Today was team practice on the feared Noce River. I say feared because our Italian guide Stefano thinks this river will blank many contestants in the World Master’s Fly Fishing Championships next week. A blank and your team is in trouble. With that in mind, we all had to catch at least a fish today on this beautiful wild trout and grayling inhabited river.
There’s and Upper and Lower Noce River section in this competition. Pete and I practiced near the Upper a few days ago so today we went below the Lower section. A brutal call knowing it’s a jungle of bushes, trees, swamp, blackberry prickers and etc., but we knew if we caught some fish it would be the ultimate confidence builder.
We had a more serious hurdle beyond fighting our way through the hostile landscape to the water however. Further downstream means lower elevation and its actually where the Noce breaks out of the mountains in to the open valley. The temperature was 38°C which in turn is almost 101°F. A wonderful day to wader up and go trout fishing! And so you know, if I don’t know the water, I always wader up.
Pete and I picked the most tree covered part of the Noce for maximum shade. It was a mess for casting. Beyond that just getting to the water was hell busting through acres of blackberry bushes. But we both picked this interesting water apart. I worked the edges with short casts and dry flies and lo and behold, caught six browns. Only three would have been big enough to count but as Stefano says, catch just one fish and your score should be excellent.
Pete didn’t have such luck. He had a frustrating practice today. He spent most his time with a streamer and had numerous grabs but couldn’t connect. My theory is its great to have at least one frustrating practice day. For me its kind of like – get such a day out of the way. But everyone on this team is a fighter and Pete insisted on staying till he got a fish. Way to go! He ended up with this nice marble to end our day.
We met the guys around 3 PM for a superb lunch. Jerry, Stefano, Pete and I ate here last practice trip to the Noce and what I remembered most was the cold beer. We made sure to enjoy some more today! Better yet, all the guys caught at least once fish!
After lunch the guys walked some of the actual Lower Noce beats that will be used in competition next week. Pete and I did this last trip here so we opted to return to Madonna di Campiglio to catch up on life. We’ve been here over a week already. Wow. I love this place!