Flyfishing in Bosnia and Herzegovina

A beautiful holiday and camping complex built by Mr.Jadranko Zolak on the hills of Sanica offers very good rooms and excellent food for a very moderate price, 15 EUR for bed and breakfast. Moreover, lunches and even dinners can be organized and brought to the river Sanica should one decide to fish the Sanica river.

As we needed a guide with experience in all waters, we contacted Mr.Admir (Ado) Jeginovic from http://www.misija-ribolov.com.ba/ to book him as our fishing guide. This proved to be the smartest decision we made for our trip, will explain below why.

First day we decided to fish Sanica river, a beautiful small river with many deep pools and full of Grayling and Trout. In some deep pools you can spot also monster pikes and danube salmon (HUCHO HUCHO). Should you be interested in catching them, it doesn't take a lot of efforts to hook them on a big streamer from the guide's collection and choice.

As our aim was to catch a huge grayling, we were concentrated on them beside the trouts. It was an extremely warm day for fishing (around 31 degrees Celsius) and the fish were not so active, however, during some intervals they were raising and we could catch some on dry emergers (hook 22). After couple of hours we only had one grayling of 46cm while all others were between 25 and 35. As the evening was approaching, I noticed a huge one feeding on nymphs in a 2-3m deep pool. I quickly put a weighted rabbit ear nymph (size 18) and made the cast in front of the fish. I could spot the scene of the grayling speeding up towards the nymph and grabbing it. After a nice 10 min fight I landed the grayling. It was 51cm big.

Next days we spent fishing in Sana river. There are two stretches of this river managed by two different fishing associations, one by the association of Ribnik and the other one by the association of Kljuc. The day we fished in Kljuc I will not forget so easy. It was a cloudy day often followed by heavy rain and the Sana river is a very powerful river, big, with a lot of pools but also full of fast slippery sections. Not so easy to wade in so after two hours of fishing, one of my fishing buddies got taken by the water for couple of metres and got a bad injury on his leg. Despite of the injury, he managed to fish for a while and hook a 65 to 70cm Danube Salmon (Hucho Hucho) which after 20 min of fight he did not manage to land. The fish took is 12 size nymph which is not usually for this huge predator and went downstream. With a #5 rod and 14mm tippet was not easy to land it, therefore the fish won the battle after a long and tiring fight. A good thing about Sana river is that you never know what you're gonna hook. The river is populated by monster HUCHO, huge brown and rainbow trouts, chub, dace and barbel. You can basically catch them all on a fly. On this day, we had all the fishes except the barbel. Our guide Ado hooked a dace and a chub, I hooked a chub and our injured friend Claus hooked a huge chub on a dry fly. I lost couple of good trouts but also managed to hook few. It is important to note that when fishing in Ribnik and Sanica, a 50cm grayling or trout can be landed in maximum 5 min, while in Sana you need half an hour for this size of fish, of course, should you really wish to land it. Twice a lost my patience and tried to bring them in faster, and twice I lost the battle. You should play with the fish and release your line into backing if necessary, just until the fish gets tired and you get the chance to bring it close to the shore.

One day we also fished the upper part of Sana and there we also hooked some huge grayling and trout, mostly on dry flies. Trouts were active all the time on sedge flies while graylings would only take small emergers. Just after lunch, weather turned really bad and heavy rain followed by a thunderstorm started. The river started getting muddy and high so we had to stop fishing at around 14:00. Sana in the upper part is a bit smaller but still as powerful as in the area of Kljuc.

It is worth mentioning that it is almost impossible to pass by the river (Kljuc part) and not see huge HUCHO. Knowing this, the association decided to open for the first time the season for HUCHO (danube salmon). As of this year, you can fish for them from June until the end of January. I believe this is one of the best places to fish for the biggest salmonid in Europe. Simply because the terrain allows them to grow to enormous size and also since its population has been protected for many years. Our guide demonstrated his skills by hooking a huge one but not landing it on a hand made heavy streamer which he proudly named Giovanni:)

