This month Kris Kent takes us to Slovenia.
A few years back I was lucky enough to stay at The Scourie Hotel in the north of Scotland. A week fishing the highland lochs in stunning scenery. Whilst waiting for dinner I got chatting to a family party in the lounge. It turned out the grandfather had been going to Scourie each year for decades, since he was a small boy, and now he was introducing his grandson to the famous fishing hotel. Some people love going back to the same holiday location year in year out. An ex girlfriend's parents loved going to the same hotel on the northeast coast of England every year, the same room the same week. I guess it’s the familiarity, the predictability, meeting up with old friends, getting to know a place in depth. I have never had the urge to go back to somewhere again and again. I prefer the unknown and the new. Discovering new places and people, new foods and experiences, new rivers.
A small bunch of my fishing buddies and I like to explore new overseas fishing destinations each year. We started out going on organised trips to Scandinavia, Poland and Bosnia and more recently we have organised our own trips to Norway and Slovenia. In 2014, on the recommendation of Stuart Minnikin, we arranged an adventure to the Idrijca valley in Slovenia. Stuart had written some articles for Hardy's Fin and Fly ezine about his stays in Slovenia exploring the Idrijca and Soca catchments staying with Kate and Brett Bedford at Tilnik Farm. We enjoyed it so much that in 2015 we returned for a second visit. Whilst there was a degree of familiarity it was a study in unpredictability and contrasts.
What was familiar was the landscape, the hospitality and the camaraderie. The west of Slovenia is stunning. The steep hill sides of the Irdrijca valley are swathed in virgin mixed broadleaf and coniferous forest and studded with small farms and hamlets perched high above the river valleys. The white spires of the churches glint in the summer sun, bells calling you to mass twice a day.
The upper Soca rises high in the limestone mountains, which dominate the vista, and cuts deep gorges before broadening out near Kobarid. In its middle reaches the Soca valley is more open with broad hay pastures and larger towns. The lower Soca is dominated by a series of large dams.
Wildlife abounds. Mouflon, roe and red deer roam the forests, there are rarely seen bears, lynx and wild cats. A beech marten lived under the farmhouse we stayed in. When it rains fire salamanders litter the forest paths and when the sun shines small lizards bathe on the white washed farmhouse walls.
You see very few animals in the fields. A few goats and sheep are kept on the steeper slopes. The fields are kept for making hay, typically three cuts per year. The hay meadows abound with wild flowers and are alive with rodents and insects, big green crickets and brown grasshoppers.
For the non anglers there are small unspoilt villages and towns to explore, numerous churches perched high on hilltops, prehistoric sites, museums, long distance walks and mountain bike trails. Bars, cafes and restaurants abound selling excellent coffee, local beers and wonderful local foods for very little money. Great value.
For the angler the main rivers run gin clear over limestone rocks and gravels. Long wadeable runs periodically disappearing into seemingly bottomless pools. There are numerous tributaries - some calmly making their way through fields and woods, some crashing down steep tight valleys cut into the mountain sides, some running constrained by concrete walls through industrial complexes - which all in all offer a huge variety of fishing all easily accessible through day tickets sold by the local clubs. Depending on where you go there are barble and chub, hard fighting rainbows, European grayling, introduced brown trout and the native marble trout (Salmo marmoratus) with which the brown trout interbreed to produce hybrids. The marbles can get very big, well over a metre in length and 20kg in weight, although we only caught them to around 5lbs.
On both our visits the hospitality and service provided by Kate and Brett was unsurpassed, nothing was ever too much trouble. Kate and Brett sold up in the UK and moved to Slovenia just as it joined the European Union. They bought a rundown farmstead with a few acres perched high above the Irdrijca river near Cerkno. They set to doing it up and getting the smallholding back into production inbetween working for a bridge engineers, for Brett, and offering language classes and sports physiotherapy, for Kate. The farmstead now provides a range of accommodation for holiday makers and visiting anglers with additional accommodation at the nearby Reka Farmhouse, where we stayed, which Kate and Brett look after for its English owners. On arrival Kate and Brett greeted us with beers, local schnapps and a platter of local meats and cheese. Very welcome after the drive from the airport.
