River Una · fly box
Karst water with tufa waterfalls, and grayling that rise all day in the pools below them.
| Pattern | Imitates | Size | Technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grayling Bug | Cased caddis larva | #12-14 | Tight-line upstream through the pool tail; grayling feed on the bottom in shoals. |
| Klinkhamer | Emerging olive | #14-16 | Hang it in the film at the lip of a tufa barrier, where the current breaks. |
| March Brown Comparadun | Rhithrogena dun | #12 | May dry fly in the fast water above and below the barriers. |
| Marble Streamer | Sculpin | #4 | Deep pool below a waterfall at dawn, for brown trout and the occasional marble. |
The dressing plate
On this river
Fishing the tufa pools
Each tufa barrier holds a pool that is 2 to 4 metres deep and 40 to 80 metres long, with a fast lip at the head and a slow tail. Grayling shoal in the middle, so the working method is a long upstream nymph drift through the centre, then a dry fly at the lip when the hatch is on. Cover it once and move; repeating a drift in flat water scatters the shoal.
Reading the colour of karst water
The Una's colour is a reliable depth gauge: pale turquoise means clear and low, deep emerald means normal, and grey-green means the catchment above has had rain. Fishing the emerald stage right after the colour starts to drop is the best window, because the fish have had a day of low visibility and are feeding confidently.
Night caddis on a Balkan river
In July the Rhyacophila hatch happens after dark and grayling feed on the surface until midnight. Fish a single #12 caddis on a short line, wade carefully because the tufa is slippery, and use a headlamp sparingly — a beam swept across a pool will put the shoal down for the rest of the night.