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FYI-Beast of the Danube
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Crazy big, huh? 
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Great article.
My good friend in Slovenia has become a bit of an expert on catching these fish on the Sava, and has recently become a 15' double handed (albeit overhead) convert after years of my prodding.
He took many fish last year, including 2 over 100cm, which is a big achievement these days. He developed a couple of effective "flies" (lures really) called the Lunker Snack and The Rat, which are very heavily weighted dressed 6/0 - 8/0 hooks, sometimes in tandem, slung out and worked in deep and very fast undercut channels.
I've yet to break my duck in 3 attempts, having had a couple take and not stick, but I hope to address that this October. I'm hoping that a Skagit and Z19 tip and an unweighted double hooked hucho fly will be successful!
S
PS He also sent me a link last month to an upcoming video of him by a company promoting Fishermen of Slovenia. A film crew followed him round for a day, and he managed to hook and land a big hucho for the camera in the dying minutes! Apparently the fish took when he was fiddling with his running line which had formed a huge knot!
My good friend in Slovenia has become a bit of an expert on catching these fish on the Sava, and has recently become a 15' double handed (albeit overhead) convert after years of my prodding.
He took many fish last year, including 2 over 100cm, which is a big achievement these days. He developed a couple of effective "flies" (lures really) called the Lunker Snack and The Rat, which are very heavily weighted dressed 6/0 - 8/0 hooks, sometimes in tandem, slung out and worked in deep and very fast undercut channels.
I've yet to break my duck in 3 attempts, having had a couple take and not stick, but I hope to address that this October. I'm hoping that a Skagit and Z19 tip and an unweighted double hooked hucho fly will be successful!
S
PS He also sent me a link last month to an upcoming video of him by a company promoting Fishermen of Slovenia. A film crew followed him round for a day, and he managed to hook and land a big hucho for the camera in the dying minutes! Apparently the fish took when he was fiddling with his running line which had formed a huge knot!
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I had the opportunity to fish for Huchen (Danube Salmon) in Slovenia last Feb in a tributary to the River Sava (mentioned in that article)
Crazy fast fish... I had a few close to the 100cm trophy mark swipe and follow flies. The closing speed and swipes were more like a 6in brook trout than a 4ft predator. Awesome fish! I was able to land a 60cm, but saw a few 100-110 fish at a local taxidermist that my guide introduced me to
Some photos from the trip
http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hatches/2014/10/30/fishing-for-huchen-in-slovenia/
Crazy fast fish... I had a few close to the 100cm trophy mark swipe and follow flies. The closing speed and swipes were more like a 6in brook trout than a 4ft predator. Awesome fish! I was able to land a 60cm, but saw a few 100-110 fish at a local taxidermist that my guide introduced me to
Some photos from the trip
http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hatches/2014/10/30/fishing-for-huchen-in-slovenia/
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On my last trip for these fish, from a bridge over the Sava you could clearly see them sitting on the bottom like logs. Getting them to take our lures was another matter!
My friend says that in the Summer (when the hucho season is closed) you can see them chasing down (and catching) their favourite meal, the nose carp, a coarse fish which looks like a freshwater bonefish. Gives you an idea of the speed of the hucho. Curious, because they have relatively small tails in relation to the size of the fish.
Don't know what's in their water because they have another huge predator salmonid, the Marbled Trout, a Brown trout variation which also grows to over 1m.
My friend says that in the Summer (when the hucho season is closed) you can see them chasing down (and catching) their favourite meal, the nose carp, a coarse fish which looks like a freshwater bonefish. Gives you an idea of the speed of the hucho. Curious, because they have relatively small tails in relation to the size of the fish.
Don't know what's in their water because they have another huge predator salmonid, the Marbled Trout, a Brown trout variation which also grows to over 1m.
Karst. Limestone and dolomite. The dissolved nutrients just filter right on up through the chain.
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