My Fishing Plans for 2011: You Decide!

So now that the trout fishing season in the northern hemisphere has come to an end my thoughts have started turning to possible fishing trips for 2011. I’m going to try and do a ‘big’ fishing trip next year. A 'big' fishing trip is one that typically requires an inter-continental flight and at least 4 days of full time fly fishing. I’ve wanted to fish for the legendary Taimen and the lenok trout of Mongolia for a while now, as I have the monster brown trout of the Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, but those are trips for the future. I’m thinking that 2011 might just be the year I visit British Columbia. Big trips require a lot of planning and other things falling in place – time from work, available funds, willing fishing buddies – so this is just the smallest seed of an idea for now.

   

The smaller trips are a little easier to decide on. I’m going to do a short trip somewhere closer to home in the spring of 2011. Of the few ideas I have, I thought it would be fun and interesting to put up a poll with 4 of the options (in the sidebar on the right of the page) to leave the final decision up to you. They are all places a little off the beaten track and far from the mainstream fly fishing crowds, just waiting to be explored.

Each has its own appeal. Morocco is perhaps the most 'exotic' of them all - not many would associate the arid North African country with trout - but the Atlas Mountains harbour Africa's only native population of brown trout, surely an historic strain going back to when Africa and Europe were connected to each other millions of years ago. There is an almost complete lack of available information on the fly fishing opportunities in Morocco that I find quite appealing. Croatia is completely overshadowed by its more illustrious "New Zealand of the North" neighbour Slovenia, yet by all accounts the fishing is just as excellent. A little further south in the Balkan Peninsular, Bosnia & Herzegovina is a country still recovering from the devastating war of the 90's and it's hardly a surprise that its fly fishing offerings have been overlooked since. I have read outstanding current reports of the fishing but, equally, reports dating from as recently as 2007 of some of the country's best rivers being off limits because of the presence of unexploded mines. Generally it's a country in the throes of recovery with ambitions of joining the EU, and it's probably a good time to visit before it inevitably becomes "touristy." And last, but not least, is the splendour of the Spanish Pyrenees. I settled on the Spanish side for the simple reason that I have visited France before but not Spain, and this would allow me to visit Barcelona and use it as a convenient stepping stone to the unheralded fishing opportunities of either Catalonia or Aragon.

I would jump at the opportunity to visit any of them with a fly rod so, as far as it is possible, I will visit the place that ends up with the most votes as decided by you!

For the time being I have a few plans to go after some of the big grayling in the upper Severn River in Wales this winter...

14/11/10 update:


...And the vote is closed! The winning destination with 50% of the vote is Morocco! I've had a lot of fun putting my fishing fate in your hands, so thank you to everyone who voted. The plan is to visit Morocco in late May/early June 2011 when conditions start to improve after the snow melt. Look out for the story and photos here.