I had not been on any road trip this year but just by chance an opportunity came along.
One of my friends asked me to arrange a last minute trip to the Harz mountains.
Since the season there closed down mid September I had to act quick.

Since work was slow it was not a problem to get a few days off.
The plan was to leave early on Sept. 1^st and return late on Sept. 4^th.
I booked the hotel well in advance and also arranged that the required permits would be
obtained by the folks at the hotel.

There where challenges ahead for us as the main road along the river in the valley had
been closed due to construction work.
It mean longer drives to get to the water but that was not a real problem except for costing more gas.

What was more worry some was that the reservoirs along the stream filled well up to
capacity. In the days prior to our arrival some serious discharges where visible on
the website that monitored river flow and capacity of the reservoirs.

The trip to the mountains went pretty well with just one unexpected highway closure
that was easily bypassed.
When we arrived at the hotel we quickly dumped our luggage, got the permits and headed
for the river.

The river was high but clarity was pretty ok, I guess I preferred the situation to the
more or less low and clear water situation at the end of the summer.
Just as we geared up a fellow Dutchman spotted us as familiars as he recognized one
of the local supermarket bags we had in the trunk of the car.

I had the impression that he was showing off when he mentioned he fished the river
almost 15 years … kind of posing as an expert.
Heck, I visited that place 18 years but found it not a fact to be interesting to mention.
When I asked if he had caught any rainbow trout he declined, that section was known
for them so I doubted his skills.

We started fishing with our expert in sight and boy we caught a lot of rainbows right
away … our expert soon left the scene as he had less “luck”.
Anyways the fishing turned out to be pretty good all over the place with plenty of the
original small browns with their dark colouring plus off course tons of stocked.
rainbows.

What really surprised me was the amount and size of the grayling that I encountered.
These fish had surely grown since I was there last fall.
So we enjoyed four days of good fishing in a very beautiful setting.
The only minor mishap was that I went for a swim as I slipped and fell face first in the
drink. The camera survived … the powerbank not, ego slightly bruised..