Slovenia 2008
By Lindsay Simpson
This year’s trip to Slovenia seemed to come round very quickly. I met Graeme Sharp and James Gardner at Stansted from their connecting flight from Edinburgh. Graham Lumsden the architect of the trip was to join us later from Ipswich, he was being dropped of by car. There was a setback in that Jim Fisher was unable to attend the trip at short notice so we were to make the trip as we did last year with just the four of us. The flight was uneventful other than Graeme being winked at from across the aircraft from a group of lesbians on their way to a wedding in Bled, we arrived in Ljubiana around 1645. We were met with a wall of heat as we left the plane and memories of last years fantastic weather came flooding back.
After picking up the hire car we headed straight for the tackle shop in Bled to reacquaint ourselves with Matej who works there. He told us that the fishing had not been great due to snow melt and continual rain. Indeed the forecast for the weekend was for heavy rain. Undeterred we purchased more flies than you could shake a stick at
as well as our fishing permits for the Sava trophy section for the Saturday and Sunday. The plan was to fish the Soca on the Friday with a guide that Graham had organised. That done we headed down to the accommodation again we were staying at the excellent Fauna fly fishing lodge http://www.fly-fishing-slovenia.si/. This is a fantastic facility and tailored to the visiting angler it is run by Rok Mikec an experienced angler and very knowledgeable about the fishing in Slovenia. After an offering of Blueberry snap we headed of back to town to have some food. The guide that had been booked for the Soca the next day was unavailable in a mix up at their end, this was to work in our favour as we had booked for five anglers. Graham was able to renegotiate for four anglers and we were to pick our guide up at the petrol station at 0700hrs. His name was Luca and his English was very good on the drive over he told us that there was a fair chance that we would be able to catch a marble trout something we were all keen to do after only Graham achieving the feat last year.
On arriving at the Soca Luca showed us what was likely to catch, we all tackled up and first of all 
he took Graeme to the river who was almost immediately into a lively rainbow. Luca had an amazing ability to spot fish in the water that a mere mortal like myself was unable to do. He sent Graham and James down the river a little then took me into the river. He pointed out a number of fish that I could not see but he directed me to cast in the right direction. After several attempts Luca asked if he could show me. One cast later and he passes the rod back to me with a good rainbow on the end, impressive stuff. The Soca is a beautiful river and place and I am sure there is little in the world to rival this. It was an excellent mornings fishing and we all took a few fish. Last year James was on a blank after his trip to the Soca this year he was crowned the Marble Master as he caught no less than three marbled trout. The remainder of us caught rainbow, brown trout and grayling. The weather was holding up and we were all having a whale of a time. The guide certainly knew his trade and looked after us all very well. In the afternoon we made our way up a tributary of the Soca eventually coming to a small pool that held around 35 fish Luca and I crawled up to the pool on our hands and knees and he pointed out the marble trout in the pool. After five or six terrible attempts at casting to the fish I could feel Luca’s impatience growing. James was just behind me so a motioned him to come forward to have a go. He later told me that when he got to Luca he had said “there were thirty five fish in this pool there are now two! Take your pick” I was then dubbed Spooky Simpson from then on and wise anglers did not bother with a pool after I had been through it. No Marble trout for the Graemes or I but still a fantastic days fishing. The weather had closed in and it was raining heavily by the time we called it a day and started back towards Bled. We enjoyed a pizza for our tea that evening and then back to the digs for a couple of night caps. I think I speak for us all when I say we were glad to see our beds that night.
