my 3rd season on the river and I´ve loved every minute so far. It´s a 17km stretch with only 20 tickets available - in 2 seasons I´ve only ever seen one other person fishing! Lots of wild rainbows and browns, plus some stocked fish which seem to overwinter well. My favourite time of year is May/ June before the 2 annual stockings, when I target the wild and grown-on fish. The average size is probably between 8 and 12 inches, with a few big oldies thrown in. The water is so shallow that 90 percent of fish are on the dry fly.

Best experience? Last August, early morning, when I finally hit it right with a few nice browns up to 20 inches. Worst experience? Falling backwards into a deep pool last March when there was still snow-melt in the water. It was a very cold walk back to the car...

Damian F

[gusstrand]

Terrific! Can't wait to hear about the family and solo adventures!

[JB in SC]

We definitely need some photos...to see what the rest of us are missing. Lovely country.

[King]

Austria, beautiful country. Used to go Kärnten every summer to visit family until I had to move to Canada a couple years ago (used to live in the U.K.). I also got to stay in Wien for a couple weeks, probably the cleanest city in the world. If I were to go back again I would probably bring my rod and go fish for some grayling and brown trout. Any way nice to already see someone from Austria considering I just joined.