Fly Fishing Italy: The River Noce

Some months ago I posted about a trip to Italy and fishing the Sarca River, which is one of the rivers chosen to host the 38th World Fly Fishing Championships. The other river that has the honor of hosting a session in the World finals is called the Noce River and this was the location for my most recent trip to the region of Terntino Italy.

During this trip myself and two of my fishing buddies David O Donovan and fellow Irish Team member Tom Beecher took part in the Val De Soil Fly Cup competition on the Noce river. This competition was held over three sessions of one hour and fifty minuets long. While you steward a session the beat above it will be your beat in the second half of the session and the angler fishing first then controls you for the same length of time. This format is a very educational one as you get to watch some of the top Italian competitors in action on there own rivers.

We flew into Milan on the Friday morning and had a two and a half hour drive up into the mountains to our location, with the competition starting on the Saturday morning we were keen to get a couple of hours on the river before dark. Our good friend Alessandro had been fishing that morning and the report from the river was that it was fishing very hard and after a few hours spent searching the river this was indeed going to be a tricky river to crack. We began the Saturday morning unknown as to what lied in store for the competition and unsure what sort of catches were expected from the beats. I was glad to be controlling first, for one to see how the locals approach the river and secondly the sun would be on the river when my session was on, which made a huge difference to catching fish. The Italian competitor had 3 fish for his session on slim but heavy nymphs varying in colours and beads, his beat was a fast flowing section and he approach was to search all the margins of the river for fish lying in out of the current.  Following his hour and fifty minuets it was my turn and on the few hours practice the day before we had some fish on scruffy plain Hares Ear nymphs and some with orange thorax's so I began with the same nymphs and through out the session I managed to pick off six trout and take second place in the session, a good start. Results over all were mixed with Tom doing well also and Dave who fished first thing and in a incredibly fast beat found it hard to locate some scoring fish. During the second session Dave had 11 fish and I had the very same, with Tom picking up another good score from his beat; at the end of the first day we were doing ok I was lying in first place, Tom in fourth and Dave and Alessandro in mid table, it was all to play for. 

The river flows down a steep gradient of rock at the foot of the mountains that tower over it and with the snow tops thawing into the river it made the water temperature quite cold. So fishing the first half of the morning session before the sun warms up the air makes it for tough fishing indeed. I began the last session picking up a fish in the first five minuets, but that was to be my score and with only hitting one other fish I fell back down the leader board and finished the competition in tenth place over all. However Tom managed to climb up into third and bronze position for the competition, a great result away from home.

Alessandro finished in 9th place and Dave in 18th over all. It certainly wont be a river that we will fear later this year when team Ireland heads over for the World Finals, its brown trout and pocket fishing waters is similar to our own fishing here and the result was a great confidence boost for Tom who will be competing at the event in September. 

To finish off our four day trip we drove over the mountains to get the evening session and next day on the other competition water, the Sacra River. This river as always served up an abundance of fish for the day and is a contrasting venue to the Noce River, with its gliding pools and clear shallow water. The venues for the World competition in September surely will test all the skills of the anglers and I cant wait to see the array of tactics used to get the fish on the score cards. 

We will make one more practice run to Italy for a competition on the Sacra River in mid May. Hopefully it will be another successful adventure to the Italian mountains with great fishing, great fiends and good results.  

The competitions over here are very well organised and we would like to thank all the organizers and sponsors of the events. They are very sociable tournaments and great opportunities to lean more and more about this ever developing sport we love. i would recommend this location not only for a fishing trip but if you want to develop your skills and learn then theses competitions are a must. I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and if you have any questions or queries please feel free to contact me. Also make sure and check out my website www.piscari-fly.com for all your tungsten beads, Dohiku barbless hooks, the amazing Syndicate Fly Rods, Reels, leaders and much more. Thanks for reading.

