Flyfishing

I really love this country, the people and the rivers and forests. The tranquility and beauty of the place is impressive. Slovenia is my magic land where I love to spend time fishing and relaxing.

This year I traveled alone 1000km from my city to fish 4 days with my friends Jan and Rado. Like usual Zoran was a welcoming and attentive host. His wife prepared for us great food and we had nice evenings talking about rivers and marble trout. At Zoran I met Massimo, a great Italian fisherman, passionate about Idrijca. We fished together Sunday and Monday – two nice and sunny days.

Sunday we decided to go in the lower Idrijca and on Tolminka. I visited Soca to see how looks the river and mountains, the Julian Alps were still snowy and majestic. The scenery was beautiful, a delight after the winter months when fishing was set aside in anticipation of spring.

The nature was delayed, the forest was slightly green. Unfortunately it didn’t rain for a long time and the water was very low.

No fly worked clearly, I had to change all the time. But I noticed that the big rainbow took the big flies like squirmy nymphs or big stone flies. I had a few big fish on squirmy in bright red and dark red . Massimo had great results on a big brown nymph made with dubbing and with a 5,5mm tungsten bead.

I fished 2 hours on Tolminka, late in afternoon. Even here the water was low, cold and super clear:

The fishing was difficult too. Mostly rainbow on an #12 nymph made with nutria dark brown hackle. Some of them hit the squirmy worm. I noticed that the fish swimming in the strong current were attacking the squirmy flies at the first cast or second. After that I had to change the nymph with one made with dubbing or with a green or brown perdigon.

At the end of the day I spent great time with Massino and we managed together to catch some nice fish. Massino is a great and experimented fisherman and he landed superb trout. He showed me some great places with deep pools and really nice trout swimming around.

At the end of the day we left for Zoran’s pension, Jan and Rado were waiting for us. There were 3 more days of fishing on the upper area.

In the late Spring of 2021 I decided to order a Hanak Superb Rod in size #2 to have it in our TroutLine shop. Me and my friends and team members we use size #3 rods and sometimes size #4 rods because we fish for strong and medium to big trout and grayling. We considered all the time that a size #2 rod will be too light for our style of fishing. But a friend of mine gave me a great feedback about this rod so I decided to increase our rod collection with a super light rod like this one.

Unfortunately the 2021 was difficult year and my dedicated time for going out fishing was very short. Mihai, my friend, used the rod in local competitions. He told me that the rod is super light and sensitive but powerful in the same time. He told me that he managed to hook each fish who took his nymph. He lost only a few small ones during fight. So he was very happy with this rod.

I was curious to see how this rod works so I took it with me in Sweden for 2 weeks of fishing.

In Lapland I usually fish with a #3 and #4 Hanak rods combined with a Vosseler DC2 rods. I considered these rods the best rods for such destination. Of course Sweden is not the best place to test a size #2 rod but was the only place where I fish in the second part of the 2021 year.

Because the Hanak Superb XP 299 was too light for DC2 reel I decided to combine the rod with my lightest Lamson reel a size #3 Waterwork. This reel is nice but is not a full framed reel, it is great for dry fly fishing but not the best option for nymphing. I will explain why later…

What can I say, the combo was super light and the feeling was great. Great balance and nice action! I was impressed from the moment when my nymphs hit the water. I was able to detect any rock from the bottom of the river even when I use only a very small nymph! Everything was clear and easy to understand where my nymph or nymphs are and how they evolve between rocks and gravel.

A few words about this rod:

The rod has a nice olive finish, it is super light and is equipped with recoil rings.

The weight is between 69-73 grams. I measured the mass of 3 rods and I presumed that the difference stays in cork grip and how much or less resin was used to fix the handle, reel seat and rings. I think that is the lightest rod from what I tested in years!

The recoil rings are probably the lightest rod rings in the market and because the material used is high quality, helps the rod to stay light.

The rod is well balanced, the handle and reel seat is great and light, the four segments will let you to travel easily by plane. Oh, I forgot to mention the length: 300cm. The rod is delivered in a cordura tube with room for each segment to avoid breaking them by mistake.

