Fly Fishing The Mecklenburg Lake Plateau (Germany)

  The land of a thousand lakes. This large moraine area in the north of Germany, with several natural parks, has rich flora and fauna. Plenty of bird species find here the conditions to nest and thrive.

More than 20000 years ago this area was part of a huge glacier. It is only about 17000 years ago that the retreat of the ice to the north created today's Mecklenburg lake plateau.

(Map Credit https://opentopomap.org)

The lakes are connected by a network of channels, mostly natural, at times artificial, and by the river Havel. All this makes this area a well-known touristic attraction.

Boats, canoes and the famous 'Housboot' dot the water systems in the warmer months. Housboots are fully equipped with the kitchen, berths , even grills for more days cruising and hopping from lake to lake.

It is a very well-known place for coarse fishing, we could not find any information about fly-fishing though. Thus, equipped with floating tubes and fly rods we decided to explore the area.

We fished the area in June. Nature was booming, the climate warm and with long daylight. Fantastic conditions for staying on the water all day.

Light tackles lovers can have good fun with nymphs and dry flies. Near the reeds, it is teeming with rudd that can grow to decent sizes.

Small streamers work well too, on perch and even fat rudd will like it.

A light rod at hand can always be useful. One evening we were witnesses of an massive sedges hatch. We floated amid clouds of hatching sedges while fish were rising everywhere. I could swear I'd even seen carp rising at dusk. According to Murphy's law, exactly on that day, we were on the water armed with power rods and streamers only.

In any case, in my taste at least, powerful rods, streamers, and wire traces offer the real challenge in these waters. Far fewer bites, but larger fish.

We were here in mid-June and had to fish deep. I almost exclusively fished with a fast sinking shooting head.
May is said to be the best time for pike fishing.

A nice 70 cm pike. Pike are very strong here and even in this size, they can get your belly boat to drift along with their flights.

There are many places to explore and within one day one may have to check more lakes and there is a lot of water to comb. A belly boat with paddles is an advantage compared to one with only fins.

Despite several perch caught, we did not get any decent-sized one. At least until the last evening. It was past 8 PM when I felt a bite. It was clear that it was a big fish, but no pike. I assumed it was a perch or a sander. After a short flight, it came to the surface and at that very moment, it freed from the hook and left me with a slack line.