The Gmundner Traun

The Gmundner Traun, the part of the Traun that is running out of the Traun Lake is known as the craddle of Austrian fly fishing. Its river keeper Hans Gebetsroither from Gmunden became one of the leading figures in European fly fishing and his fly casting style - the Gebetsroither Style(aka Austrian Style, in US misleadingly called Belgian Cast) had an enormous influence on the international fly fishing community around the world. After World War II Hans Gebetsroither's popularity grew continiously and in the 1970ies and he was probably the busiest fly casting instructor in Europe. People from all over the world travelled to Gmunden to learn from Hans Gebetsroither and to fish the mighty but usually always gin clear Gmundner Traun. After the building of the power station in Gmunden (the needle weir was replaced by a dam) the fish from the Traun lake were not able to run in and out the river any more and what was once one of the best trout and grayling rivers in the world is nowadays only a shadow of what it was like before.

The large wild brown trout (salmo trutta labrax lacustris) that entered the river to spawn before the dam was built cannot be caught there any moe. Today the river is dependent on fish stocking as also the reproduction of the grayling seems to be not working any more. Nevertheless the Freunde der Gmundner Traun, an international fly fishing club, who are the present tenants of the river do their best to make good fly fishing possible. The Gmundner Traun holds trout, grayling, some huge pike and different cyprinid species. It is still a river which attracts a lot of fishermen from different countries and I always enjoy to fish it when I am in Upper Austria.