Fishing in Slovenia
"Why don’t you meet me in Slovenia for some fishing?" a lawyer friend asked me. He was temporarily working for the UN in Bosnia, establishing their legal system. Since I literally wrote the book on the virtue of seizing the opportunity for trips to new places ("Travel Adventures on the Company’s Nickel") I quickly agreed. Like most people, my first question was "Where in the world is Slovenia?" It is in the Balkans, was once a part of Yugoslavia, and is the home of some of the best trout fishing in Europe. It has a variety of interesting sights, including huge limestone caverns, scenic wine-making areas, and one of the oldest mercury mines in the world. It is inexpensive, peaceful, and home of some very friendly people.
The native trout are Browns and there is a local sub-species called the Marble trout, for their mottled markings. Marble trout grow quite large and feed mainly on minnows and smaller trout. Rainbow trout have been stocked in a number of rivers and are locally called "American Trout". Many streams have good populations of Grayling.
Slovenia is a small country tucked between Italy, Austria and Croatia at the north end of the Adriatic. It has an area of only about 7800 square miles (about 1/7th the area of Florida), and has a population of about 2 million people.
Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia from after World war II until it broke away as an independent state in 1990.
