That 72 hour rotating weather front over central Germany resulted in massive flooding and
since we were heading to the epicenter of the misery for a short fishing trip to the Harz
mountains there where some doubts whether to go or not.
From the hotel a message was relayed that it would be better to postpone the visit but
as I had witnessed a prior hell and high water situation when the fishing turned out to
be good I pushed to go anyway.
On the drive to the mountains it was pretty obvious that every little stream was bursting
and that the rivers coming off to the lowland where coffee colored.

In contrast to my expectations the tail water of the reservoir was not clear as I had hoped.
The reservoirs in the area had been filled up to capacity to prevent extensive damage
of the already flooding rivers lower down.
Before buying a fishing license we decided to give the river a look when it entered the
reservoir.
Again my expectations where wrong as I had thought that the inflow would
be a total mess.
The water was high and stained but there was some sight and thus hope that you
could catch fish.
We decided to have a go at it and got the fishing permit from a local trout hatchery.
The lady at the counter asked if we had seen the river and we stated yes, I think
she thought we were mad 🙂

So we spend three days up in the mountains and just as I had thought the competition
stayed at home … did not see an angler other than us for days.
Wading was often not possible and spots to fish where limited due to the fast current
but fishing was pretty good.
The tail water stayed dirty as the reservoir dumped a lot of water after the rains had stopped.
The upper section into the reservoir got cleaner by the day and the water level significantly
dropped making access to more fishing spots possible.