Trip Report: Bernese Alps
A little over a year ago, I was standing in Lava Creek in the Yellowstone Park, casting a tattered Royal Wulff to eager Brook trout with my Superfine Glass 3 weight. I did a ton of fishing in Montana, but catching the feisty jewels in this short stretch of river were one of the highlights, and something I thought I wouldn’t be able to relive here in Switzerland. Fortunately, I was wrong.
Sascha Urweider runs a hotel and restaurant in picturesque Innertkirchen, Switzerland. Not only is he a great cook, but he’s a passionate flyfisherman with the knowledge of fishing the Bernese Alps that only a native has. Today he was going to show me some of his favorite waters in the area, and I was tagging along to take photos, not to fish.
First on the list was a small alpine lake close to the Grimselpass, a mountain pass that tops out at a heady 7100 feet before plunging down into the southern part of Switzerland. We parked, and made our way along a small trail and through some brush, all while giving the local cows a wide berth. As was to be the case for the much of the day up here, the first cast resulted in a fish. Nothing particularly big, just a bunch of smaller but feisty char, but that’s to be expected up here. Rumors abound of larger fish dwelling beneath the smaller ones, however…
Sascha rigging up under imposing cliffs
That didn't take long..
And another one
After I got enough photos here, we headed back down and fished a tributary of the Aare River. Beautiful light blue water, deep gorges, lots of scrambling….this was gorgeous water, the kind of place you have to break a sweat to get to your fish, but where perseverance pays off. Definitely a place I’ll be visiting again next season. Sascha landed a few native browns on a Wulff as I waded after him, camera in hand.
Deep gorges
Blue water
Brown Trout
Finally we moved on and hiked up what was little more than a trickle, but in which every pool had a brightly colored, healthy Brookie. Blue lining at its best. The sun started to sink, and we made our way back down to Sascha’s hotel, where he cooked up some gourmet burgers and we got to know each other over beer and our mutual passion.
A few weeks later, Simon, a friend and avid flyfisherman from the UK came in for a visit, providing a perfect opportunity to visit more new waters that were a bit too far to go to last time. We spent the afternoon of his arrival trying to fish the Totensee, a lake at the top of the Grimselpass, but the wind made casting practically impossible. On the few occasions where we were able to get a line in the water we were rewarded with rainbows and lake trout.
Windy day on the Totensee (Photo by Sven Burkhard)
A rainbow on a Road Kill streamer from J&M Flies (Photo by Sven Burkhard)
Rigging up (Photo by Sven Burkhard)
After struggling with the wind and the rain, we headed back down into the valley where we planned to spend the night at Sascha’s Hotel, and again enjoyed one of the finest burgers this side of the Atlantic before hitting the sack.
At 5:30 am the next morning we grabbed the sandwiches and coffee Sascha left out for us and headed out. On the way to the trailhead we got stuck behind some cows in the road as is par for course in this part of Switzerland, and started the long hike up in the darkness. It was misty and chilly when we started, but once we got out of the clouds the breathtaking panaroma gave us the energy to make it the rest of the way.
Snack break
The clouds lift...
Thankfully Simon is also crazy enough to risk death to catch some 6 inch fish
As steep as it looks
We spent a good 4 hours making our way up the 4500 feet to the lake, with stops for breakfast, photos and nervous slow going on the more exposed parts of the trail. The water we planned to fish was a small pond, and a kilometer or so of river winding down the slope before plunging down in the valley below. I rigged up a 1 weight, and Simon had a 3 weight, and we fished the pond first. Eager fish raced each other to the fly in this nutrient poor alpine environment, we didn’t hit them too hard precisely for this reason, and soon we made our way to fish the little stream. I spent a good deal of time taking photos and drinking in the scenery. It isn’t a given that the weather will cooperate in the Alps, I’ve been encountered snowstorms on alpine fishing trips in August before.
A little pool with a view
The surface was like glass and we could see practically every fish
Very small stream, but very fishy
Simon with a fish on
Fall colors
A nice waterfool with a decent pool at the base
As the sun started to sink behind the peaks, our stomachs started growling and we packed up our gear and walked a half hour or so to our accomodations for the evening, one of the 152 alpine huts scattered through the Swiss Alps. The accommodations are rustic, there are no showers or hot water, but the beds are warm, and the food is good and plentiful. Allow to me to get a little off-topic for a moment and take this opportunity to point out that for outdoor-inclined tourists to Switzerland, I can’t think of a better way to really experience the country and its people than spending a few days hiking and overnighting in these huts. Family style meals, free flowing wine and beer and no internet or television make for fast friends among the diverse groups spending the nights up here, and people will talk or play games late into the evening.
After a traditional Swiss breakfast of cheese, fresh bread, and birchermuesli, we headed back to pond to meet Sascha and a friend. After a bit of chocolate and a swig of whisky for second breakfast, we fished a bit more and took some more photos before saying our goodbyes and heading back down into the valley to get Simon to the airport on time. And with that, another trout season comes to an end. Switzerland isn’t an easy place to fish thanks to complicated regulations and a dense population, but it’s worth making the effort when the rewards are beautiful wild fish in breathtaking surroundings. I’d spent quite a bit of time over the past few months getting to know the brook trout in Switzerland, and as is often the case, the long, scenic hikes make for moments of self-reflection, and I realized that maybe the reason I like brook trout so much is because we’re both transplants from New England, carving out a new life in this small, scenic alpine country.
