Rivers

Each of the suggested sites is based upon decades of research, strange encounters, and learning experiences.

Austria, for example, has beautiful pastoral rivers for browns and graylings. Most of its rivers are private water, for which it is extremely difficult to fnd any information. Austrian rivers proposed have a limited access policy. This means fishing an idillic, well kept, clean enviroment with nobody around. Plan in advance for the permits. Seasons run from the last week of May (very difficult time due high water or snow melt) to late fall; the best season to go for dry fly is september. Austria doesn’t always apply the catch&release policy, but it’s an important rule to follow.

Home of the famous “marble trout” and the Danubian salmon (Hucho Hucho), Slovenia provides the best compromise between quality and price.
Its rivers, allmost calcareus drains or chalk-streams, have the perfect conformation to fish with a fly. These are places for many global flyfishers, in every season, but there are many others less known to be fished. Talking about trout and grayling, the seasons are the same of Austria, but are not “close number” rivers. Keep in mind that in the peak of the season( july and august), are crowded places, so we must be very ethic to let space enough for everybody. Slovenia is a good place to spend an holiday with family also, full of accomodation and cheap. Here catch&release is a mandatory.

Central Italy, with its Appennini mountains, offers very few places for flyfishing. The only hidden jewels to discover are the Umbria and Tuscany regions.
These regions include two rivers with several untouched stretches dedicated to fly fishing. Both are very well kept and managed. One of them has also a close-number section. Full of browns and some graylings, these rivers are the best places to measure your dry-fly skills. These resident fishes comes always close to the surface of water for feeding due the uncommon hatches activity. So you can always fish “dry”! Extra light tackle is a rule, catch&release as well as. Narrow and fast water sometimes, but always crystal clear, these lovely rivers never become dirty also during a heavy storm. This enviroment allows for a unique holiday spent trough medioeval heritages, astonish villages built in stones rich of hidden treasures like pre-raphaelitic paintings. We cannot forget the possibility to taste awesome organic food cooked in old cloister kitchen. Guests can also sleep in the original dormi monks rooms.

Scandinavia means a thousand rivers for atlantic salmon. This incredible opportunity leaves you often disoriented to choose. Many years can be spent waiting for the “miracle”, wich is often just an illusion. Expensive beats do not guarantee the success, and often are marketing tool. The right rule for salmon is to be in the river at the right moment. I fish just two rivers and they never betrayed me. The perfect knowledge of these has an outstanding value.  Keep in mind that fishing for salmon needs luck.
Gaula is one of the more stable rivers in Norway for the run, size and catches, but it’s always crowded. Booking in advance, even one year earlier,  sometimes is not enough. Despite of this stable amount of running fish every year, Gaula suffers for being overcrowded. Prepare to spend cold days under a heavy rain, frustrating casting to nowhere...but beauty comes when you never know. I have important contacts to spend my holidays there and usually I find rods for the best weeks.