Each morning Kate would arrive around 08.00 to cook us breakfast. Cereals, local breads, fried eggs, bacon and sausages. Depending on appetite. Brett would guide us on the rivers with the help of local guides, Gregor Zupanacic on the Idrijca and Matthew Calderaro on the Soca. At lunch time the coolbox would appear stocked with bread rolls, cheeses, hams and salamis, cold drinks and some of Kates’s tray bakes, which are delicious beyond description. Each evening Kate would return to Reka with homemade dinners and desserts to be washed down with beers and local red wine sourced direct from a neighbour. On both trips we had the chance to visit Kate and Brett at Tilnik, look round the apartments and meet the dogs, Ruby and Lupa.
Great food, beer and a schnapps or two inevitably resulted in sleepiness and a nap in the sun. Our slumber only disturbed by a doggy lick from Ruby.
The final familiar aspect of our trips was the banter and the bonhomie. Paul, Charles and I form the hardcore of the party with Simon and Sean joining us in 2014 and Denise in 2015. We all know each other reasonably well and like nothing better than to denigrate, defame, besmirch, abuse, insult, belittle and deprecate one another. We are now all quite used to this and think nothing of it, we are all thick skinned and take it in our stride. I think Kate and Brett were a little taken aback initially but they soon joined in and enjoyed the banter. They got quite good at the abuse in the end.
The biggest difference between our two trips was the river conditions. Our first visit was in September 2014. The rivers were in good fettle, plenty of water running clean and clear. Despite the clarity the depth of water gave the fish confidence and whilst we didn’t see a lot of fly hatching off the fish would rise confidently to the artificial. On the deeper faster runs and on the bigger Soca river a streamer would bring the bigger rainbows and marbles out, although converting follows into takes wasn’t easy. On our last day the rain set in and the river came up making the wading challenging, as we drove back to the airport the river was in full spate. When we arrived back in June 2015 for our second visit the unusually dry winter and spring had left the Idrijca low and very clear.
In the photo below Simon is wading deep on the Idrijca below the Reka Bridge on the first day of our 2014 trip. This year Simon would be standing on a vast exposed gravel bank with the river pushed over towards the true right bank.
Once again not much fly was seen hatching off but now fish were spooky in the thin water and were easily spooked. We had to skip past the flat runs and pools and focus on the faster runs or try a heavy nymph in the deeper water. The upper reaches and smaller tributaries often saved the day, deeper faster water afforded the fish safety and us cover. A bushy Elk Hair Sedge or CDC and Elk pitched into pocket water would often bring fish up to the surface.
And despite conditions we each caught fish each day, although not always in the same quantities as in 2014. On the Cerknica, which runs through an industrial site just outside Cerkno, Charles and I caught over thirty fish each in 2014 whilst in 2015 we only managed a dozen fish between us.
One of the wonderful aspects of this year’s trip was the opportunity to visit the Unica, a real contrast with the Idrijca and Soca rivers. The Unica flows across the limestone Karst over the mountains from our base near Idrija. The Karst is permeable limestone and the Unica periodically disappears below the surface only to reappear a few miles on. We first met it as it appeared out of a cave, ‘Planinska Jama’.
The Unica is a premier grayling river. The low clear water meant you could see them, and they were everywhere. But it also meant they could see us and they were surprisingly spooky for grayling especially the big ones. Presentation had to be perfect with zero drag. This usually meant fishing downstream, very European. They were more forgiving in the faster runs.
The grayling on the Unica have a distinctive red patch on their flanks and a redder tail than grayling on the Idrijca and Soca. Beautiful.
So after two trips to Slovenia will I be back again? Hell yes, but probably not for a year or two. Too many rivers too little time, but as Arnie said “I’ll be back”.
Further information on staying at Tilnik Farm can be found at:
http://www.tilnikfarm.com/fishing.html
Articles on Slovenia by Stuart Minnikin are available on the Hardy Greys website:
http://fly.hardyfishing.com/en-gb/ezine/june-2012/marble-trout-in-slovenia-by-stuart-minnikin.php
http://fly.hardyfishing.com/en-gb/ezine/december-2013/fly-fishing-in-slovenia-by-stuart-minnikin.php
For information on the fishing offered by the Angling Club of Tolmin go to:
http://www.flyfishing.si/reke.php
The Idrija Fishing Clubs website has details of fishing on the Idrijca and tributaries:
http://rd-idrija.si/wordpress/en/