It’s freezing over the water, but the carp in Lake Neuschlagsdorf are still agile. Before fisherman Walter Piehl can tighten his net, they have already swum away. The edible fish can only be caught if they freeze from the cold.
Alt Schlagsdorf (dpa / mv) – Three weeks after the start of the carp season, the fish in Mecklenburg do not want to go into the net. “It’s too warm, the fish are still fleeing,” said fisherman Walter Piehl (65) on Saturday after a fishing tour on Lake Neuschlagsdorf (Ludwigslust-Parchim district). When hauling in the trawl, Piehl and his colleagues spot numerous pike and grass carp, but none of the valued edible fish. When it was cold, the carp stopped moving and were easy to catch, explained the deep-sea fisherman. Despite the cold on Saturday, a change in the weather was announced. “The fish notice that immediately,” said Piehl.
The 65-year-old is one of the very few fishermen in the country who catch carp with trawl nets. “It’s a lot of work and little money,” he said. Piehl sells the fish, which usually weigh a good two and sometimes more than five kilos, at weekly markets. His company had already celebrated the start of the carp season at the end of October with a festival in Alt Schlagsdorf. Now Piehl wants to try again in the coming week.
