June 4, 2013
An unusual start to a day, at 7 AM sharp we drove Vladi’s car ON to a train at the Slovenian train station of Most Na Soči. Yes, I, Vladi (his foot feels much better) and his car drove up a platform and on a flatbed train car and at 7:30 the train headed through some fantastic countryside, through some short tunnels and then a long six km tunnel through a mountain. We popped out in the village of Bohinjska Bistrica, right on Slovenia’s famous Sava Bohinjka River.
I’m not much for short tunnels when I’m driving my own rig through the Rockies. Sitting in the front seat of a car that’s not running through tunnels on the flatbed of a train in the boonies of Europe had me very uneasy. The dust and smell of the train engine when deep underground was unnerving. I was thrilled when we poked back out into daylight. The trip took exactly one hour. Had we drove around without using the train it would have taken three hours – I guess it was worth it.
The Sava Bohinjka is yet another beautiful river of Slovenia. There are no marble trout here but the crystal clear river is full of grayling, rainbow and also the occasional nonnative huchen. We got licenses at a local fly shop where Vladi knew the owner and we were on our way.
We were on the water before 10 AM. It was a wide flat stretch of river with the occasional rise in every direction. Just enough that you couldn’t decide which way to go. Of course it started raining as we started and didn’t stop again. It’s officially rained at least some every day I’ve been in Europe. We heard that some parts of Europe are flooding to the north.
The fishing was tremendous. At our first spot Vladi and I crushed nice grayling on dry flies. I was sight fishing to most of them and landed a heap 11” to 14”. They are beautifully yellow colored grayling with a scattering of spots up front. If you cast tight to the bank anywhere that trees dipped into the water you were sure to catch a par marked rainbow.
We had to catch the train back to our side of the mountains at 5:30 PM. Unfortunately the hatch was accelerating about when we had to leave. I wished we could’ve spent the night over there to check it out more but at the same time, today was my sixth fishing day in a row. Instead we had an early night and I believe tonight I’ll get some extra needed rest.
Cool train ride, you had the best seats in the house.
Very cool., Everything about this trip has been cool Two days left. Tomorrow is probably my last fishing day. 11 straight!