Georgi Stoyanov - Captain of the National Team

The 29th European Trout Fly Fishing Championship has ended!

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Hello, friends! The 29th European Trout Fly Fishing Championship has ended! The scene of the competition was the breathtaking nature of the Italian Alps and more specifically, the valleys of the Adda and Mera rivers – Valtellina and Valchiavenna respectively! It was hard to find a more beautiful and suitable place for this competition at the end of October! Perfect organization by the hosts, who once again proved that the Italians are an extremely hospitable and warm people and we are grateful for the ideal conditions they provided us! Cruel rivers, landscapes, food and hospitality! The competition itself took place in 5 days on 4 different rivers and one high mountain lake at about 2080m above sea level. Each river was very different and a very quick change of tactics and the right setting was required at every moment! Once again, the team title was won by France, who showed enviable perseverance and ability to find the right tactics! The Bulgarian team finished in 12th position out of 16 teams and this is by no means a bad result, considering that 5 teams finished within only 21 penalty points of each other and while we could have been 7th, we very easily became 12th.. I say this because at this competition, the small but tangible difference between the big teams, with endless experience and support, and the other teams was felt – namely the ability to change the strategy at the right moment and to manage to stay afloat when you get a bad box! The draw was decisive at many moments, due to the differences in the relief and weather conditions, which made fishing very difficult and every day was radically different from the previous one! I want to thank my colleagues from the team for the team atmosphere and maximum effort at every moment! Everyone certainly gave their best, and we didn't have a chance to finish higher, which in this case, however, is far from the most important thing! The experience we gained at this championship is yet to bear fruit! For me personally, the competition went well, as on the first day I started with 24 fish on the lake, where I took 5th place and I was extremely pleased, because I was still haunted by the fishing for undersized redfish from the previous European Championship in Poland, and this first run gave me pleasant emotions. We caught mostly grayling, some Balkan trout and very few rainbow trout on the lake! The second day I had to fish on the Adda River near the town of Sondalo, in the same place where Marius and I had a training session a month ago! Unfortunately, then and now, there weren't many fish in the relevant sector and I managed to catch only 6 fish, which gave me a 14th-15th place, with only the Serbian woman behind me, I think. The third day I fished on the beautiful Malero River, where I fell behind two colleagues who had caught a total of over 100 fish in my box the first two days! On the one hand, this gave me confidence that the fish were there, but on the other hand – it was quite unpleasant to watch 10 fish standing in a pool and being totally beaten up by catching, wading and not reacting to anything at all! I had to work extremely hard to find a way and method to deceive as many of them as possible or to find places where my colleagues had underestimated! In the end, I managed to catch 30 fish, and this brought me a new 5th place in the sector. On the fourth day I had to fish on the largest river – Adda near the town of Morbegno! A mighty river, with huge fish and extremely unknown to us! To top it off, it rained heavily since early morning and did not stop the whole day! After spending the first half of the leg, namely an hour and a half without fish and searching for fish in this sea under the incessant rain, I had the chance to notice activity in one place and that was enough for me. I anchored at the spot and the fish started coming out one after another! The challenge was to go to the judge, in water up to my chest, with large and slippery stones on the bottom, to measure your fish, who was far downstream and after each fish I could feel, despite the rain, steam coming out through my clothes! My time was enough for 9 fish and not a bad 4th place for the day! So it came to the 5th day, when unfortunately, the weather changed brutally, it became hellishly cold and the water became snowy! In the Alps high above our heads everything was white and the rivers were icy! The activity was approaching zero and I caught only 1 fish, with 1 bite for 3 whole hours. Still, there were 4 people with 1 fish, and mine turned out to be the biggest! So I only managed to get to 12th place, which dropped me to 33rd place in the final ranking of 80 people. Mitko Petrov finished in 32nd place ahead of me, and Sasho Metodiev a few places behind us - 40th place. The European champion Konecny ​​from Poland recorded a spectacular capo in the last run and landed in 34th place, behind us and Mitko! Marius and Deyan were not particularly lucky with the draw and were unable to move up in the ranking! I'll post photos and some other video from the event! Greetings and good luck to everyone!