River Lima, Tuscany, Italy

I mentioned in May that I was to visit Tuscany this year, and I did in June, spending just over a week taking in the sights and rich culture of this beautiful central Italian region. Between Florence, Siena, Pisa and a trip to Cinque Terre I was lucky to find the time for a day's fishing on one of the region's best rivers, the Lima. I very nearly missed out altogether as it rained for most of the week leaving the river high and unfishable. After postponing to the last possible day, the inclement weather finally relented and I woke up to bright sunshine and the prospect of exploring a new river in a foreign land, something which always excites me.

I wrote about it for 'Flyfishing' (a South African magazine I grew up reading) and my article has been published in the upcoming August/September edition. Flyfishing has very kindly agreed to me posting the article here. The full text is beneath the images. 

Click here to find out more about Flyfishing magazine.

The Italian Job

Trout Under the Tuscan Sun

As a popular tourist destination the central Italian region of Tuscany needs no introduction. It offers stunning landscapes, simple yet delicious traditional cuisine, fine Chianti and Montepulciano wines and rich history from the Etruscans, to the Romans, to the Renaissance. The cities of Florence, Siena and Pisa are all wonderful mirrors into the past, showcasing impressive architecture and fine art masterpieces, with narrow cobble-stoned alleys that exude an old fashioned intimacy. Many well known scientific and artistic luminaries hail from the region, including Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Dante, Botticelli and Machiavelli. Michelangelo’s David, the marble masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture housed in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, is particularly impressive and worth a visit. And if all this isn’t enough, the region offers some pretty fine flyfishing for trout too.

The most well known flyfishing rivers in Tuscany are the Tevere (also known as the Tiber), the Lima and the Sieve. All are considered excellent for dry fly fishing given the rich presence of caddis and mayflies. I was told the Tevere, Italy’s third largest river which eventually flows through Rome many miles downstream, is traditionally considered the premier flyfishing river in the region for both trout and European grayling. Unfortunately a dam wall high up the river has recently burst and flooded the valley, devastating the river habitat. Trout have been restocked to replenish the population and the locals are hopeful the Tevere will soon be restored to its former glory. The Lima is viewed as the most technical to fish due its large size and powerful currents, and it’s on this river that locally based members of the Italian National Fly Fishing team practice their skills and national qualifying events are regularly held. The Sieve is only a 40 minute drive from Florence and convenient for those with limited time to explore further afield. Situated close to the capital of Tuscany the Sieve can experience high fishing pressure and the river’s trout population is supplemented with stocked fish when required. Within spitting distance of Tuscany, the Nera River - a chalkstream - in the adjacent region of Umbria, and the Scoltenna River - a high altitude mountain stream - in the neighbouring Emilia Romagna region offer alternative and varied options.

With only a week to absorb all the region has to offer, I set aside a single day for fly fishing. I would have loved to have had more time available for fishing, but a first visit to Tuscany shouldn’t be spent entirely on a river. That’s what places such as Alaska and Patagonia are for!

I hired the services of local guide Niccolò Baldeschi, and after some discussion on the appropriate venue settled on the Lima River. It appealed most to me with its promise of wild fish, testing nature and remote location. The river is a 1hr 45 minute drive from Florence or a 1 hour drive from Pisa. The charm of the region unfolds as the road gets narrower and less busy with every passing kilometre until it eventually emerges into the beautiful Lima valley, in the foothills of an area known as ‘the Italian Switzerland.’ The river powerfully carves its way through the steep forested slopes of the Northern Apennines where ancient hilltop villages and monasteries crown the peaks and gaze down upon you. It truly is a spectacular setting for a trout river.

Niccolò recommended that I use his Sage 9’9” 5wt rod. At first it felt like a real brute of a rod in my hands, far longer than anything I have used for trout before, but as soon as I started fishing with it I could see its advantages on a river the size of the Lima. For most of the day I employed the ‘high-sticking’ technique, using the rod’s length to reach over and avoid the drag inducing faster currents with no more than 10 to 12 feet of leader and tippet attached to a large elk hair caddis and tungsten nymph below it. The technique worked almost instantly too as I soon had a 7 inch brown trout take the nymph, a golden hued trout with a pattern of pea size orange spots. Tungsten nymphs are an important weapon in the fly fisherman’s arsenal on the Lima River where the current is fast and the drifts short, making it imperative to get the nymph down as quickly as possible.

