I once again visited the Harz mountains, a tad early in the season.
The organizer of this trip had set the date to May 2nd. probably forgetting the fact that the 1st of May was a public holiday in Germany = crowds.
The other drawback this year was the fact that a cold snap was forecast with the possibility of snow and off course low temperatures.

I had hoped to toss dry flies with the cane rod to rising brown trout but with the cold weather I thought that nymphing would be the only viable option to catch fish.
Fishing was not always easy and sizewise I did not get into any large fish but on a positive note we checked out some spots we had not visited in all those years we visited this area.

My best fishing spot turned out to be the very industrial section of the river along a quarry where chalk was produced, noisy and dusty as hell but amazingly a lot of grayling in that section.
The mining and heavy industry of today and the past had sure left enought traces in the landscape.
If you could collect all the iron hardware dumped in the river you could make a pretty penny.

The trip lasted four days with the first day being the warmest.
After that the temps plummeted and finally light snow and hail fell with temperatures close to freezing.
Despite the weather fish where still active now and then so it was not that bad afterall.
Wished I could have stayed a bit longer as the trout became active in the afternoon and some fish where rising.