Gone Fishen’
It’s no secret that I enjoy fishing. This is why I enjoyed our afternoon visiting a small lake outside of Feldkirch to learn more about Fishing in Vorarlberg. To my fishing colleagues, equally apparent to my enjoyment of fishing is that I have limited skills and talents when it comes to angling.
‘Brute Force and Ignorance’
I’m mostly into the ‘brute force and ignorance’ technique of fishing in order to stock the freezer with salmon. Then, I can then relax and evolve my casting techniques without the stress and worry of going home empty-handed. ‘Brute force and ignorance’ is purely a mechanical form of fishing, no real talent or thought is required.
One just needs to wade out into the surf with a 5-foot net and let the fish catch themselves. The other method is to help reel in the gill-net and untangle next week’s dinner. Once the freezer is stocked the rest of the season is dedicated to that solo, mindful, zen-like state of wading in the rivers and perfecting the casting technique for hours at a time.
I’m also a gear-head, I like kit, I like building kit, tweaking it and making it work right just for me. Fishing offers lots of varieties of kit for just such hobbyists as me. Altogether, fishing is an appealing and captivating passion.
Gone Fishen’
When we planned our Year in Vorarlberg adventure, friends asked if I was bringing along my fishing kit? An emphatic “No” was my response. I felt somehow that fishing in Europe was just not the same as hiking into the Alaskan wilderness, hauling one’s kit along the overgrown trails and enjoying hours of solitude communing with nature; employing only a fly-rod as justification. But honestly, I really didn’t have a clue how things worked over here, it was just a hunch. So, my fishing kit stayed home.
Last week we biked along the Ill river to the village of Schruns in the Montafon Valley to enjoy the ‘Old American Car’ Fest. 
Along the way, we passed a couple of stunningly charming and beguiling turquoise-colored lakes surrounded by families of fishermen, fisherwomen, and children.
Fishing Lakes
These lakes are not nestled in hidden cove miles into some distant, hard to reach mountain valley, but just a hundred meters off the highway and surrounded by thick groves of tall trees and walking and bike paths. They serve as an oasis of splendorous beauty and peace. At the end of every hike or bike ride, there is a small hutta (shack or hut) that serves cooling beverages and snacks.
On our way home we stopped at what we believed to be one these huttas where a half dozen men were kicking back, ‘shooting the shit’ and enjoying a few refreshing beverages. Ursula inquired, with her “Vorarlberg dialect” if this was a public Hutta, but learned that it wasn’t so; this was a private fishing hut for exclusive use by the lake’s fishing association. But, because it was Ursula they spoke with, they quickly invited us to stay and chat for a while and offered us a beer. We stayed, and I learned all about fishing in Austria.
Alaska Fishen’
In the States, our idea of fishing is to buy a cheap license from a ‘Big Box’ store and then hike into the wilderness to find that exclusive, secret hole in a bubbling river where the ‘big one’ is waiting to be caught. As long as we observe all the rules (that only a lawyer can understand) the Fish and Game Wildlife Agents hiding behind every tree will leave us alone to our own adventures.
Austrian Fishen’
Our ‘Association Hosts’ at this Austrian lake explained how it works here with their half English and Local Village Dialect.
First, one must take a thirty hour course offered by the State, derisively referred to the class as the “Eco Course”. I gathered from their comments that the course focused more on how to preserve the fauna then how to catch fish.
After graduating one was entitled to buy a fishing license for around 150 Euro. I’m not sure if that was an annual or lifetime cost.
With the course certificate and license in hand one then shops around with the numerous fishing associations and seeks permission to join. I’m not sure what they’re selection process is like or what initiation rites one must undergo. But, once accepted as a member of a lake fishing association, one has the right to fish at that lake, in accordance with the association’s rules. It’s only by being a member of that association can you fish in that lake.
The Association
The association of the pretty little lake we visited allowed member to fish, per annum, up to 150 of one type of fish (I didn’t make the translation), 20 of another kind and 10 of the third type. This seemed very generous to me. In fact, the Association President, whom we had the pleasure of drinking beer with, explained that they had to re-stock the lake every two weeks in the summer.
Our gathering of hosts formed most of the association leadership and often attended the lake to oversee membership compliance to the rules, and ensure we unruly visitors did the same. This hutta was a communal hut for members to chat about the day’s adventure; it too was stocked – with cold beverages and snacks. I guess every lake association has one.
So, fishing in Austria amounts to taking a course, passing a test, getting accepted in a fishing association and then traveling by highway to your communal lake where one lines up next to other association members as you drop your line into stocked waters.
It’s just different!
It’s different. It’s not the same as fishing in Alaska, one could suggest. It is however, a very family and social event. But, it does not require the skills, determination, training and herculean efforts or expenses to fishing in the vast Alaskan outback! Many Americans may wonder, what’s the point. But, then again, in Alaska, we contemptuously enjoy our “Combat Fishing” where fishermen line up shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other anglers and their families gathered on the shoreline around fires and camper trucks and loud music and all sorts of outdoor mayhem. Hmmm, maybe there’s something to be said for this cultivated, refined version of Vorarlberg fishing.
Either way, I’m content not to have brought my kit. I really do enjoy wading out into wilderness rivers, improving my skills so one day I can catch that ‘big one’ awaiting me in that secret, exclusive fishing hole away from the sounds and chaos of everyday life. But, I’m also thrilled about the shoulder to shoulder ‘brute force and ignorant’ adventures that allow me to keep a freezer stocked full of Alaskan salmon.
I guess fishing is just fishing, but it’s always better to be “catching.” So, now I know what it’s like Fishing in Vorarlberg.
Ursula and I departed our new-found ‘friends’ and biked our way back to Feldkirch to draw to a conclusion another strenuous, adventurous and insightful day in our ‘Year in Vorarlberg.’
Interesting Links
- Interested in the ‘Fishing in Vorarlberg’ Blog?, Link here to our Year in Vorarlberg Series
- See our ‘Best of Photos’ from this a adventure and from the Rhein’s Lands
- Care to comment on the Blog or Adventure? Jot down your comments in the form below – thanks