Gmundner Traun (Austria)

The Gmundner Traun, the part of the Traun that is running out of the Traun Lake is known as the craddle of Austrian fly fishing.  People from all over the world travelled to Gmunden to learn from Hans Gebetsroither and to fish the mighty but usually always gin clear Gmundner Traun. After the building of the power station in Gmunden (the needle weir was replaced by a dam) the fish from the Traun lake were not able to run in and out the river any more and what was once one of the best trout and grayling rivers in the world is nowadays only a shadow of what it was like before.

The large wild brown trout (salmo trutta labrax lacustris) that entered the river to spawn before the dam was built cannot be caught there any moe. Today the river is dependent on fish stocking as also the reproduction of the grayling seems to be not working any more. Nevertheless the Freunde der Gmundner Traun, an international fly fishing club, who are the present tenants of the river do their best to make good fly fishing possible. The Gmundner Traun holds trout, grayling, some huge pike and different cyprinid species. It is still a river which attracts a lot of fishermen from different countries and I always enjoy to fish it when I am in Upper Austria.

The grayling is the “queen of the stream” and the fish shows this in its gorgeous looking and elegant behaviour (really comes out if you have ever seen a large grayling jump when hooked). The presentation has to be very accurate and your fly has to be well served upstream. I found out that a good serving of the fly is much more important than the selection of the “match the hatch fly“, but size does matter. If you see a grayling that is nipping flies from the surface you have a high chance to hook the fish. If the grayling refuse to take your fly, try a smaller one.
Daily License: Euro 80

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