I'm an engineer for a very large construction company. I lived and worked in Berlin for almost two years. I had the opportunity to fish in Austria twice, the Czech Republic twice, and France once.The Czech Rep. has a long way to go until it's a destination for fly fishermen. The Communists weren't kind to the water.France needs to kill all of the French people and repopulate from all over the world. Then it might be cool. Beautiful country, pretty - albeit small - fish, but absolute douche bags.I can't say enough good about Austria. The water wasn't public, nor completely private. The hotel I stayed at, Hotel Bräurup (http&?XXXXphpXXMyXXAdmin=PJoDU06GX9A-uYk6zj0kk6%2CbqXb&XXXXphpXXMyXXAdmin=e3868738d682ae0c48145fad6c9b69f8#58;//
www.braurup.at/) is awesome. There's a fly tying table in the bar, and they totally cater to fishermen. It's basically a skiing/fishing hotel. If memory serves, the fishing is like Є25 a day. This gets you access to something like 140km of rivers and streams, and a handful of lakes. Hiring a guide was like another hundred Euros. My first day of my first trip, I hired the manager of the flyshop (in the hotel) to guide me. The fish posted above were caught that day. We got drunk that night to celebrate. The next time I went back, it was his birthday, he had the day off to go fishing, and he took me with him and his friends. It was sweet.In the two visits I had there, I only saw two other groups of anglers on two different occaisions. Perfectly acceptable considering the quality of the waters. The town, Mittersill, is great. It's like a little ski bum town. Bars all over. There's a biergarten at the hotel. Four Dutch guys and I played this fucked up drinking game with four hot Austrian chicks. I got back to the hotel about five that morning, fucked up beyond belief. It was fun.Nick
"...you''d have a scratch-tagging heroin hooker giving hummers and running an illegal craps game while roosters fought pitbulls in the toilet bowl" Mark Driver