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An American’s First Huchen
Every Huchen has a story. My story began 4
years ago when, after completing my Master’s studies in the USA, I
was accepted by the Graz University of Technology to pursue a
doctorate. Why did I come to Austria? I am half Austrian. My father
was born in Salzburg and my great-grandmother is from Burgenland
before she emigrated to the USA. My grandfather, although born in
USA, lived in Austria for many years after the second world war and
became an avid hunter and fisherman in the Alps. Still, at 93 years
old, he tells us his special fishing stories with his life-long
fishing friends from Austria. I was also very motivated to become
fluid in the German language. Unfortunately while growing up, the
only German I learned from my father was the occasional
“Schimpfworte”. I would be remiss, if I did not mention the most
important reason I came to Austria. I fell in love with a beautiful
Austrian girl from Niederoesterreich. What I did not fully
appreciate, however, is how I would fall in love with the Mur, a
world class fishing river that passes through the heart of Graz.
I joined the Arbeiterfischereiverein and applied my fly fishing
craft on the numerous trout and grayling that swim in our river.
Recently I began my hunt for the King of the Mur, the elusive Huchen,
with the fly rod. Little did I know how difficult the Huchen is to
catch. The many hours I spent tying special Huchen streamers, and
fishing for the Huchen itself turned into days and weeks and then an
entire season without a single Huchen contact. Although this was
uneventful, it was definitely not unsuccessful. Success comes from
learning, and fishing a 2 hand rod with the streamer has a steep
learning curve, especially for a natural dry fly purist. It took
over a year to master the right streamer tying technique, that
perfect combination of length, depth, and weight.
Slowly but surely, a special feeling began to manifest at the
beginning of my second Huchen season. I had to share this feeling
with someone. ‘Everything feels right. Very soon, I just feel I will
catch my first Huchen’ I said to a fishing friend. ‘You should go
fishing tonight’ was the response from him, who already had caught
several nice Huchen that season, and knew exactly the feeling of
which I spoke.
Right place at the right time? Definitely, but sometimes it involves
a little bit more to hook your dream fish. In this case it was my
innate dry fly fisherman instincts which alert me of any
irregularity on the water surface, allowing me to spot a curious
head peek out of the water at the bottom of the pool. According to
legend, right before a big Huchen feeds, he looks out of the water
for fishermen. With my senses in overdrive, the only thing left to
do was let my streamer swim and set the hook correctly with a fast,
hard pull!
I would like to dedicate my first Huchen to the hard work and
commitment of the members of RettetdieMur. This movement is a
positive force for the city of Graz for many reasons, one of them
being the protection of Europe’s most beautiful but endangered fresh
water fish species. There are many people who give just as much if
not more time and effort into protecting this fish as I did in
catching it. My first Huchen was, like all of the future Huchen that
I may be lucky enough to catch, released unharmed back in the Mur.
Let’s keep the river flowing!
Matthew Galler
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