The 2021 Autumn was probably the difficult fishing time that I had in 15 years of fishing in Sweden. Cold, rainy and windy. But with strong wind, not jokes. End of august and first week of september was tough with very picky fish. I started a 0.14mm tippet then I went down to 0.10mm with flies from size #12 and #14 to #16 and #18. Sometimes I had to use #20…

But I managed to land a few nice grayling:

The rod was really excellent not only in detecting how nymphs are swimming but also in hook up rate and how behave during fighting time. The rod has enough power to land a fish of 40cm without a problem, the blank bone is stiff enough to help you to control the entire fight and the tip is soft enough to protect the entire leader. But with fish over 40cm you need to keep him in contact longer.

I had situations with 2 fish in the same time and I had to be careful not to stress the rod too much. I had to fight carefully not to overtired the fish.

We found lots of mushrooms and we enjoyed “pasta con porcini e parmeggiano”

I stress the rod when a few nice brown trout hit my flies.

My big frustration was the reel because was not a full frame. When I fish with nymphs I use my special designed nymphing line which has a diameter of 0.55mm. Because is so thin, sometimes the line goes between spool and reel frame and can get fixed there. All the time I needed to take out the spool and unblock the nymphing line. I was so stupid to forgot to Hanak Superb Reel ( which is full framed).

Next time will not happen that!

My conclusion: the rod is fantastic, I love the action, the power and how precise is and how you can detect anything with it. It is a fantastic rod up to fish in size 35cm and you have experience will work great with fish in size of 40cm. With big fish is a little bit complicated, the fish will take the control and you can loose it. So, the rod is fantastic made for his class and anybody who will buy one will enjoy of each moment fishing with it!

So guys, until next time I wish you a great Winter 🙂

I have the pleasure to test the rods fishing this year in early April. I spent 4 days with Jan Rozman the Adams Ambassador for Slovenia.

A few words about this Adams Fly Rods brand : is new and is from Spain !

All rods are made based on years of testing on local rivers and other rivers from Europe. After building different blank profiles with different actions, Bob- the owner, together with the most experienced Spanish competitors finished these rods. The results are impressive: rods super sensitive and powerful in the same time. The tip is thin and delicate but the blank is quite tapered and that provides a strong response.

Bob and Daniel, the Adams boys produce 4 type of rods: XTZ Max Black, Max Evo and Max. The price range is from 645eur to 220eur.

When I fished in Slovenia I used the Adams XTZ size #2 for 2 days and I like it. I borrowed from Jan. The rod is very nice made, with high attention to details and well balanced. I was able to land a few fish over 60cm ( rainbow, marble and hybrids ) .

I like the special design of the blank wich, based on producer, reduces the changes of line sticking

Jan use the XTZ for fishing all day long but he has in mind to catch a big one , bigger than 70cm then he always switch on Evo which is stronger and powerful.

What I like at this rod ( reason for buying one too ) , the blank is sensitive, you feel it very well in hand, the handle is made of carbon to provide a better sensitivity and ” fish take” detection.

I like the fact that the first rod ring is close to the handle to avoid line slacks – a very important aspect when we talk about nymphing. For example I had to fish one day with a Sage rod from a friend: It was a nightmare , the worst rod from a reputed brand. That rod has rings positioned for casting not nymphing and was not balanced for such style of fishing( but the rod was marketed as a nymphing rod).

Then the Adams XTZ blank is very resistant to pressure and it quite powerful, over my expectations. The rod rings are very light , from Recoil, and the finish is very careful made. No too much lacquer to avoid extra weight. A few drops here and there and the rod can be with 10-15 grams heavier.

Here a few photos made by Bob for the XTZ model:

I really think that Bob and Daniel, the guys behind Adams brand made a great job and stepped up in Competition World with a fantastic product: XTZ rod!

The Max Black and Max Evo rod is made for super fighting trout. If you fish in Slovenia or New Zealand then these are the proper rods for those places. They are more powerful than XTZ and will help fishermen to fight and better control the trout at the end of tippet.

Here are a few photos of the Max Evo:

Here are a few fish handled with Adams Rods

Next season I will travel to Norway and Sweden, I can’t wait to test the rod there.

But until then I will use my new XTZ in Slovenia in April 2022 🙂