Akulata.com - Fly Fishing In Bulgaria

Hi Eugen,
Welcome to the forum, would be nice to exchange some fly fishing info from both sides of the Danube.
Which part of Romania are you from? 3 weeks ago I was in Romania and crossed the Carpati on my way from Bucharest to Cluj, the mountain was beautiful and road was going along a lovely river starting from the top of the mountain. Could you share any info on possible trout fishing in these mountains? /It is not so far from here indeed and I am definitely interested in going back there but with my fly rod next time.../
p.s.
not sure wahat aspius is...
p.p.s.
yes, we use to catch chub on nymphs but more often we use classic and foam dries...
regards...

_________________
винаги има по-гулема риба...

hi jeeves.

this is aspius: http://www.jcpoiret.com/bapw/poissons/aspe.htm

it belongs to the same familly as carp and chubs but eats small fish for 90% of its food. i have caught lots of them on spin gear and around 20 one day this spring with the flyrod (first time trying for them).

they hit white streamers. some people aslo get them with large dries imitating a certain butterfly. they grow very large, but I don't hold any record. my biggest on spinning was 3kg, 1.5 kg was the biggest on the flyrod. they are not easy to catch and it's almost impossibile to get them with livebait and they are not good to eat, that is why I absolutely love to fish for them. it's pure sport, lots of casting and crazy fish.

I live in Bucharest from several years but I'm from a small town from the Carpati mountains. glad you could visit our country and enjoyed it!

I'd say you better forget trout fishing here. it is very hard to find good rivers, even more so this year with all this rain. also, you can only fish in weekends (this is the law) and it is difficult to get a fishing licence for a day, you have to know where to go and you will absolutelly need someone speaking romanian, there is no organization here when it comes to fishing for tourists. even we have lots of trouble with the system for trout fishing.

Most of the mountain rivers are very fast flowing streams with small and rare, wild trout. I seldom go trout fishing and when I do I prefere lakes. This year I went only once on a river and only caught 4 in a whole day, biggest being 25cm.

However, if you really want to try it, I will try to help you, just write to me on email when you intend to come and we'll go from there.

Good luck!

Hi, Eugen, you live near my town - Rousse. Bucharest-Ruse - 60 km.

"To catch Aspius" is a "national sport" in my town. It's my friend Pavel ("Shaman") with the last Aspius (1 kg) from Danube river:



Best Regards

P.S. A have a very bad English

hi Eugen,
many thanks for the info, it seems like situation with trout streams is very similar in our countries...unfortunately...
it is very interesting to learn about your experience in fly fishing for aspius - it is common species here in Bulgaria and can be found in the lower parts of many rivers. I have never fished for this kind of fish but now after I know it could be taken on fly gear I feel like trying it (since there arent'n plenty of trout in our waters I am always happy to experiment catching other species on the fly...)
What kind of white steramers u use for aspius? Do you pull the streamer against the current just like a lure?
regards

_________________
винаги има по-гулема риба...

@ jeeves,
if you come around let me know, as I told you I will try to help. I cannot promiss to go fishing with you because I'm always having trouble with free time, but if you happen to come during a weekend when I'm free, I'll be very much available.

for aspius, as I told you I have very limited experience with fly tackle, I caught almost all of them with a variation of popovic's hollow fly, a saltwater streamer to which I added bead chain eyes. all white, red head built from thread, 3-4-5cm leght (I only have a 5wt for now and cannot cast bigger ones). I used goat hair for the same reason, as it doesn't get too much water.

also I had some action on gurgler (streamer with foam top, has a nice sort of popping action) and got one with a regular spruce (tinsel body, red tail, black head, white goat wing). I suspect zonkers and matukas should work even better, I just used the hollow fly more because it's hollow and I can throw it longer distances.

most of the times they'll hit only if you strip really really fast, 1-2m close to the shore. sometimes they attack just as the fly touches the water, just like chubs attack foam bugs. it's really fun.

you have to see when they hunt, then you cast downstream as fast as you can and start striping like crazy. that would do it. I actually adapted my spinning technique for fly tackle, using a streamer instead of the regular minnows or spoons.

