Another day at Vipava

​Another day at Vipava... Ok, not so humble – another great day on Vipava River, would be more appropriate to tell the whole truth of it. Although I'll come to it by the end of this short report.
 
At the end of month June, it finally came up together, few days off guiding, were all I needed to make me start on a day fishing. The water levels have been coming down to the somewhat normal and calling a friend a day before the day D, he gave me all the info I needed: »Go for it, it is the day! « Who am I to argue about it – right? I hope, I'll never get enough of it! 

​The plan was set in my mind before hitting the stream – checking the upper section for shallow water feeding trout and then move to the real stream, downriver of Ajdovscina, where the big hybrids and marble trout reside.
Flying low to the valley at 8 AM and changing into waders before 8:30 AM. Before switching in, I checked the water and visible fish was all around me. The solid marble trout spotted just before the weir. Only two casts were needed to get it into the action, taking the fly and few head shakes later was all it needed to get rid of the iron. A good start in the day or not, you decide. A bit down... But already spotting for the next fish. Extra shy was the name of the game. Few clear refusals of solid trout later have seen me headshaking myself. Changin' the game to even longer casts, where fish could not see any of the long leader I regularly use and ... Bang. One of the smaller hybrids took and tried to outrun me. Not really successful for him – got me smiling again JA good forty – or 16 inches. Few missed takes later, has seen me walking upriver. The fish were active in the shadows, as the temperature has picked up considerably. And few smaller wild rainbows, no cheap substitute here and even smaller hybrids were seeing me walking out and changing the position. The scenery was magic, blue sky, green trees and birds singing…
At the Napelon bridge near Ajdovscina spotted few willing fish, but decided to go few kilometers downriver. As soon as I arrived have spotted number of willing fishes. Relatively big marbles and hybrids, were moving left and right regularly. It seemed to really be that Day. Coming into #«# position, walking upriver to the out tail of the longish pool, have seen the first real shadow few meters above me. Still calm, made four steps below and let the long leader drift downriver. The first upstream cast was fair, but not good enough. Now I knew, I had to make it, otherwise, it will not get it. The second was put two meters above it. The fly has drifted right to the fish – no alteration of the course. I don't know what the trigger was, but time stopped and ... Bbbbang. The fish was flying... Left, right across... Yeah, men, now we were talking. Totally in the zone, no rush, slowly letting it go and reeling it in. The birds singing, all went by as in slow motion. Guess few minutes of fight were through, when it surrendered. A big red dotted beauty of a male hybrid trout. A real girth and a hefty buck it still is, as only few photos later, he swam for the cover.

​In the pool above have risen few more hybrids with the deep sunk nymph approach. Most of them spotted before taken. Ohhh... A call has put me out of the water, as the colleague came in for a beer and time stopped. We moved to the position below, where we have spotted a nice marble trout on a feed. A good lookout for the later part of the day. The sun was burning down on us and the beer was cooling us inside.
An hour later have seen me walking back into the river. Tried the trout in a bit faster water, but mostly got refusals. Then went to the lower river sections into a slow deep water, where I got a single trout. A technical fishing to the visibly feeding trout, has not got me very successful. Possibly, wasn’t getting good enough drifts, or the trout have been feeding slow, or something else… It is called fishing not catching – hmmm.
Back river I went and this time I have seen a fish feeding on the other side of the stream. A few casts later moved to a lower position, taking few wiling smaller fishes. And again, spotted the fish feeding by the other bank. This time I put on a smaller fly, covered the position and the fly was taken on the first drift. Few head shake later and a first run, made me aware that a mid-sized marmorata swims on the other side. The fight was controlled and I let the marble swim forth after a few clicks. The hatch of small Ephemerellas was on and I covered few smaller trout later with a dry fly. Semi-successful, but nevertheless a perfect outro of the day.

​By the car have seen a number of smiling fishermen, who also had a blast of the day. Only one question was posted:” Was it a good day? “ “Only few inches short of a glorious one”, was my response and I have been already flying out of the Valley. In my head plans have been forming for next day’s fishing with clients!