My family had granted me another day of fishing in the Soča Valley, which gave me more time to experiment in pursuit of the legendary marble trout.
Back in Germany, while preparing for this trip, I had studied the map meticulously. And the tributaries of the Soča such as the Koritnica, Tolminka, Trebusica, Učja… had raised my curiosity. In many “legendary” fly fishing destinations, the lesser known tributaries often provide much better fishing, because everyone wants to catch something in the famous waters of the main river and fishing pressure is accordingly higher. If this would apply here aswell?
I decided to try the Lepena, which has its source in the flanks of the Triglav National Park and flows through a beautiful side valley for roughly 5 kilometres until it flows into the Soča near Bovec. On the map, it looked quite promising.
But upon my arrival I directly saw two fisherman with a guide in the lower part of the Lepena and my dream of fishing a lonely tributary evaporated in an instant. I grabbed my stuff and started to walk upstream to get some distance between me and the others, but there were fresh footprints in the fine gravel alongside the water… I definitely wouldn’t be the first to fish here today. How many fisherman could this little creek bear in a day?
The valley and the creek looked gorgeous though, with lots of structure and extremely clear water, overhanging trees, big boulders and dead wood… The rather small marble trout were hard to spot in this setting, and I spooked a handful of beautiful fish because I hadn’t seen them. It was easier with the rainbows, and I was soon able to catch a nice fish on a small nymph.
Only minutes later, alongside a large boulder, I saw something greenish in the current between the stones. Was it just some elongated piece of rock or could this be a marble trout? The surface of the water glittered in the sunlight, and the entire ground seemed to wiggle in the current, I could’t tell for sure… As I made a cast with my nymph, I seemed to notice a slight movement of the green shape, lifted the rod, and had hooked up to a nice little marble!
As I continued my way upstream, I passed wonderful blue pools, but they were infested with rainbows – very probably those pools had been stocked recently, and there were way too many fish for such a tiny stream! Although rainbows do not hybridize with marble trout, they do feed on the same things, and therefore increase feeding pressure. Other small fish species such as sculpins have been wiped out in similar settings due to overstocking. I decided to free the Lepena from two of those rainbows and took them home for dinner (I had a catch-and-keep licence).
I met two more anglers who were fishing downstream, they had caught many rainbows as well.
All in all a beautiful creek in a beautiful valley, but too many fisherman and a questionable stocking policy. But I was happy nevertheless, to have made this experience. And I had caught a nice marble trout and there was nothing to regret. But the Lepena didn’t give me what I was looking for…
The last day, I would go “all in” on the Soča again.