I am pretty sure there are many other ways to induce a strike with a flyrod, I just don't have time tro try, since spring the danube here is all black, liquid mud so to speak. since spring I went 10 times and never saw aspius action again, it seems like they went on the bulgarian side.

@ Ðîñåí,
nice to meet you and glad to hear I wasn't the only one ff-ing in that area! I have a picture of me with a nicer aspius caught last year on the other back of the river, maybe 30 mins of swiming from Ruse. lol.
Sorry I cannot add it here because I don't understand the commands in bulgarian.

what sort of flies and presentation you and your friend use? don't worry for your english, just name the flies, that's international language..

also, did you get any action this year? tonite I am leaving for a short trip but on a channel next to danube, for in the big river the water is too dark and muddy and I don't think fish will see my flies. maybe that channel will be more fishable. I'll let you know monday.

tight lines and a nice weekend to everyone!

Hi Eugen !
I hope this post will stay here and will not moderated (again).

Here are some images how to turn this forum in english:





Now all messages from the forum are in english and you will find how to include a image here

it's easy:

thanx! good piece of advice. however I first need to load the picture on some website it seems, I'll do that later.

I've been fishing today, 4 hours of rain and it just wouldn't stop, at 12 a clock I was back home. no aspius, just a regular pearch. the danube is not friendly at all. hope others had good times.

We didnt have rain on sunday, but rivers are still very high... Fortunately some of them fisheable already... (chubs rising on dries in slow current areas and below hanging tree branches, fish were very cautious and in most cases ignored the standard foam beetles, goddard caddis (size 10-12) was fly of the day again...)
Eugen, do you fly fish for perch on purpose anf if yes what flies u use?
cheers...

_________________
винаги има по-гулема риба...

yep, with all kinds of streamers.

a clouser minnow, bead chain eyes was the lucky ticket yesterday (for I went fishing sunday too on a lake after the morning rain -again - has stoped). I had super fun, my spin fisherman friend caught like 20 perches and 2 zanders, I caught like 5 times more (pearch only though) and never had the line out without getting a hit. With a sinking line you can catch zanders too while fishing for pearch, it's fun.

I actually fish more often on lakes because I get bored to fish for chubs where there aren't any, or on the rivers here that are messed up badly from the rains. We really had lots of problems this year because of the rains (floods, inundations, people without houses and ugly things like that).

Eugen, we have exactly the same problems here. Check this video!
http://news.bnt.bg/node_102/video_klips ... node_46081

Couldn't see the video, I've got a macintosh in the office and some videos just do not work. Anyways, sorry to hear weather is not fine there either. Maybe next year there will be many more fish to catch, pochers had very bad times. (I suspect they are present too in your country).

Yeah, it's true! They are the reason for the decrease of the fish population here. Send me your mail address on P.M., and i'll send you back the video. The problem is that the video is Windows Media. I'll convert it for you.

Eugen !
Do this:
1. Go to the Micro$oft site and download (ONLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE IT) Windows media player for MAC (If you have Micro$oft Office installed probably you have the Media player in the Office folder or the installer file in "Addition tools" subfolder)
2. Install it !
3. Download the file from here:
http://news.bnt.bg/content/download/956 ... neniya.wmv
4. Watch it


P.S. Please do not tell anyone you can not do something on a MAC You can do anything with a MAC and a lot faster and easier

thanks to all of you! I have windows media player and 2 or 3 browsers. macs are good tools for designers, but on the internet I'm afraid it is better to have a PC. anyways, never mind that, I'm now downloading the movie and will see it later.
here is a good movie I could see and you guys might like to check:
http://www.flymartonline.com/article333.html