Last saturday I was down at the local university with my fishingbuddy Joop. There was an sort op open house on the campus. Every employee club was giving information about their activities.
One part of the festivities was fishing for trout in one of the many ponds on the campus ground. We where hired in by the fishingclub of the university to give a flyfishing demo at the pond.


The pond.

Joop was manning the flytying stand while I was casting to the trout in the pond. 100 kg of trout where hauled in from Germany and where stocked in the murky water a day before the event.


Joop at the flytying stand.

At the pond we encountered two other members of our local flyfishingclub who where also members of the exclusive fishing club of the universities employees. Their task for the day was to help the employees and their families with catching fish. A limit was set for three fish per person.
It was quiet in the morning so we had the pond all for ourselves.


One of our members into a fish.

Obviously the trout had been dumped in one corner of the pond. And the fish stayed in that particular spot. It was just pure luck that I was positioned in that corner. Most stocked fish where rainbow trouts of maybe 300 grams in weight. There where 6 big ones stocked and three golden ones. Next day the members of the universities fishing club would do their best to rid the pond of the trout. The person who caught the golden trout got his entry fee back.
I was first though. With a small gold bead nymph fished in the surface and I quickly had succses. This obviously to the disliking of the barbarians who stumbled "he already got one". I was especially lucky because I had caught one of the six larger fish. It was a beautifull conditioned rainbow who put up quite a fight on my 7-11 4 weight superfine rod.


A nice rainbow trout.

We where catching one after another to the dismay of the worm brigade who where only catching shiners. It all got worse when fellow clubmember Rein hooked one of the golden trout.


Golden rainbow trout.

It did not take long before the worm brigade crowded our spots. The visitors came in and it was time to help them land fish and tell them about the wunderfull world of flyfishing.
The trout stayed in the surface all morning. The kids loved the fishing, they where catching their limit in no time. At noon the trout that where left in the pond had wised up and finally dispersed in all directions. The trout also went down. Late in the afternoon the fishing session was officially closed. After cleaning up the place and hauling all tables and chairs back into one of the university buildings it was time for some cool drinks at one of the fair grounds. Later we where invited to a small party organised by the University. We slipped out early though because we still had plan B ready. We would go to Germany to try and catch some more trout in a more natural setting. Our way of therapy from this pond fishing.

The golden trout are really special! I would like to see one in person. Can you get them in the wild? Do they stock them all over Geremany?

You like golden trout... oh boy. It would be nice for your own troutpond in the backyard if the local climate supports trout. Otherwise they make nice target practice for cormorants and herons. You can get many golden versions of native fish down here. Most of them are cyprinids destined for ornamental ponds.

The mutant rainbows are not stocked regularly... but I have red that in England they are stocked more often in the so called reservoirs aka put-and-take fisheries. There is often a prize included if you catch one of those golden fish. At first I thought these fish where manmade. some further research makes me believe they occur in the wild

Golden Trout: (Oncorhynchis Mykiss Aguabonita)

Originating in the high altitudes of the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States the Golden Trout has been called the "fish from heaven" by the Americans.
The distinctive sandy gold colouring of the fish means it is particularly conspicuous to predators like herons and farming conditions are carefully designed to offer maximum protection.
Only two producers in the UK currently farm this unusual variety of trout for consumption.