Slovenia: It's a Marble

Slovenia:

It’s a Marble

This trip started about 8 years ago when we were in Germany at an outdoor trade show. The state of Idaho had a grant that got us a free booth, so we said; Sure! why not? We had never been to Germany, and it seemed like it could be good for business. It was not! Our booth ended up being in the far corner of the only unairconditioned hangar in the show. People rarely walked by. So, what do you do in a situation like this? Leave the show early every day to go fishing.

By DREW HOLLENBACK, www.tenkararodco.com

The thing about people who fish is they seem to find each other. A German familiar with the area gave us a good spot to check out. There was another guy from the state of Utah booth named Lars who fished as well, so he joined us.

After the show, Lars was heading on a sales trip but first was stopping in Switzerland to fish with a friend he met on Instagram named Francois (@klorklor or Frank as we like to call him). Frank happens to be one of the coolest guys you will ever meet and showed us some really fun spots in Switzerland for a couple of days. He invited us to stay at his childhood home in the Swiss Alps overlooking a huge valley and we ate locally sourced food that his mom cooked up for us. The trip was fun, but it left us wanting more. (Sidenote: We had so much fun on our trip that we hired Lars, and he has been with us ever since).

Digging deeper

Fast forward a few years and Frank invited us back. But this time he wanted to do a bigger trip through Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia. He brought along his friends Mattieu and Geoffrei as well. So, it ended up being the 3 of us from Tenkara Rod Co (Drew, Tuna, and Lars), and 3 French-speaking Swiss guys.

They also speak great English so there was not a language barrier. But with different cultures, there are always going to be some barriers, until you figure out the language of laughter. Once we started joking around then it was all over, and we quickly became good friends.

“We caught hundreds of fish, mostly brown trout and brook trout””

My one tip to anybody going to a different country or even in your own country is to try and get people to laugh. Once you can share some chuckles then you can do anything. For example, we were getting coffee at an Italian fly shop, and the owner started making everybody coffees. He had made 4 coffees and then on the fifth, for some reason, he yelled “coffee number 5”. So then for the rest of the trip (and even now) anytime coffee is around we have to yell “coffee number 5”. This trip was more like 3 separate trips all linked together. So, I will try to recount each the best I can.

Tenkara fishing in Switzerland

Switzerland offers some of the most uniquely beautiful backdrops when fly fishing. And we haven’t found a better Tenkara fishing spot since.

Oftentimes, a winding road through the Alps is close by, but you are in a little canyon, climbing waterfalls, fishing in little pools, and it’s so open with mountains all around you. We never saw another fisherman once.

The fish don’t get that big, but they are plentiful. We caught hundreds of fish, mostly brown trout and brook trout. What they lack in size they make up for in color, catching some of the most stunning trout with that backdrop is hard to beat.

On one occasion Tuna, Frank, and myself were fishing up a little creek near a road. On almost every cast we were catching colorful brook trout. There was an electrical fence next to us keeping the cows out of the creek, and on one occasion Frank hooked up with a fish from the wrong side of the fence, as he bent over to net the fish he brushed up against the fence and fell to the ground yelling, haha!

Camping in a vineyard

Switzerland isn’t the friendliest place to camp, but luckily these guys knew some spots. We ended up camping in the middle of a vineyard one night. Eating out can be expensive also, but our Swiss friends taught us a thing or two about fishing snacks. Instead of a bag of chips or granola bars, we were eating riverside caprese salads, fresh baguettes, and mushrooms. Ever since this trip we try to bring along delicious fresh food whenever we fish, it just adds to the whole fishing experience.

Heading towards the Dolomites

On our last day in Switzerland, a storm started to roll in, so we packed up and headed over the St. Bernard pass to Italy and started to make our way to the Dolomites. Being from the US you don’t hear a lot about Italian fishing. But just imagine an insanely unique mountain range, picturesque little mountain towns, incredible food, and rivers all around that have nice fish. Logistically, it’s a little bit tricky to figure out. You need to get a fishing license at the post office, and then figure out where you want to fish and find who you need to get permission from or schedule a time to fish certain waters.

