Showing posts with label Flyfishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flyfishing. Show all posts
Sunday, February 17, 2019
At the Show
The Bear's Den Fly Fishing Expo yesterday was a lot of fun... seeing old friends and meeting new ones, while talking about fly tying, fishing and fly rods. If you are reading this and were there yesterday, thanks for stopping by!
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Fly Fishing in the Balkans: Montenegro and Serbia
I just returned from one month long trip visiting Serbia and Montenegro. I had about eight days to fly fish various streams and rivers and I must admit that I "fished" more using my camera lens than my fiberglass fly rods. However, the experience was more than worthwhile for me. I was able to reconnect with waters of my youth and also with many old friends across the region.
Montenegro waters (Plav Lake, River Lim and Ljuca, in particular) are mind boggling! I had only three days to fish this area and I barely scratched the surface. I dedicated my time spent on river Lim to grayling fishing, but a keen flyfisher can also test his/her luck fishing for brown trout, lake trout ("blatnjaca" or "mud trout") and Danube salmon aka huchen. I just can't wait to go back and spend more time in Plav. If you are thinking about visiting Montenegro, you can find the most updated river info thru http://www.montenegrofishing.com/ and http://www.musicarenje.net/.
Plav Lake and River Lim, Montenegro
Serbian streams presented here are located in Eastern Serbia. They were my home streams. These are spring-fed creeks which flow through rugged canyons and valleys, often in the shadow of ancient monasteries. Medieval kings and monks had penchant for hard to reach places, hiding their churches from Ottoman invaders. River Crnica is the smallest of these four streams, but holds a special place in my memory. I spent many carefree summers exploring its canyon as a boy, and it is a place where my grandfather taught me how to fish with a fly. Even though its banks have changed over time, I didn't have much trouble locating the very stretch where I caught my first brown trout on a dry fly, many moons ago (see the pic with red glass rod.) Its deep canyon hides remnants of ten monasteries and the fortress which goes back to Roman times.
River Mlava is the largest spring creek of four Serbian streams I visited. It is a very fertile water with rich invertebrate fauna, and a well known producer of large brown trout. If you get a chance to visit this area, Mlava would be the stream I'd recommend to fish. However, the best managed Serbian stream as of this writing is River Gradac (near Valjevo in Western Serbia.) Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to visit it.
Serbian trout waters urgently need better management! I can only hope that Serbia will soon follow examples of smarter fishery management that is already being implemented with excellent results by other former Yugoslav states. There are several Internet forums where you can find info in English on flyfishing in Serbia: http://www.musicarenje.com/, http://www.musicarenje.org/ and http://www.musicarenje.net/.
River Resava, Serbia
River Crnica, Serbia
River Mlava, Serbia
Montenegro waters (Plav Lake, River Lim and Ljuca, in particular) are mind boggling! I had only three days to fish this area and I barely scratched the surface. I dedicated my time spent on river Lim to grayling fishing, but a keen flyfisher can also test his/her luck fishing for brown trout, lake trout ("blatnjaca" or "mud trout") and Danube salmon aka huchen. I just can't wait to go back and spend more time in Plav. If you are thinking about visiting Montenegro, you can find the most updated river info thru http://www.montenegrofishing.com/ and http://www.musicarenje.net/.
Plav Lake and River Lim, Montenegro
Serbian streams presented here are located in Eastern Serbia. They were my home streams. These are spring-fed creeks which flow through rugged canyons and valleys, often in the shadow of ancient monasteries. Medieval kings and monks had penchant for hard to reach places, hiding their churches from Ottoman invaders. River Crnica is the smallest of these four streams, but holds a special place in my memory. I spent many carefree summers exploring its canyon as a boy, and it is a place where my grandfather taught me how to fish with a fly. Even though its banks have changed over time, I didn't have much trouble locating the very stretch where I caught my first brown trout on a dry fly, many moons ago (see the pic with red glass rod.) Its deep canyon hides remnants of ten monasteries and the fortress which goes back to Roman times.
River Mlava is the largest spring creek of four Serbian streams I visited. It is a very fertile water with rich invertebrate fauna, and a well known producer of large brown trout. If you get a chance to visit this area, Mlava would be the stream I'd recommend to fish. However, the best managed Serbian stream as of this writing is River Gradac (near Valjevo in Western Serbia.) Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to visit it.
Serbian trout waters urgently need better management! I can only hope that Serbia will soon follow examples of smarter fishery management that is already being implemented with excellent results by other former Yugoslav states. There are several Internet forums where you can find info in English on flyfishing in Serbia: http://www.musicarenje.com/, http://www.musicarenje.org/ and http://www.musicarenje.net/.