Sarca River Italy. Brown Trout Hunting

Recently my-self and a group of fishing buddies headed over to Italy to fish the fabulous Sarca River. The Sarca is a river rising in the Adamello-Presanella mountains, in the Italian Alps and flowing into Lake Garda in Northern Italy. We went there for five days to fish this region and take in the Italian river competition called the "Pialla Cup". The river itself has similarities to that of the rivers I grew up on in the Wicklow Mountains, the water flowed over Granite bed rock and as it made its way through the rocks and boulders it created beautiful pocket water ideal for brown trout and pocket nymphing. 
This river will host three sessions of next years Fips Mouche World

Fly Fishing Championships in September and as the Irish Captain I was eager to see as much of it as possible. We practiced for two days on the river before the competition and we weren't disappointed. While the fishing was not easy; it was very rewarding to the angler that took notice of the runs and pockets where the fish might sit, getting the right angles to attack the fish lies. 
The scenery here was exceptional and the hotel we stayed in was right on the banks of the river. Hotel Belsit was a lovely friendly hotel at very affordable prices. It was around a two and a half hours drive from Milan airport were we flew into. Our good friend Alessandro Freschi had all our arrangements made for our trip and competition. He also kindly tied us a stock of his lovely Sarca Nymph. 

The competition was ran on a team approach where two anglers fished the same beat for one and a half hours while being stewarded by another team. Following that session the anglers who fished would watch over the other team on a different beat. This allowed us the opportunity to witness some of the great Italian anglers in competition mode and see how they would approach this style of river. The scorning couldn't have be simpler, once you hook the fish and net it then it is counted on your card, all sizes count. A good measure taken by the organizers in keeping the competition open till the final session was, which ever team topped their group in their first session would get the worst beat in their next sector depending on the results that came in from that sector. The

competition as a whole was very well organised and very sporting. A total of 56 teams entered the competition and they were very friendly and welcoming to us Irish lads. 

With the possibility of some rising fish the dry fly rod was always on hand but for the most of the trip Nymphing was the most successful method to hook up with fish. My-self and my good friend David O'Donovan teamed up again and we were first on the water in session one on beat 1. The mornings were cold enough till the sun managed to find gaps in the mountain tops to peak through and warm up the water so fishing the early sessions was a bit slower. However we crawled our way through the rocks and took a good second place for the morning with 15 fish.

After lunch we moved down river to the second hardest beat in the next sector. We again found nymphing up behind the rocks and in the noticeable pockets of water the most productive places to catch fish. Following day one, two of the four Irish teams were very well positioned with Damien Walsh and John Willis lying in 5th place, me and Dave sitting in 7th place over all on 4.5 place points. 

All to play for on the second day; a tough draw for the morning saw us slip down to 10th over all with only four fish in our beat. For the final session we managed to get back up to second place in our group again which secured us 7th place over all. With some of the other Irish teams featuring in the top 20 and winning sessions along the way, not a bad result out of 56 teams with some of Europe's top river anglers in the field. 
Looking at the other teams during the competition we were set up very similarly, fishing light rods and fine leaders. The nymph selections ranged from small back nymphs with sliver beads to fine thread bodies and large beads, gold and copper; all adopting a very simple style to their dressing. For me my top nymph was a red butt pheasant tail nymph on a size 16 Dohiku jig with 3mm gold bead, it also had a black CDC hackle on it, this along with the Sarca Nymph did the business. What I did take from being a steward was how the Italians were switching from up stream nymphing to down stream nymphing in the same cast.  Not that this is a new concept but the way they executed the movement of the rod was interesting and was producing fish for them in the final sessions when fishing gets that bit tougher. This is something I look forward to trying out over here next season. 
The well deserved winners with a stunning bag of fish of 138 was Edgardo Donà and his partner Alberto Vignati winning 2 of their 4 sessions.

This was a great trip and certainly a right taster of what is to come for the World Championships next September. This part of Italy is easily accessible for anglers from here and if you would like any information on going to fish this fabulous river please feel free to give me a shout for more details. As always a Pleasure to travel with my fishing pals who make every trip full of adventures and mishaps. 
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the blog, my website link is to the right if you are looking for Dohiku Hooks, Tungsten beads ect. Also make sure to give me a shout at the coming Fly Fair in Galway this November to check out the amazing Syndicate rod range and much more.