We met a guy named Angelo from www. flyfishdolomiti.com who helped us get all our permits figured out and scheduled us for a time on a river on our first day there. There are pros and cons to the system they use in Italy. It’s difficult to figure outlogistically, but once you are out on the water at your scheduled time you know that no one else will be there.

So that whole stretch of water is yours and you don’t have to worry about someone else fishing your spot.

“It’s a maaarble”

That evening session, the fishing was mediocre. We all caught some small to medium-sized fish. But as it got darker, and we were just about done for the day, we found ourselves in a nice caddis hatch. We were all catching fish and it kind of made the day. Then right about dark, we were about to call it quits, but I saw some eats on the other side of a big boulder. So, I brought my fly in, applied some floatant, blew on it, and decided this would be my last cast.

My fly was barely visible, but I cast in front of the boulder and saw it disappear, so I set the hook. There were 5 people still around at that point and we all witnessed a very nice fish jump in the air and splash trying to free itself from the hook. It was then that Angelo said, “If it’s a marble, don’t lose that fish!” And, luckily, I didn’t lose it.

We got the fish netted and it turned out to be a beautiful 60 cm marble trout. This was - and probably still is - my favorite trout I have ever caught. On a small dry fly right at dark with 5 friends around to witness it all.

It was too dark to get really good photos or video, but the memory of that fish lives on with the phrase: “It’s a maaaaarble” (said with our best Italian accent). For some reason, we took Angelo’s words spoken very calmly “If it’s a marble, don’t lose that fish” and converted them into that phrase.

Wrapping up in Slovenia

While Slovenia, and the Soca River in particular, are better known for big marble trout, the pinnacle of the trip for me was that Italian marble. However, as we made our way to Slovenia, we knew this was the part of the trip we were most excited about.

“The watercolor in Slovenia is unreal”

The watercolor in Slovenia is unreal, the scenery is stunning, and it’s a fairly cheap country (except for the price of fishing licenses, haha!). We found a nice place to camp called Camp Lazar right along the Soca River. They also have a delicious restaurant there for after-fishing meals and make a very potent watermelon jungle juice.

We fished various different waters in Slovenia. The Soca was the main attraction, but we found out that some amazing fisheries pour into it. One, in particular, happened to be the best scenery of any fishing spot any of us had ever seen. You are fishing through these slot canyons with walls on each side. Each little pool has fish in it, and in some cases, you are swimming through the pools to climb the cascade that brings you to the next spot. I couldn’t tell you the name of the river because I can’t remember it, but it is the river that I now compare any beautiful fishing spot to.

We caught loads of fish in Slovenia. Tuna and Frank both caught really nice rainbows, we all caught marbles, and we even caught some brown/marble hybrids. I have fished in New Zealand, Patagonia, Alaska, and all over the US, but when someone asks me where my favorite place to fish in the world is, I would have to say Slovenia. There are just so many rivers with diverse scenery and features, a nice variety of fish, and access is amazing. But all 3 of these places will always be special and memorable to all of us.

The highlights

It wasn’t just the fish we caught that made the trip. It was the massive cordon bleus we ate in Switzerland (that made Lars super sick the next day), the freeway espresso stops in Italy, the Swiss cows with bells on high up in the Alps, the insanely blue color of the Soca, eating pizza and pasta at an Italian restaurant right next to where we just caught fish, but mostly just adventuring around Europe with our Swiss friends is what we will remember most.

Normally, when you think of fly fishing and adventure, you might think of getting dropped off in a float plane in the middle of nowhere in Alaska or taking a boat across a lake in New Zealand and hiking for 10 miles to an amazing fishery with no one around. These are things we have done and all great adventure experiences. But making new friends, experiencing new cultures, and catching new fish, all in places where people normally go sightseeing, was an adventure all on its own. This trip took place pre-covid and we are dying to go back.