The Nahe River near Fischbach-Weierbach... one last 2013 German adventure

Excuses, excuses, excuses. I have none for taking so long reporting on my trip to the Nahe River near Idar-Oberstein. I’ll make this brief, both for the sake of my ever-failing memory and my laziness.

Just before my return to the States, I decided to get one more fishing trip in; somewhere close by. That led me to the Nahe River near Idar-Oberstein. From Mainz it wasn't that far, so the train ticket was relatively cheap. It also didn’t hurt that I had saved up enough bonus points from my Bahn Card to earn a free all-day train pass. So, it was off to Idar Oberstein….the city with a church built into the side of a cliff. Cool.

Only problem: Apparently they decided to shut down the section of the Nahe near the city for some sort of fishing contest. At least that was what I was told by the kind-but-hard-to-understand-because-of-their-dialect people who helped me at the local fishing store, Heckmann Angeln [I am not putting the link to their store because it appears there is something virus-oriented attached to it], that I was only allowed to fish a stretch of the river in the Fischbach area, extending about a mile.

Let me take one step back and let you know that I attempted to secure my fishing permission form the Idar Oberstein fishing club online, only to be forced to travel to the store and buy the form. It was expensive, but haven’t we already learned that the German way of tempering the lust for fishing is to price-out the purchaser? To get to the store, I jumped off the train at the Fischbach-Weierbach stop and headed in a southwesterly direction, upriver.

To get to the allotted stretch of water in Fischbach, I actually had to head back to the train station, cross over the tracks, and head down stream along a road next to the tracks named “Im Nachen.” As you walk along the road, which will quickly become a narrow gravel passageway, you’ll pass a football park on the left (sitting between the road and the river). The road will eventually dead-end at the train tracks, but the permission form allows for fishing beginning at the train bridge and ending where the Nahe meets the football (soccer) fields.

It was there at the bridge that I had a massive strike from the largest trout I had seen go after my fly in Germany. It took a black wooly bugger, but after a brief tussle, rolled free of the fly. As I walked up the river I came across a younger guy who had landed a decent-sized pike. By days end, I was able to land a brown. All-in-all it was pretty uneventful.

Though the section had its moments, for the price and the pressure, I wouldn’t recommend it over what might be encountered in Idar Oberstein. Maybe my next visit this coming summer will offer the opportunity to fish that section.

You win some, you lose some (Nahe River, Bad Kreuznach)

So, it was bound to happen.  So much success on German rivers; the dream couldn't last.

Upon returning to Germany a few weeks ago, I got it in my head to make a semi-spontaneous fishing trip.  Where to?  In the back of my head I remembered something about Bad Kreuznach.  I did a quick google search.  And, both my failing memory and my unwillingness to thoroughly read other postings on the area, led to a day with a lot of walking and not much else.

I got to Bad Kreuznach late in the morning, headed to the fishing shop, and quickly found out that I had made a mistake. 

"So, where should I go on the Nahe to catch some trout?"

"Trout? Come back in the spring and we'll go catch trout in the North Sea."

Hmmmm.  Not what I wanted to hear.  But, I thought I'd still give it a shot; maybe pull a bass or sunfish out of a hole or eddy. 

Once I got to the Nahe, which runs through the center of Bad Kreuznach, I realize the full extent of my mistake.  The river was virtually empty.  I scanned it over and over, only to come across three nice-sized carp wandering around near the "salt lounges" toward the edge of the town. 

I stared at the fish.  Stared at all the people lounging around, and thought, I sure as heck don't want to catch one of these fish and have those watchful eyes all around me pressuring me to kill the poor thing.  So I walked on.

All the way up to the kayaking section.  The water in the last pool was cool, smelt of the German "purification" process, and provided not one flash or strike for my streamer.  Alas, you win some, you lose some. 

Once the bank account is topped off again, I'll be headed to Nordrhein-Westfalen.  It looks juicy up in those parts.