On a recent Saturday, André and I drove to a river in the Canton Bern to do some fly fishing exploration.
Due to reasons given in the post about revealing fishing spots, I do not mention any names or locations.
The river we were going to visit runs through a deep gorge which it had created over thousands of years. After a one hour hike, we started fishing a long riffle that did not allow to pass without at least a quick try. Our intuition proved to be correct.
A deeply fished heavy jig nymph with partridge collar brought the first fish on the hook. The trout gave a hell of a fight, but this perception might be due to the fact that I extensively had fished smaller streams. Luckily, André netted the fish with ease and the mood was already through the roof at the very first pool.
Now, it was André’s turn and before I even settled to enjoy the moment of having caught a beautiful fish, he screamed that the next one was due. As the first one, this trout gave a good fight that left André astonished as well. We landed the fish and continued fishing with high spirits.
What a river, I thought.
However, André had some concerns because the start was almost too good. At a promising pool, we decided to observe the happening a bit longer and ate lunch. I just took a huge bite of my sandwich, when a trout gently sipped something from the surface.
I uttered: “FIFF!” – while still chewing on my sandwich.
Even tough André carefully approached the fish from far behind and his 15 feet leader softly landed on the water, neither Adams nor emergers brought the trout to the surface again.
Fly fishing is just a riddle we probably will never solve.
We hiked and fished from pool to pool but did not hook any more fish. It was as if the first few fish were the only ones feeding in this river. Perhaps it might have something to do with the warmer temperatures that caused stress for the fish. Therefore, the best explanation might be just a short feeding window in the morning. But if this is the case, why did we see another fish happily rising in the early afternoon?
Although we fished the entire day and waded about 5 km’s upstream, the success failed to materialize. In the end, I hooked one more tiny trout just before we decided to return.
Summary about this fly fishing exploration in Bern
The beautiful gorge was very impressive and the scenery reminded me of New Zealand and André of Sweden. We loved both the remote surrounding of a wild freestone river in Switzerland. Moreover, the river is very suitable for taking cracking casting images because the steep cliffs give a shady background that offers great contrasts with the fly line. However, the fishing itself was mostly very slow. Nevertheless, I will definitely return to this jewel in the Canton Bern and am looking forward to the next fly fishing exploration with André.
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