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.
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.
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