Vantastic Lukas: Dark days

A new adventure

In the late afternoon, Clemens and I were heading towards a headland covered in roots with our loaded boats. Due to the low water level, I had problems orienting myself on the lake - which I was unfamiliar with. It's a strange feeling to set up your rods in places that were otherwise fished feeding areas when the traffic was full.

After a short ferry trip, we quickly decided on a leeward tip of an island that offered plenty of space for two anglers. We also had a fabulous view of the mountainous surrounding area.

Shortly after we had set up our camp, a heavy rain began and lasted all night. We decided not to lay the rods until the next morning. A good decision, as we were able to lay our rods in peace on the mirror-smooth lake as the sun rose.

Surprising chaos

After a quiet first night, one of my rods announced the first bream action at dawn. “An ungrateful alarm clock” I thought. While I was still busy checking off the nuisance, a heavy rain began, followed by a sudden wind. I was quickly pushed onto the opposite headland that I was fishing for - no chance of putting down the rod again. I secured my boat on the headland and fled into the forest some distance away. I wanted to wait for the “hustle” there.

The sky grew darker and the wind picked up speed. I saw Clemens running through the rain on the other side of the bank and registering my absence, only to get into his boat a short time later and look for me. “Not a good idea,” I thought to myself – watching from the safety of my forest shelter. So I ran to the stormy peak to make myself known with hand signals and to get him to turn around before he was pulled out of the lee of our headland with his folding boat onto the raging lake. He registered my signs of life and with difficulty turned the boat around to head back towards camp. After half an hour I was so cold in my soaking clothes that I decided to somehow drive back to the camp. The sky was getting grayer and grayer and didn't seem to be getting any better. I emptied the full boat and brought it into starting position. The electric motor had a lot to do until I finally reached the slipstream of our island.

When I had taken refuge in Clemens' heated tent with dry clothes, I wanted to know what it looked like with Lukas and Christina - a fishing couple on the other side of our island. We had met her at another lake about two weeks ago and had been in touch ever since. After I messaged you to see if everything was okay with you, I got an unpleasant picture:

The wind has a positive effect

Shortly afterwards, my namesake Lukas stood outside our tent, soaking wet. His mood was different than expected, not quite as bad as expected. He had caught a good fish before the drama began. We ran to him to get an overview of the devastation and to photograph the fish. A small compensation for the chaos that resulted.

During the course of the day, as the wind was still whistling past our headland at high speeds, between all the occasional “wind peeps” a rod from Clemens made a few successive tones, which shortly afterwards became a continuous tone. He got into the boat and felt the full force of the wind. A battle with fish and the forces of nature. Meanwhile, I sat in the heated tent and watched the spectacle with binoculars: “Like an exciting action film” – only live and a little worried about Clemens. Luckily everything went well and Clemens returned triumphantly to shore with a real giant. We photographed the fish immediately and were more than satisfied.

The U-turn

Unfortunately, it didn't stay as promising as it started. I was able to catch another nice Mirrorfish in the following days. Apart from a few carp catches, nothing happened most of the time. The weather became increasingly unpleasant: it rained most of the time, storms and daytime temperatures fell into the single digits. A combination that eventually got to the point and caused my mood to sink ever lower. I would have moved to warmer regions long ago on my own. But the fact that there were two people to bridge the unpleasant time made it a little more bearable and allowed me to persevere. Hoping to catch a good fish.

Looking back, it's crazy the hardships and adversities you put yourself through just to appease your ego with a fish.

Things get even worse

After seven days I had enough. and planned to move on to a more pleasant area. It rained most of the time, the water level rose rapidly and the ground became a muddy desert. I hadn't really expressed my plan yet when a friendly local gave me the news early in the morning: the side window of my car had been smashed last night.

The next punch in the stomach. He immediately offered to help and I was able to park my car at his home for the time being. With the help of my French friend Sebastien, I immediately took care of getting a new disc. However, the weekend with a subsequent public holiday was approaching and so it wasn't a quick affair. Earliest appointment next Tuesday - we only had Friday. I didn't really want to stay in this region for that long, I urgently needed better weather...

The next wrong decision

So there was no way to get a new disc so quickly. So we planned to stay at the lake until Tuesday due to the waiting time. A change of spot to a very small island should give us new motivation. From there we were able to fish a shallow, windward area of ​​water where I had seen a good fish jumping the day before. The wind had been pushing into a small bay there for days and turning the turquoise water into a brown broth.

With the first steps through the muddy ground of the new place, I regretted the decision to have exchanged our headland in the lee with a large meadow area for a muddy mini island completely in the wind. The mud was clay-like and the lump on the shoes got bigger with every step.

I was annoyed why we had to put up with such conditions because of a single jumping fish. We were, of course, hoping for a “catastrophe” and a session that would take a turn for the better. The opposite happened: I felt like I was at my wits' end, didn't feel like it anymore and just wanted to leave.

Got off the path

It felt like I had lost my way, lost my instinct and gut feeling and traded it for the greed of fishing. After the first night at the new spot, in which the rain and wind beat tirelessly on the tent again, I put an end to this situation in the morning. After a coffee, I finally packed up my tackle and stowed it in my car, halfway dry, with the window temporarily taped shut. I had no plan what I was going to do, I just wanted to get to a sunnier region as quickly as possible. After thinking for a moment, Clemens also packed up. We both went our separate ways to sunnier climes….