River Resava, Serbia
River Crnica, Serbia
Krupajska River, Serbia
River Mlava, Serbia
Friday, July 11, 2014
Friday, June 20, 2014
Sentimental Journey
I just got back from a trip, visiting Serbia and Croatia. Our first stop was London, UK, with an inevitable visit to the legendary Farlow's fly shop. I had very limited time for fishing in Serbia, since the weather didn't cooperate and the purpose of the trip wasn't solely fishing. The second photo shows Crnica River, which flows by the 14th century monastery. The river was blown by the torrential downpours, so I wasn't able to fish it this time. My grandfather sparked my interest in flyfishing when I was a boy, and we spent many happy summers fishing and exploring Crnica's beautiful canyon. He used a rod made of hazel tree (leskovak) with a technique very similar to the Japanese tenkara-the old way of flyfishing in the Balkans. The river still has a population of native brown trout, while the nearby oak forests with distinctive red soil represent a true oasis for a dedicated mushroom hunter.
Few days later I was in Zagreb, Croatia, greeted by my dear friend Milan Kupresanin, a master flyfisherman and the ultimate gentleman. Milan organized the itinerary for our quick journey, which started with the visit to Plitvice National Park. I was in Plitvice 30 years ago and remember its magnificent waterfalls and crystalline lakes full of trout. Today, chubs seem to be more prevalent. We arrived at Hotel Gacka in the afternoon and fished the legendary spring creek that evening. Gacka is a cult water in Europe, with incredible water volume, depth and complex currents. The amount of food it produces staggers biologists, and its aquatic fauna has been a subject of many studies. Gacka trout grow incredibly large in a short amount of time. Even though we spent the entire day fishing, the catching was slow due to difficult conditions. The entire Balkans was swept with rains and floods in the previous weeks and the fish were still adjusting. We fished mostly nymphs, but trout were nervous and difficult to coax into taking. Gacka has both rainbows and browns... I was hoping to get some if its native brown trout known for their unique coloration and spots, but that wasn't to happen this time. New Hotel Gacka is an excellent place to stay if you happen to be in the area, exploring the 10 miles of Gacka's "flyfishing only" section.
Next day we were on our way to Gorski Kotar. We made a stop in the town of Ogulin, where we met a good friend and a professional flytier Goran Grba. Goran was kind to give me some if his beautiful dries for grayling fishing on the river Kupa. On the way to Risnjak National Park and Kupa River, we visited excellent spring creeks Vitunjcica and Dobra, and also the tributaries of Kupa River: Kupica and Curak. We finally arrived to Joza's cabin at the source of Kupa, while an ominous looking sky didn't look very promising. The rainstorm shook the mountain with thunder, but we were eager to try catching native grayling on delicate dries, despite the heavy odds.
The last day of our Croatian journey was spent on the Adriatic coast, in Crikvenica. We did so many things in such a short time, with only fleeting chances to seriously flyfish, but next year's trip is already in the works.
Few days later I was in Zagreb, Croatia, greeted by my dear friend Milan Kupresanin, a master flyfisherman and the ultimate gentleman. Milan organized the itinerary for our quick journey, which started with the visit to Plitvice National Park. I was in Plitvice 30 years ago and remember its magnificent waterfalls and crystalline lakes full of trout. Today, chubs seem to be more prevalent. We arrived at Hotel Gacka in the afternoon and fished the legendary spring creek that evening. Gacka is a cult water in Europe, with incredible water volume, depth and complex currents. The amount of food it produces staggers biologists, and its aquatic fauna has been a subject of many studies. Gacka trout grow incredibly large in a short amount of time. Even though we spent the entire day fishing, the catching was slow due to difficult conditions. The entire Balkans was swept with rains and floods in the previous weeks and the fish were still adjusting. We fished mostly nymphs, but trout were nervous and difficult to coax into taking. Gacka has both rainbows and browns... I was hoping to get some if its native brown trout known for their unique coloration and spots, but that wasn't to happen this time. New Hotel Gacka is an excellent place to stay if you happen to be in the area, exploring the 10 miles of Gacka's "flyfishing only" section.
Next day we were on our way to Gorski Kotar. We made a stop in the town of Ogulin, where we met a good friend and a professional flytier Goran Grba. Goran was kind to give me some if his beautiful dries for grayling fishing on the river Kupa. On the way to Risnjak National Park and Kupa River, we visited excellent spring creeks Vitunjcica and Dobra, and also the tributaries of Kupa River: Kupica and Curak. We finally arrived to Joza's cabin at the source of Kupa, while an ominous looking sky didn't look very promising. The rainstorm shook the mountain with thunder, but we were eager to try catching native grayling on delicate dries, despite the heavy odds.
The last day of our Croatian journey was spent on the Adriatic coast, in Crikvenica. We did so many things in such a short time, with only fleeting chances to seriously flyfish, but next year's trip is already in the works.
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