Postcards from Gus - Sarca River, Northern Italy
Good mate of The Flyfisher, Gus Ingram is on the Upper Sarca near Pinzolo, in the Trentino region of northern Italy, for a day with local guide Paolo. Three rivers, plenty of fish, most of them on the dry, and then a chat in Paolo's family mountain cabin while a rain shower rolled through. The Alto Sarca is an easy fishery to fall for. One permit covers around 300 kilometres of water, so you can nymph the main river for marble trout in the morning and be up a glacial tributary fishing dries after lunch. We cover the marmorata and how big they get in this system, Arctic char caught at 2,700 metres, the flood recovery work the local association has done with Vibert boxes, and what the reserva stretches offer for very little money. Paolo also runs through gear, and it is refreshingly simple. A 9 foot 4 weight, a floating line, and big dries with a small nymph dropper. Waist waders and studded boots most of the year, or wet wade it in summer. Plus a word on why hiring a guide in a foreign country is less about casting lessons and more about not wasting three days in the wrong valley.
