Blau and Wiesent Chalk streams of south Germany by euroflyangler.com

The River Blau

The Blau is a first class chalk strem. It is located south of Stuttgart, not far from the city of Ulm in the german region of Baden-Württemberg. The source of the Blau is the karst spring of Blautopf (picture above), in the town Blaubeuren. The 'Blautopf' is the outlet of large carsic cave systems. The characteristic blue colour is given by the solved limestone particles in the water. The village of Blaubeuren is surronded by a number of old castles and hosts the ancient Blaubeuren Abbey which was founded in 1085. The Blau runs for 15 km across the contryside till the city of Ulm where if flows into the river Rhine.

The river is mostly private but there is a strecth close to the village of Arnegg where it is possible to obtain daily permits. The river is crystal clear and full of waterweeds, the perfect habitat for huge mass of benthon.

Rainbow and browntrout, along with char and some sparse grayling inhabit the river. The chance for fishing on mayfly hatches are good throughout the season. End of May till beginning of June there are impressive exclosions of Ephemera danica, during this relatively short period, even the largest fish are seen rising to catch the flaoting subimago.

Olive Baetide, S.ignita together with other mayfles species are abundant and hatch throughout the season, providing for excellent dry-fly fishing. Sight nymph fishing is a must when the fish activity in the surface is scarce. During the hottest sunny day of summer, the mayfly activity may stagnate, it is then that from sunset to dark breaking that the sedge can catch very large fish. During Autumn upto closure, small olive dry-fly and light small nymph are a sure number.

The stretch is about 2 KM. long, there is a limit set to 3 daily permit per day, booking is a must and for the days of end of May - beginnig of June to find a license may require 1 year advance reservation. The fact is that even outside the hot E.danica period, this river offers almost daily hatches of other species that bring the fish to rise. If you book from abroad mind to mention it if you should reserve permits. There is only one place (at least upto now 2014) where to buy permits for the Blau in Arnegg: the Förg fly fishing shop in Ulm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The River Wiesent

The Wiesent runs in german region of Bavaria for 78 km. before joining the river Regnitz. Its source is the karst spring in the village of Stadelhofen. The name Wiesent (Wisent= European Buffalo) originates from the ancient time when the buffalo still dwelled here and used to quench in the river.

The Wiesent is a classic chalk stream with steady water temperature and plenty of benthon. Like for most of european chalkstream, between May and June one can exeperience large exclosions of Ephemera danica

The prevalent fish is the brown trout, some sparse grayling, usually in good size, inhabit the river too. Apart from the Ephemera mayfly hatch, which represent the klimax of the season, hatches of other mayflies, sedges and stoneflies are plentiful.

This river is as well mostly private, there are though some stretches where daily licenses can be obtained (previous check with local seller of the permits) like the stretch in the village of Weischenfeld or the on in the pension Hammermühle. Further downstream daily licenses can be avaliable in Muggendörf.