HTA - 06 June 98

HTA, GTA, and Other Fun Places!

There I was...

Back in the land of Brown Trout and stocked Rainbows in the middle of Bavarian. My wife was in a two week school at GTA (an American training base north of Amberg, GE (Bavaria)). My boss gave me the mission to do a Friday morning meeting in Hohenfels (HTA) which is 75 minutes south of GTA. Lucky? No, my boss wanted me to spend some time with the wife and get an early jump on the travel time.

What he may not have known is that I have a year pass to fish the waters in both places. So, up at 0300 hours and on the road to get at least two and half hours of fishing in before my first meeting. Got to the HTA pond at 0630 hours. No, I didn't get lost. It takes that long to get to "Brown Trout Land."

I was betting that the lake would be stocked with trout by now. It wasn't. Spent the morning catching Redeye and Carp on nymphs and dries (see other story). Fun, but not what I had in mind. Figured I would use this as a warm up for GTA (fish central). Unfortunately, I had a problem. I kept collapsing my loop during fly presentation, and spent much of the prime fishing time un-doing mega knots from heck.

I left the HTA lake about 0830 hours and ventured forth into Hohenfels proper (it was about 68 degrees, clear skies, and no wind). After three hours of meetings and the infamous "grip and grin", I headed out for the GTA. Arrived at 1130 and spent two hours in another series of meetings. I spent the third hour looking for the Rod and Gun Club! It moved (changed buildings) about two weeks ago and nobody I talked to knew where it went. Finally found it in the Outdoor Recreation building next to Burger King. Checked in and headed out to the Sandhole Lakes and Thumbach Creek.

I saw a "meat fisher" pull a 64 cm Rainbow out of the Sandholes, and caught a 12" Grayling out of Thumbach last year. I had high hopes. The temperature had increased to about 83 degrees by now. Big sad face. Not much activity, but managed to pull in about four little rot feder's (trash fish) on nymphs and one big brother (13 inches). Left at about 1540 hours to meet the wife in Vilseck.

Yes, it gets better. Arrived early (1610), and went to the Southeast side of Big Mike Lake and caught two 11' rainbows on #14 Hare's Hair Nymphs and numerous red eyes on the same. Got Trout? By now the temperature had reach about 89 degrees. Heat wave in Germany!!!

Slept in the next day, but went to Outdoor Recreation on Vilseck and rented a Canoe for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Saturday evening sucked!!! Big Mike was too hot. Between my flies and the bugs that bit me, I was feeling kinda blue. No ifs, ands, or bites. Ann (the wife unit) was feeling even worse. She's almost allergic to anything. Can you say Pollenators?

Got up at 0430 hours (wife never woke up) the next morning, and headed out with high hopes. It was still sunny and the temperature was at least 63 degrees. Action was kinda slow. Caught a few rainbows, a couple of rutting Carp, and lots of redeye on a combination of nymphs, streamers, and dries. Bummer, I expected bigger things. Locked up the canoe and went to Little Mike to see if things would get better. Did I tell you that they had a "kid's fishing day" on Little Mike a few weeks back?

Guess they didn't catch them all. I spent the rest of the morning (3 hours) catching a combination of Rainbows and Browns (10-14") on emergers and dries (Caddis #18-14). Still had a serious collapsing loop problem, but worked through it. Practice, practice, practice. I guess it could have been better, but hey, I got to see the wife.

What did I learn?

1. Practice, practice, practice. I guess I got cocky. Gotta remember the fundamentals.

2. I like to fish GTA and HTA, but fish management sucks. You can catch fish, but trout are hard to come by. I should've bought daily permits for some of the off post German fishing waters. Guess I assumed it was going to be as good as last year.

3. Think I will go fishing next weekend closer to home. No reason to drive 3 hours to get the same or worse fishing. Bad days make you bitter.

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