Fish species & equipment

The fish species

You find numerous brook trouts and especially in the lower section also samlets and rainbow trouts.

Depending on the location the brook trouts have a light colour with few dots in the flat, sunny parts of the Horlachbach.

In deeper parts and in the canyon they are darker and full of dark red and coral coloured dots. The average size of the fishes is 30 to 50cm, pretty good for a brook.

Equipment and flies

An eight or nine feet long fly-fishing rod of the category 3 to 5 is more than enough for the Horlachbach. Fishing trousers and fishing boots (with felt sole) make fly-fishing with a normal water level during summer and autumn (0.33 m³/sec. to 2m³/sec.) much easier.

The Horlachbach

...a wonderful brook with cold, clear and highly oxygenated water is habitat for a large number of insects with a low range:

The most common insect species are stone and caddis flies. In some parts there are various kinds of dayflies (ephemeropterans).

As the flow rate of the Horlachbach is relatively high, the fishes have not much time to have a thorough look at their food.

Sedge (Florian Drag Sedge) and stone fly imitations are the first choice and very popular. Fishes in deep water are a little choosy but can hardly resist stone flies provided with golden heads or nymphs of caddis flies.