Slovenia Fly Fishing Blog

This year has seen me visiting River Vipava on few occasions. One of the reasons has been the post-lockdown and therefore less guided fishing trips with clients in June, begin July, but also it has to be said, that my interest for specific stream grows exponentially, when wild fish populations are vital enough to justify the drive-in.
The first day at Vipava in June started relatively slow. The blue skies greeted me entering the valley and the scrubs and trees have bathed in green.

Meet our large Mayfly, Ephemera danica – in states known also under name Green Drake. Besides being the inspiration for our Logo and the designation for our Lodge, it acts as one of the most fascinating aquatic insects in Slovenia..

Let’s not start complaining of just another Easter lockdown at Slovenian Rivers… But here comes another Spring, where fly fishing normally lifts off, and here we were - stuck again in space and time. Also, this year’s guiding log looks pretty empty. One reason more, we want to use the spare time at our waters. Guess, that is why the first fishing day at Vipava, a day after lockdown, was so anticipated. 

Just before the second Season start - April the 1st - rivers flowing into Adriatic, the memories keep me coming back to one of the fly fishing days at River Idrijca. From the memory, after few days guiding at different rivers in Slovenia at mid-September, where fishing was good, but nothing spectacular, we have chosen one of those mellow days. With an outlook of possible rain shower, when company at the day fishing is more important than the fish count at the end of the day, but with a potential of mid-day hatches that could make or break the day.

In last post we shed some light on basic characteristics of marble trout (Salmo trutta marmoratus), from its distribution areal, to general description of the species, co-existence with other trout and specifics unique to the species. If you haven’t done so, it could be a good read, before you move to this sequel. The focus of this post is to provide you with directions to fly fishing for marble trout in Slovenia.

The summary of last year’s fly fishing season at chalk-stream Gacka has been long seasoning in my mind. One of the reasons being so much complexity been confronted with, from the COVID global situation, linked to restrictions in traveling, to varying levels of activity at water - not an easy task to put a final verdict on it. Therefore, decided to take the middle way, describing few episodes from the water and by the end try to pull the free strings together. Even though my memories over time distilled into the resume, it is a subjective perception of my fly fishing journey at Gacka. Keep this limitation in mind, when you read on...