There was a fair amount of fly life about, including large grey drakes, sulphur mayflies, blue winged olives and caddis. Not in any great number, but enough that some of the trout showed their sporadic interest with splashy rises. A moment indelibly etched into my memory is the first fish I induced to rise to the large elk hair caddis pattern which was doubling as a strike indicator to the nymph tied below it. Until then the fish had shown an exclusive preference for the nymph and I was concentrating hard on the caddis fly during every short drift for the tell tale dip or halt, indicating a take on the nymph, without really expecting any surface action. I had caught another trout by then, a fine 8 inch alpine specimen, and lost a few more, all on the deeply fished nymph. It came as a complete surprise when a fish rocketed up from the depths in a silvery flash and brutally swallowed the large elk hair caddis, turned and darted back into the depths. I hardly needed to set the hook as the fish had taken care of that itself. A caddis pattern always seems to illicit aggressive rises but the takes on the nymph were also fast and savage, characteristic of fast-water-dwelling fish which must decide and act swiftly or risk losing out on a passing meal.

Trout are not the only fish species in the river interested in the fly. Whitefish eagerly take the fly, but they are very small - the largest I caught was 4 inches. Whilst the trout generally appeared to favour the faster water, the whitefish preferred the slower pools, most of which contained visible shoals of them. I did however catch a whitefish in a fast riffle - I noticed the dry fly dip and, lifting the rod into what I anticipated was a more substantial trout, a tiny whitefish came clean out of the water on the hook. Before the fish could hit the rocks behind me I managed to swing the line 360° around in a clockwise direction over my head and gently land the fish back in the water before bringing it to hand in a manner more befitting its size. It reminded me of playing swingball.

As the sun reached its bright zenith the rises tapered off and I changed tactics and began Czech nymphing. It’s a style I had only read about before but had never actually tried. The dry fly was removed and a heavy tungsten nymph tied to the point with a lighter copper beadhead nymph tied on as a dropper. Only a short section of the leader is used to cast the flies in a lob fashion, rather than the traditional false casting method, into the pocket water and current edges, keeping a constant tension between the flies, the leader and the rod tip. It took some getting used to at first, especially the take detection which requires watching for an increased tautness of the leader, often miniscule, instead of the usual strike indicator. At first, whilst getting to grips with the technique, I missed a few takes that I was completely oblivious to. Niccolò would simply shrug and say rather wistfully, “that looked very fishy.” I was pleased when I eventually spotted a take on my own and lifted the rod into a trout. This fish was lighter in colour and more silver than the others, but not lacking in the typical orange spots which adorn the Lima’s trout. These little trout are all unique masterpieces, much the same as the artworks housed in the famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence.  

The Lima is not a river which produces a large average size fish. My biggest fish was only 8 inches but I did lose one or two a little larger. In the section I fished some way up from the historic spa town of Bagni di Lucca, close to the village of Giardinetto-Ponte Maggio, the trout average 8 inches and a fish of 14 inches is considered a good one. Having said that, there are always much larger fish caught each year. Leaving aside all legend, myth and rumour, the largest trout Niccolò has seen caught with his own eyes from the river measured a hefty 24 inches, a big fish in anyone’s books. If you are after a larger average sized fish there is a private but accessible stretch of river further downstream which stocks trout.

For me though, flyfishing in Tuscany is about far more than the size of fish. I was happy fishing in the shadows of ancient Roman arch bridges, walking through the bank side forests in the tracks of wild boar and deer and catching wild fish in a stunningly beautiful river valley. It’s also a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of the tourist dominated cities to the clean air and quaint traditional villages in the mountains, where freshly made pasta and sandwiches with locally made cheese, prosciutto or salami can be washed down with a glass of red wine for lunch between fishing. It’s a rich experience all round. Tuscany is certainly a rewarding destination for the tourist who can’t leave their fly rod at home.