Austria 2019: Möll river
As every year the first week of October is dedicated to fly fishing with the Anglers, unfortunately the friend Rocco is unable to join, and so are Me, Andrea, and the “only dry” Nello. On this tour everything was already decided in April, destination: Möll river in Austria. We were so sure of the choice already so much in advance, by the previous and positive experience of Andrea and Rocco who had visited these spot in the last summer 2018. I close the fly shop and prepare the equipment, I will take with me my usual 8.6' #4 to fishing with dry fly as much as possible and be well suited to nymph fishing with the strike, 9.6' #4 to fishing with nymph and be ready to change with floating line for the rise, and, at the insistence of the master, also the 7,6' #3 in case of many rises during the whole day to do only dry fly fishing. As you can read from the list, I choose not to bring any specific nymph rod with me, as, when and where possible, I prefer to fishing the graylings in dry fly.
So, at 30th September morning, I meeting the two Anglers in Affi, Brenner super street, and so on, Val Pusteria, Italy-Austria border, Drava Valley, we come out in Lienz, and finally for the late morning we finally arrive in Carinthia in the Mölltal: the Möll valley! A true paradise for those who practice fly fishing! The incredible thing that you immediately notice as soon as you enter the valley is that you are ascending, but the river is going down in that same direction! Truly unusual phenomenon to be found in other valleys of other rivers, and this thing is also known in the opposite direction when you take the road in the direction of the return, crazy! Our base is at the Gasthof Dorfschenke in Stall, run by the good Gerhard, very kind, hospitable, and always ready to advise us on the traits, accompany us on the river to find the best spots, and of course release us the various fishing permits.
The first half-day we pass it to the “Comunale of Stall” reserve where, being noon, a beautiful hatching of various insects had already started, and graylings and trouts were already intent on rising: starting delirium. Me and Nello of the race to mount dry, and at the second cast the first grayling arrives for me, fourth cast the second grayling, but then the Nello comes down, and for me it's the end: 5 graylings in line for he! Meanwhile, Andrea is already commanding with nymph and caught a lots of rainbow trouts and graylings. The day is really warm, and it is a succession of sedge and ephemeral hatches until dark, a continuous catch but nothing big, that is, our main goal: some beautiful big graylings!
On the second day we leave for the famous Rossignoli reserve, located near the village of Rangersdorf. Andrea, mindful of the previous summer, was really excited to show it to us, but unfortunately a bitter surprise awaited us (of which Gerhard had foretold us at breakfast): the flood at the end of October that hit hard all the rivers of the North / North-East Italy had hit here too! Spot completely changed, all the deep pools now filled with stones, and then the fishes had moved, and we had to find it again! We leave quite dejected, in seeing at certain points the distorted backdrop, and the uprooted plants and the riverside. By dint of insisting and changing some spots, rainbow trouts, browns, and little graylings come out, but we always miss the big ones, then at a certain point, in a spot of flat water a nice grayling rise up on my ephemeral imitation, obviously I had on the usual March Brown #16, "strange" will say who knows me ehehe. Finally the day begins to take a good turn even with graylings, and even Nello captures a discreet one, always dry. The end of the day I pass it both to little perdigon purple nymph with orange strike, and to dry alternating the various cdc flies to the coup de soir. Here at sunset with the emerging, I did several catches and mistakes and scored as many timallids.
The forecasts rained all Wednesday, and so it was! We wake up to have a breakfast and it is already raining heavily, disconsolate we try to do the fishing licences and we hope that the water will not get dirty. The destination of the third day is the Winklern reserve, where my friend Umberto had enjoyed the previous weekend, capturing beautiful pieces! Gerhard accompanies us in different spots to give us a general overview of the reserve, and under a rain that still allowed fishing, we start fishing with nymph, in 5 casts 3 fishes, two browns (one you see in the photos) and one nice rainbow. Then, end of games! The rain becomes a flood and gradually the river became brown.
Let the disturbance pass and at 16 p.m. we begin to explore new shores, let's try to go downstream of the Stall dam in Kelag reserve and the water is clean, the low levels and graylings rising! We immediately take waders, boots, rods, and together with Gerhard we lend ourselves to enjoying a beautiful coup de soir, just the time to capture a dozen graylings including my biggest of this 4 days, and then also the end of the games: they open the dam, the level rises and the end! We were just taking the taste and me and Nello make fun and do our usual "race" to dry fly catches, between laughter and the other, and I was also in great advantage for once! Those who practice fly fishing at grayling, know how it feels when you find yourself in front of a bunch of graylings in activities that rise well: it's amazing!
This is the last half-day before the return, and as per the plan, and based on the reservations of the other guest anglers, ends at the Rossignoli reserve. The white peaks covered with snow from the previous day, do not foreshadow anything good, in fact outside temperature 3 degrees and fishes nailed until mid-morning! Then something turns on, after my first dry rainbow trout, Andrea guesses where to find the big graylings and a nymph manages to capture some beautiful ones, while me and the Nello conclude our adventure to dry up graylings both beautiful and smaller, much very difficult that drove us crazy!
A great experience, in a beautiful valley among the autumn colors of early October, various animals along the river like squirrels, deer and even a chamois, it was fabulous to fishing in this context. We did not find the same top condition of the two members the previous year, but we know: this is fishing!
To fish together and experience these emotions go to page contacts.
See you next time :)
Matteo Lavezzini
