Our good friend Stan Mankov is back this month and proves that sometimes that river you always wanted to fish isn't always the easiest place to get to but when you do...
It was quite long ago when I mentioned to the readers of ESF about me planning to fish that border river between Turkey and Bulgaria. I had three attempts this year to fish the river and here is what happened before and finally after I manage to reach its waters.
First try was around 6th of May – St. George`s day here. I went with a group of friends along another river nearby. Then I left the group and my plans were to reach the border river. There are about 20 km off road driving. It was very wet weather. I phoned a friend of mine who has been there before and he gave me some directions which I obviously misunderstood. I went the wrong way and after I managed to get out of the mud the first time I stuck in it fatally the next one. It was about 6 pm in the afternoon and I had no coverage to call someone. However I walked back to the main road and luckily I knew a guy who lives about 40 km away in a small and beautiful village who came to help. Around 12 noon we managed to get the car out safely. It was really muddy situation. The car has to be repaired as one part was broken. The next two days I spent in the village with my saviour. Then I had something else to do and I had to go.
Second try was about a month later in early June. I was guiding an American couple and we were on our way to Istanbul as they want me to leave them there to continue their EU trip. They also refused to join me to the river and decided to spend one day at the sea side. So I had a day off. Of course fishing is what a guide does on his day off and I went again on the same road. Well not quite the same this time I went on the correct one and managed to reach that border village called Slivarovo which has nine permanent citizens. They bring them bread twice a week. When I asked the local guy what about the winter? He said : "Well winter is not so long here a couple of months, we survive". Tough people. This time I managed to reach the river and even saw it. It was not possible to fish it as the water was brown like the mud I stuck in the last time. This time was the flood.
Third try was in the beginning of July. July is my favorite month. This time it was all good. I reached the river and yes! It looked like perfect fishing conditions. It had been high but was dropping now. What a beautiful place. The wildest river I have ever fished in Bulgaria and probably the most varying. It has flat parts and fast ripples, deep pools, waterfalls, islands… everything a river can offer. I fished a Jig PY nymph with hot spot on number 12 and 10 hooks as I wanted to put it deep and fast. I caught the first one. Finally success. Then I caught another one and another one. Fish were everywhere where it looked good for them. Biologists here believe that this is one of the few rivers in the country where trout haven't been influenced by stocking or anything. Pure wild brownies. The next pool looked promising. I cast my fly at the end of it to fish the close part first. Immediately after the fly landed on the water I felt the take. This was a good fish. It made a few spectacular jumps and fought really hard. Then I managed to land it and took a quick picture. What beautiful fish. Quite slim but really nice.
For those two hours I had I caught a dozen fish a few of which were over a foot and the big one which was around 18 inches. What an experience I had. I felt really great and certainly consider that to be on an unknown river for a first time and explore it where everything we see is new to us is one of the greatest feelings in fly fishing. This hasn't happened to me for a while and I was lucky that afternoon.
There is a lot more to explore there and I'll be back some time again.
To see more from Stan please visit his excellent website