croatia

[Sarah Chabaane]

Headed to Dubrovnik in mid-April for a week and hoping to get some time to fish. I'm open to inshore or freshwater and can do a day trip. Any recommendations? 

[Dennis Bennett]

Some of my best fishing experiences were in that region but I would not advise less than 2-3 days for any fishing in the interior.

 

Close in to Dubrovnik there is not much to offer in terms of trout streams so your day trip can easily get eaten up in travel.  There are many good waters in the near hinterlands but again it takes time to get there. Your best bet is to look into local guides who can ease the time lost in stumbling around unfamiliar areas. And be warned when they say "nema problema" -- no problem -- RUN!

I never fished the salt there. 

Dennis

[Dennis Bennett]

On Friday, March 30, 2018 at 1:46:18 PM UTC-4, Sarah Chabaane wrote:

[Misha Gill]

I honeymooned in Croatia and naturally wanted to fish as well. Funny story, I brought my Tenkara rod with me, and after spotting the mullet in the harbor of the island of Vis I decided to take it with me the next day. My wife and I rented a scooter to drive to a secluded beach on the other side of the island, and I tucked it under the back edge of the seat cushion that Brooke sat on, thinking her weight would help keep it in place. Well, she was a bit nervous having never been on a scooter. So much so that she closed her eyes at first, and it caused a slight issue when we had to turn. She didn't lean into the turn; specifically, the first one we took. It was a bit of a sharp turn, and being unable to steer the scooter how I would have liked, we sort of toppled to the side of the road. I'm not sure if that's when I lost the rod or if it was later, but my theory about my Brooke's weight assisting in securing the dang thing was faulty reasoning. Being a bit scared, she gripped my torso tightly and sat forward on the cushion, rather unhelpfully failing to apply any downward pressure to the spot where the rod was tucked in. Somehow I was still blamed for losing the Tenkara rod she had bought me for my birthday two years prior, and I have accepted this narrative.

Anyways, what I learned before I went and subsequently is that most of the good fishing is in the interior towards Slovenia. It's very arid around Dubrovnik, not many freshwater fishing opportunities as far as I know. I did see what I thought were probably grayling in one river, but that was in a national park and fishing was prohibited. For saltwater, the Adriatic is very heavily fished, especially inshore. The main fish dish served in the restaurants is Adriatic Seabass. They seemed to run about 18-22 inches, and I have no idea how you would target them with a fly. I saw some videos on Youtube about tuna fishing that looked fun but I deemed it not worth further investigation (cost + time/opportunity cost). You could try to catch some of the mullet that swim around the harbors/rocks but they are plankton feeders and pretty tough to target... I once had a mullet eat a small pink shrimp fly, but that was in Australia and it was immediately rejected, meaning I didn't catch it. If you try, my advice would be to go small. Maybe someone else can enlighten us as to how to fish for mullet with the fly.

Before I lost the rod, I did fish one freshet. I saw and caught nothing. After about an hour of nothing, I observed that there was no underwater vegetation in the stream, and no insect life under the rocks. I surmise that the stream dries up during the year. Brooke meanwhile was reading a book back at the car and got a bad insect bite while I was dilly-dally-flimm-flamming about.