Grayling and The Laws of Optics

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Pliva’s golden grayling. Photo by Zeljko Prpic.

The date is approaching. Another trip to river Pliva is at sight.

Frustrating and absorbing in equal parts, Pliva offers some of the most challenging sight nymphing you can find anywhere. Even blind fishing with tungsten beaded nymphs is pretty special.

There is a particular stretch with big grayling up to 55/56 centimeters long —maybe more; I don’t know for sure, as seeing them and catching them are very different things, and I haven’t managed to catch one of the really big guys yet—,  that you often see actively feeding suspended like floating in thin air at depths up to three meters.

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Downstream Dry Fly Only

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Downstream on river Pliva

Upstream dry fly only, that is the rule stablished in some English chalkstreams by their managers. The rule in the Balkan spring creeks is exactly the opposite: downstream dry fly only, this time imposed by the fish themselves; the only law that incorporates in itself the punishment of frustation of those who violate it.

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