On October 30, 2023, I went to the storkreservoir in Seltz, where I met my friend André for the pleasure of a day of fishing. The weather was gray all day, with a fresh N/E wind rippling the surface. Given the weather conditions (east wind, atmospheric pressure dropping suddenly) and the lack of trout activity, we alternated streamer fishing and knitted nymph fishing, dry fishing being excluded given the lack of surface activity.
By using an intermediate line and knitting my flies, alternating models and colors, I finally managed to hit five trout defending themselves ardently. The flies that got me the bites were the targeted “reservoir” nymphs and wets from the C.B.F– Kollection: HNC-1, DBR and CRF-1.
The discussions between us and a friendly German fisherman we met at the water’s edge and at the club house which sheltered us for a delicious warm picnic contributed to making us appreciate this autumn outing to the Seltz reservoir, where the rain arrived in force at 4 p.m.
a nice rainbow trout, caught with a HNC-1low water levelautumn colors on the reservoir
Fishing at the stork reservoir in Seltz (Bas-Rhin-Alsace-France) is reserved for artificial fly fishing. Fishing with a “buldo” is prohibited.
he wading is prohibited to ensure safety of users
Initiate with any food is forbidden.
All fly fishing techniques are allowed, with a maximum of one rod fishing: dry fly, nymph, streamer, wet flies (with a train of flies up to 3), with requirement to use barbless hooks, or having the barb crushed .
The landing net is recommended.
The minimal size of salmonids is 30 cm. Non retained fish must be relaxed carefully, and after reoxygenation
Warning: Trouts + 2 kg are to be put back into the water, as much as possible, to allow the greatest number of fishermen to catch one.
Fishing will be allowed every day from 2023, September the 23 from 8 hour am until the official time in the evening (1 hour after sunset), until 30 June 2024.
Two categories of daily fishing licenses will be issued:
A card of € 30 , allowing the conservation of 1 trout
A card of € 15 , for those under 18 years, only with “no kill” practising.
Caution: It is imperative that a minor is being accompanied by an adult.
Fishing card completed by the holder with the fish size you eventualy keep, should be deposited in the mailbox forthis purpose (on the wall of the club house, next to the parking).
Fishing for carp and pike will also be allowed to fly fishermen. Nevertheless, if it is advisable to keep the pike, carp must imperatively be returned to the water!
Specific prohibitions can be displayed. Please refer to the bulletin board on the wall of the club house, which is installed near the automatic day tickets distributor.
Violators of this rules will be excluded from the site, and can no longer claim a fishing license for the year.
the Bruche in Heiligenberg (1° catégorie-Private) on 16 juni 2023, with low water
On June 16, 2023, I went for an evening hatch on the Bruche upstream from Heiligenberg. the water was clear and very low on this hot, windy day. The river is suffering and we can only hope for the stormy rains expected in the next few days..
Arriving around 7:30 p.m., a few rare rise of small fish on the horizon. I started with an SHP-1, my fly of the month for June 2023. It was quickly successful with about fifteen fish: chub, bleak spirlin (which did not hesitate to swallow a spent on hook 12), graylings ( including 2 specimens of around 30 cm) and some little trout, the most beautiful trout hardly seeming to be interested in insects, yet numerous above the currents: imagos of heptageneids, submagos of ignitas, brown caddisflies and various gnats. I also caught some fish with the TOT, CBF and SEP-2.
A nice evening hatch, even if I hadn’t hit any big fish.
the chubs were hungryI caught aso some little troutsa grayling with 30 cm , who took my SHP-1 on the surfacethe spirlin bleaks take all flies they find..Selection of the season
Offen predictable, sometimes surprising, the Bruche is my river, that I generally court, which sometimes fills me with joy, sometimes afflicts me, but, always enchants me.
Taking its source at an altittude of 680 meters, on the top of the Climont, in the granitics Vosges, the Bruche runs during 78 km to its confluence with the river Ill, just before Strasbourg. Up to Dinsheim, it is classified in 1st category (salmonidae dominant). Rich in watery insects (baetis, rithrogena, ephemerella ignita, caddis..) it presents a succession of flats and currents, typical of the piedmont plains.
It is well populated with brown trouts, to wich are added white fish (chubs, daces, spirlin, bleaks, gudgeons..). From Heiligenberg, the graylings are well established and it contains some rainbow trouts. The troutsare not enormous there; a fish of 30 cm is a beautiful specimen (my personal record with the fly is 45 cm there), but they are wild, and defend themselves with vivacity and malignancy. The graylings commonly reach 30 cm and some specimens of more than 40 cm were already caught. Sinceyear 1999, the salmon comes also back again in the Bruche.
There are a lot of associations on the Bruche and it’s not always easy to get a fishing licence. But since 1997, the fishing association “haute vallée de la Bruche” has created a fly fihing course in Schirmeck. On this place, where the fishing is no-kill way, from the 1st may to the 31st august you get sometimes the chance to catch brown trouts of more than a kilogram. In 2003, a new fly fishing course has opened in Muhlbach on Bruche ! daily licenses are also avaible in Urmatt, Dinsheim and Molsheim.
-by fishing store BRUCHE- NATURE: 3, route de Strasbourg , 67130 SCHIRMECK … tel: 0033 3 88 97 89 45 for the fly-fishing course from Schirmeck.
-by fishing store NATURAMA, Zone de loisirs “Le Trêfle” 67120 DORLISHEIM. tél: 03 88 04 81 81. for the sector of Ergersheim-Dachstein-Wolxheim.
brown trout
News for march 2024
News: the river got a lot of water during all the winter. the river will be strong at the opening of the 1° category, the 09 march 2024.
There are of course other interesting rivers for flyfishing in Alsace. Moder, Eichel, Lauter, Sauer, Giessen, or Andlau in the Bas-Rhin, Fecht, Doller, Ill, Lauch, Liepvrette or Thur in the Haut-Rhin, but the Bruche is one of the most beautiful, and it is dear to my heart.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020: Although I do not like its linearity or its environment, and because the end of confinement finally allowed us to go fishing, but the Bruche was soiled by a rainy day, I decided to go do a fishing session at the Rhine floodway canal. I found myself from 3 to 5 pm on the downstream part of the canal, near Plobsheim. (see photos 1 and 3). After talking with, Jean-pierre, a regular on the course, I decided to fish with a streamer because in these sunny hours there was no visible activity and the water was still a little too tinted for the sight nymph. I could observe a few brown caddisflies flying from here and there and a few small mayflies without causing any visible activity of the fish.
In two hours of fishing I had the chance to touch a dozen fishes. If I broke on a fish, for lack of concentration, and I took down 4 trouts after a few minutes of struggle, I would bring 5 with in the net. These were magnificent rainbow trout, measuring between 52 and 58 cm, spilled at the end of containment by the Federation. Very well-shaped, powerful and brawling fish who put the equipment to the test before going into the net. The trout had bitten on my CBO and WBM-2 streamers, the fact of having quickly recorded touches on the olive convinced me that it was “the right color of the day”
Two other fly fishermen met at the water’s edge had also caught beautiful trout with a streamer and it is with a lighter heart that I have finally tasted again the simple joy of holding a (big) fish at the end of a fly rod that I took the way back.
A large rainbow trout, caught with the streamer CBOJean-Pierre, a other flyfiherman with the streamer tooThis 12 mai 2020, the rainbow trout were active