The next morning we were up early again to tackle the Sava. We stopped of for some bread rolls from the local bakery and made our way down to the trophy section. The river was very high and much of it inaccessible. Two Italians who had driven over the night before took one look at the weather forecast and drove back to Italy without casting a line. I have to say that this was a mistake as the fishing on that day was amazing. We all started around the weir where we had enjoyed so much success the year before. It was not disappointing the two Graham’s to be known from this point on as Electric (Lumsden) and Jighead (Sharp) stayed at the weir whilst James and I made our way down the bank. James and I both found fish near the end of the section but it was plain that only very small parts of the river were fishable. I caught a nice brown trout and others caught some nice grayling and rainbows. After a while Electric and Jighead joined us. Jighead then related the story of how they had made their way down the bank only to come across a small low fence. On touching the fence Electric jumped back and said “I think it may be electric”. Just to make sure he touched it again and confirmed that it was indeed electrified (and 
this guy fixes helicopters god help the AAC). After negotiating the electric fence they both told us that after James and I had left that the river had been stocked up by the weir and the fishing had got very easy. We all headed up the river to get some. Jighead had gotten a pair of concrete shoes and you couldn’t have gotten him out of his spot just below the weir with a crowbar. He had found a new method which involved casting something like a house brick into the weir and jigging it back. It was highly effective and Graeme went on to catch a lot of fish before cramp set in and he had to move from his spot.
Electric and I were above the weir and we were both having a ball I was using a heavy nymph and picking up some very nice fish Graham was using dry fly and quite literally getting a fish a chuck. I changed to a single dry and started to catch at an alarming rate at one point I caught a small rainbow but was trying to undo a knot in my line so I let it swim around while I sorted my admin out. I had no sooner cleared my lines when all my slack line went shooting through the rod rings and line had started being ripped of my reel. A hucho had made short work of the small rainbow and had hooked itself on my dry fly. I only seen a glimpse of the fish which took all my line and then bust me up it looked big. Oh well never mind after sorting myself out I cast out again to be rewarded with my best grayling to date around 2lb unfortunately when I was trying to photograph it my rod decided to take a tour of the river so it was rod and line for the rest of the trip or a photograph of the grayling, I still have my rod. Another fantastic days fishing and not at all spoilt by the high water or heavy rain and another to look forward to the next day.
We awoke the next morning to a sad Rok who said the rain was in for the day. None the less we went down to the river and noted that it was a good three to four feet up on the previous day. The rest of the guys still managed to catch a few fish but my inferior skills let me down and I failed to catch in the fast flowing water. By lunch time we had decided that the river was a wash out and to seek sport elsewhere.
After a quick call to Rok it was arranged for us to go and fish another river which was not in flood, we were told that this would cost a further 40 Euros. On arriving at the shop to pick up the tickets we were informed that Rok had spoken to the Club President and that we would be allowed to fish the remainder of the day for free. Top quality customer service and a real nice gesture that will keep us coming back for years to come. I must say I was in no hurry to get fishing again and the rest of the guys were kitted up and gone by the time I had my feet on the ground. The last I remember was Graham saying back to the van at last light. Eventually I got geared up and started to walk up the river looking over to where I might get in. Little did I know that the other guys had gone no further than the weir we had parked at. I finally found a glide that I thought was worth a chuck and fished it to no avail. I managed to cross the river at this point and started to fish up stream for about 500m until it was too deep to wade. I then got onto the opposite bank to the road and kept wandering up the river, I was surprised not to have passed any of the other guys. After walking a few kilometres I started to worry that I was a little lost, I tried in vain to cross the river back to the road side several times. What I did know was there was a bridge further down the river; all I had to do was hug the bank and then cross the bridge....easy. I kept as close to the river as I could and soon found myself climbing a steep slope on a very narrow path great views of the river. The next instant the path gave way and I slide down the side of the slope right into the river the drop was around 40ft and was mostly skree, thankfully I was uninjured and my rod was in one piece. Once I had got myself together I realised that I would have to climb back up as the river was too fast and too deep to cross. I eventually got to the top (note to self must get fit) and started walking down the path again. I felt sure I would come across the bridge soon. Another kilometre down the bank and I was fortunate to bump into a local, he did not speak much English and my Slovenian is a little rusty but I got my message across and he in his way informed me that I had walked past the bridge about 500m back (Joy). I made my way back and crossed the bridge, relieved I thought I would stop for a rest and take a few photos. It was at this point that Graeme arrived asking where the f**k I had been and everyone was worried sick. I had left the van open and no one knew where I was they were only minutes away from calling the rescue teams out. A dramatic end to a very wet but enjoyable trip.
The day we were leaving the sun came out and we done the tourist thing around Bled it is a lovely place we also had time to have a walk around Ljubiana and had lunch there. I am considering a family holiday to this very beautiful country and below are some pictures of the reason why.