The rest of our fishing days with exception to the last day when we fished Sanica river again, we spent fishing the river Ribnik. Ribnik and another pearl of Bosnia and Herzegovina called PLIVA, are the two rivers managed by the company LTG. This company was founded couple of years ago and since then is managing these two waters. We decided not to visit Pliva this time so we had three wonderful, unforgettable fishing days. The length of the river is 5.5km and can fit up to 50 fishermen daily. Why? For a very simple reason, it is a slow flowing river full of fish. Someone would thing that this is stocked fish, but in reality they are all wild. The C&R regime and strictly controlled river had made a real attraction to all fly fishermen. I did not believe that someone can fish there when there are 50 other fishermen in the water. I said, I didn't believe until I saw it and experienced it myself. The river consists of 500m trophy part with a small lake while the rest is regular fly fishing section. Our guide took as to the upper part of the river and asked us all to get into water. I was really disappointed since just 50m above us and maybe 30-40m below us were other fishermen. Ado just smiled and asked us to make our casts. My friends went for the secret weapon, an emerger on a 20 hook while I went for a Bosnian green goldhead nymph size 18. All of us were catching fish one after another, and all in a 10m distance from each other. As the fishermen below us were walking downstream, we also started moving towards them and covering every cm of the river with our flies. For three days we had a lot of grayling and trout. I had a 50, a 51 and a 53cm grayling while our guide Ado had a 56cm one. All my friends from the group had big grayling and trouts as well. I am looking forward to my next trip there. Although I have travelled a lot and have fished very well known trout and grayling waters in Europe, it is very difficult for me to compare any waters with the above mentioned Bosnian ones. I believe many fishermen share the same opinion since the place was full of Italians, French, Swedes, Germans, English and even Americans. In Ribnik you have accommodation possibilities at LTG, they owe beautiful villas at reasonable price and basically all you have to do is just walk 10 steps to the river from your terrace. LTG company has a reception and a small fishing shop where you can buy all fly fishing equipment and obtain your license as well. Home made food at the restaurant "Kod Djure" accompanied by a local beer can be an additional reason why you should visit this place. It is on the shore of Ribnik so you can watch all monster fish there while having your meal. During one of our lunches there, I saw a 65cm brown trout just 5 metres far from the shore which sounded as a provocation to our guide Ado who then took the rod and hooked it basically from our table. This technique was then named by our friend Wolfgang "Table Fly fishing"

Here are some useful info should you decide to visit the area.

- In case you wanna fly there the easiest is if you fly to Croatia (Zagreb Airport) and then rent a car there. It will take you 2.5 - 3 hrs drive direction Banja Luka to reach the destination

- Green insurance card for the car is mandatory. Should you not have it, you will have to purchase a local one which costs 60 EUR for a week.

- some police officers might ask you for your international driving license. Although it is not foreseen by law, it is advisable to obtain it in your country rather than arguing with police

- Accommodation - you have various possibilities. In Sanica, Oaza Mira is the most convenient one where bed a breakfast including swimming pool, parking space and where you can by the licenses for Sanica and Sana Kljuc. Here the price is 15 EUR per day

In Kljuc, the very well known place is the small hotel Crvena Jabuka which is located 50m from Sana river. Here the price for bed & breakfast is 30 EUR. Should you book the guide Ado, you might get a discount for your stay there. In Ribnik you can stay at almost every house there:). Many private houses there rent rooms to local and international fishermen with a price between 8 to 15 EUR. However, the most convenient accommodations are the villas from LTG company where the kitchen is included and you can cook your food yourself. Depending on the size of villa, you can have them between 70 to 140 EUR per day. The price is for the whole group and not per person and you have villas for 2,3 4 and up to 10 people. These villas are luxury ones and are ranked if I am not mistaken as 4 star ones.

The second recommended place to stay is the house of the owner of restaurant "Kod Djure". The house is just above the restaurant and has a very good price, 10 EUR per person including breakfast.

- Food and beverages - a descent meal would cost you maximum 6 EUR and the very best beers would cost between 1 and 1.5 EUR for 0.5l

- Fishing licenses - daily license for Sanica and Sana Kljuc is 24 EUR, for Sana in Ribnik is 15 EUR while for Ribnik and Pliva is 30 EUR

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