Fly Punk - Issue 5

Day 2 – Lepena – Marble Trout
On to day 2 and we had over an hour’s
drive to Lepena – through some
stunning scenery and mountain
passes – the view coupled with
my dodgy driving (I will admit that
driving on mountain switchbacks
in a left hand drive car with Darrell
screaming if I got too close to either
the rock face or the edge of the
road was a challenge). The Lepena
is an upper Soca tributary and has
been featured in many under water
films and photographs. The fish and
insects are as good as anywhere
in Slovenia - It’s one of the highest
alpine streams. Caddis line the
boulders with their white cases. We
arrived and picked up our permits
and were then let loose for the day
on the river.
We parked up at the side of the
river and started on what would be
a memorable day’s fishing. Again
Darrell was immediately into fish,
whereas I was struggling to adapt
to the conditions. After a brief chat
I was on track and started to get
takes. We fished all day (stopping
briefly for a spot of lunch with
Kevin and some of his other guests
to tell tales and swap hints and
tips). It was towards the
end of the day when the
magic happened. Darrell
summed it up perfectly
on his blog (www.
thetreetrout.co.uk):
“Moving further up as the
evening drew in we started
negotiating steeper faster
runs of water with lots of
rock formations. I was
in front of Richard and
came to the Goldfish bowl
first, the rain was still
spitting and as it began to stop the
pool came alive. I cast my fly into
a section of water about 6 inches
deep which glided over a rock into
the main pool. As it entered the pool
I watched a fish rise from around
15 feet below and spiral its way to
the top before sipping the fly from
the surface. The fish gave a spirited
fight, the unhooking isn’t worth
talking about as the fish tied me
in tangles and caused all sorts of
havoc to my leader and fly line.
With all the activity in the pool I
turned and whistled to Richard to
get him to move up here quickly.
I stepped aside and let Richard
have a cast, which after some work
got a very confident take. Quickly
downing my rod to man the net I
moved into place. As the fish neared
the surface I was gob smacked, I
turned to Rich and said it’s a Marble,
I’m sure. In turn this caused some
panic, with Richard in not so many
words telling me to hurry up and
net it!. Indeed it was a Marble which
now sat in the net and gave us both
a great big grin!. The timing of the
capture couldn’t have been any
better as we were both
just considering calling
it a day. For those of you
who have never seen
a marble in the flesh
then I must say you are
missing out. They are
very peculiar fish and
very attractive in and out
of the water, it is easy to
see why these fish grow
so big when you see their
habitats in person.”
So there it was we had
caught the famed Marble
Trout. Nothing could
top that, so a few casts
later and with the light
really starting to fade we
decided to head back.
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