Fly fishing the Nadiža in Slovenia - unguided solo day in search of big rainbow trout

Four months after my first trip to the emerald rivers of Northwest Slovenia - three days of guided fishing on the Soča and the Koritnica - I decided to return to the Tolmin area and try my luck without a guide. Over the summer, I’d learned a lot, and that experience gave me the confidence to explore on my own this time.

After a great day on the Bača -    • Fly fishing the Bača in Slovenia without a...   - I decided to go to the Nadiža. I had very little information about these waters, so I just wanted to check out a few spots that looked promising from the satellite images. At the end I fished around 4 different spots, the first being close to the Italian border where the Nadiža enters Slovenia, and the last being close to the border where it exits back to Italy.

In two days I managed to collect a good 8 hours of sleep deficit, but following another short night the morning started good. I sight fished a smaller rainbow (on the dry fly!), and also caught a chub (which was rather unexpected). But then it took almost 7 hours until I found - catchable - big rainbows more downstream. While the scenery was amazing on the upstream sections, fishing there was extremely challenging, so I was happy that at the end of the day I found much easier to catch (and bigger) rainbows in the wide open areas of the valley.

Setup for the day:

Vision Rivermaniac 9' #5 Medium rod
Orvis Hydros Reel (II)
Vision XO 110 WF5F fly line
4X Vision Trout 9' leader + ~2' 5X Vision Prisma fluorocarbon tippet
Yarn bite indicator

Vision Nymphmaniac Twintip 11'3" #3 rod
Vision XLV Nymph & Dry reel (WF3F Nymphmaniac fly line and 20lb Bäkkäri backing)
Microleader setup (~2 rod length) with 3X Vision Nymphmaniac Hi-Viz tippet + 0.203 mm (3X) Cortland Tri-Color Indicator Mono Leader Material + 2 mm tippet ring + 6X Vision Prisma fluorocarbon tippet

I was using size 14-16 nymphs with 3.5 mm tungsten beads, or a size 14 CDC mayfly.

Timeline:

00:00 Arriving to the most upstream section of the Nadiža
00:16 Rainbow trout 1 (a small one on the dry fly)
02:22 Chub (with the Euro rod)
03:17 Discovering the section downstream and upstream the bridge
03:33 Lost rainbow
03:44 Hiking more upstream
04:07 Turning back at a big pool with big fish (no luck catching them)
04:32 Trying my luck at the Napoleon bridge (first stop more downstream)
05:00 Lost fish at the third spot (murky water, fish went for the indicator)
05:19 Rainbow trout 2 (more than an hour and a lot of walking around later, same spot...)
09:53 Lost rainbow at a beautiful spot... (making my way now downstream along the river)
12:17 Rainbow trout 3 (a 48 cm one - biggest of the day)
18:03 Rainbow trout 4
22:00 Rainbow trout 5
25:46 Rainbow trout 6 (drove more downstream, last spot of the day)
29:07 Rainbow trout 7
31:55 Lost fish
32:10 Rainbow trout 8
34:35 Rainbow trout 9 (too dark for the GoPro, so from the shore with my phone...)