Before I get started on today’s fishing adventures here in Italy, I want to re-introduce our Team Manager, Jerry Arnold. He’s been on this blog many times – with every World Masters Fly Fishing Championship along with a couple trips to Mexico over the years. Plain and simple, we (me, Pete and the rest of Team USA) would not be here without Jerry. Jerry single handedly sponsors the team covering every expense from plane tickets to beer, wine and drinks. Yes, you heard me correctly, Jerry buys our drinks within reason!
The fact that Jerry buys our drinks each evening does explain our first stop today. We hit the grocery store for snacks, water as well as beer, wine and gin. We didn’t know it, but Pete’s double gin and tonics at the Carlo Magno Hotel and Spa cost Jerry $24 a piece! Let’s just say, we are likely to do our after fishing refreshments in our hotel rooms the rest of the trip.
Today we fished the Noce River. The Noce was about a 1.5 hour drive from Madonna di Campiglio through Cles. In fact, we went through the license buying craziness again in Cres. Once we got legal we headed to some “Official Practice” water. To access this place, we had to park at a brain jarring rock quarry.
This part of the Noce is very pretty – especially once you get far enough from the quarry not to hear it. The mid-sized river has a glacial blue tinge to its clarity as it meanders under grassy undercut banks and overhanging trees.
Once rigged and ready, we were quickly informed by our guide Stefano that the Noce will be the make it or break it session in this World Championships. The brown trout here are wild and wise. And along with browns are also the marble trout. The marble trout on the Noce often exceed 20 inches and with all the rocks, grass and tree limbs, are very difficult to land.
While Jerry won’t fish the competition next week, he loves fishing. Stefano sent myself, Jerry and Pete loose with advice that nymphing works best. I put on two David Chlumsky Czech nymphs and went to work. 15 minutes in none of the three of us touched a fish. That’s when Stefano started fishing. While usually guides don’t fish, Pete and I enjoy watching and learning from one of Italy’s best. Stefano quickly landed a grayling.
Whenever the European grayling are around, I put on one of the “Great Vladi Trzebunia” Trojan worms. Grayling love it! Stefano had a laugh but on my second or third cast I landed this beautiful little brown trout. The normally deadly fly would catch a couple more browns throughout the morning but the grayling were persnickety.
We by no means slammed fish on the Noce today. We caught fish however and the fact that Stefano thinks that this river will be the toughest venue is excellent news. Honestly, I think wild and difficult trout do Team USA a favor. We are good at catching them.
After Jerry treated us to a fine late afternoon lunch, we visited the actual competition beats of the lower Noce River. While we aren’t allowed to touch, we can peek. All I can say is that they are absolutely beautiful pieces of European trout water.
We returned to our Carlo Magno Hotel and Spa Resort in Madonna di Campiglio just in time for more fantastic Italian food for dinner. We ought to do well in this competition as long as we don’t slow ourselves down too much by eating too much delicious food between now and competition!
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