We barely arrived back to Belgium from France and three days into June I was fishing on the Vesdre again, trying to restore my self confidence a bit. The day was a complete success with a record number of 32 trout (of which 11 on the dry fly – also a record), so I concluded that not finding more than one fish in France was “not my fault”. The next evenings I made sure that my fly boxes were full and ready for the coming trip (even though as it turned out, flies were included in the service).

On the 7th we flew to Slovenia for our first real summer holidays of the year. We spent six night in Bovec, one night in Bled, and three nights in Ljubljana. The first two days were spent more in the spirit of relaxation, we visited the Great Soča Gorge (and spotted the first huge trout in the river – a good sign for the days to come), and also walked to the river closer to our apartment. The next three days I spent fishing with a guide (Lesly). While hiring a guide was very expensive (300 EUR/day, on top of the ~80 EUR/day daily licence cost on these rivers), I learned so much from Lesly that it was definitely worth it. I am 100% sure that without this experience I would not have been nearly as successful in Norway in August, and I would definitely not have had the confidence to go back and try my luck in Slovenia on my own in October (more about these trips later).

The first day we spent on the upper Soča. I could barely sleep from the excitement and our noisy upstairs neighbours the night before (luckily that was their last night), so the morning was difficult… My lack of sleep was likely responsible for me making a careless step and falling (almost a meter) off the side of an old tiny wooden bridge, which (banged up my leg and) split my waders wide open still before we caught any fish… Luckily no bones were broken, so I quickly changed to my spare wet wading gear which turned out to be just fine, as temperatures soared to nearly thirty degrees over the next days, so occasionally standing in the cold river was actually rather refreshing. Lesly spotted fish as you would expect it from an experienced guide (I literally only found 2 out of the ~20 spotted fish on my own this day, some I could barely see even after Lesly explained where they were holding), so it did not take much time to catch the first fish: immediately the biggest rainbow trout I have ever seen, and on the dry fly! It was so big that it immediately jumped out of my hands as I tried to raise it – I had no priori experience handling fish this big, so this is also something that I got to practice here. We did not get to measure the fish, but it was nearly 50 cm (I don’t count this as my PR as I only have an approximate length, but it was one of the biggest and nicest rainbows this year for sure). I fished exclusively with the Rivermaniac rod, and this was the first time I nymphed with it too (under a yarn indicator), so I needed some time to get used to the technique (casting this rig, and setting the hook). My number one issue was the too hard hook sets which I got away with earlier using the Euro nymphing rod, as a “hard” hookset got dampened by the flex of the 11’3″ #3 rod, saving even 7X thin tippet, but this was not the case using this 9′ #5 rod (especially combined with heavy fish), so that cost me a few marbles (and my guide a few flies). The other issue was getting too much line in during the fight, and trying to net the fish too quickly. This also cost me a few fish… Anyway, at the end I caught 3 marble trout too (each on the dry fly), each in the 30-40 cm range, and we finished the day with a bit of casting practice.

On the second day we started off around the confluence of the Koritnica and the Soča, where we spotted a nice light coloured (Adriatic) grayling, but it did not want to eat anything I threw in front of him… Then I got a rainbow trout crouching at the edge of a large slab of rock from a deep swirly eddy, which was not the last sketchy spot of the day, as the sometimes narrow valley of the Koritnica was not super straightforward to navigate, especially with the fly rod. In general this day we spotted much less fish, and only 3 of them in the Koritnica. Two of these I managed to catch; one on the dry fly, and one on the nymph. I think the one on the dry is my favourite catch of the holidays, as it was me who spotted a single rise (while my guide was switching nymphs on my rod), and we could not spot the fish in the water otherwise, so I just had to remember where it was. But two dry changes and a few casts later the next rise was on the money, and I finally did a gentle well-timed hook-set, and landed the fish. The one on the nymph actually ate the indicator (after not willing to rise for any dry fly), and got hooked on its pelvic fin… After lunch we went a bit more upstream on the Soča, spotted a few fish, including a very large one (70+ cm?), but of course that wanted nothing to do with anything I threw at him. After some mending lessons I still caught a rainbow on the dry fly, and missed a rainbow on the nymph (got too far and off the hook), before calling it a day.

On the third day we met somewhat further, at the Boka bridge, then went 1 km downstream and started fishing upstream on the East bank of the Soča. After lunch we did the same on the opposite side. After the previous day’s more difficult terrain, having easy access to the river (except for like one spot) was a welcome change. After a few catches on the nymph, the river kind of exploded and large rainbow trout were rising and taking the dry flies in numbers. Fish were big and strong on this section, meaning that a lot of fights lasted for minutes. At the end of the day after saying farewell to Lesly I still went back to the bridge alone and caught a rainbow that I missed with 3 different flies before lunch, then managed a few rises and like two missed takes on the pool a bit downstream (as now I could spot the fish on my own too). Before stopping I still did a few casts just under the bridge as there were now two fish there, but none of them wanted anything to do with my dry fly, and just as I was going to stop, I spotted a big fish cruising just to my left, I did one cast, he took the fly, but I set the hook too hard and the fish was off :,( Still, it was an awesome day, with a lot of fish, and some good roll casting practice.

After three amazing days of fishing (and for Clio walking to various waterfalls, reading books, and relaxing) we drove to Bled. The scenic route took us via Lake Bohinj, and we stopped a few times along the Sava Bohinjka river too (first with the car, then later on foot before walking to the Lake of Bled in the evening for postcard views and dinner). Since we saw a lot of fish everywhere, I decided that the next morning we should still stay at the river and fish (as we had to be at the airport to drop the car before going to Ljubljana only late in the afternoon). After breakfast we went down to the bridge, and I started fishing there, initially trying to catch something with the dry fly rod. It took a few fly changes, but I finally got a few fish to rise, but I missed each of the three chances I got. Then it was time to change to the Euro rod (for the first time in Slovenia), as a 60 EUR day ticket had to result in catching something ;) It only took a few fly changes and drifts until the first take: immediately a nice rainbow! Netting it was not easy, as it dragged the leader around some old wooden pillars, but luckily I could still wade in deep enough to get the line out and land the fish. Then we moved downstream a bit to a pool where I spotted a good dozen fish already the evening before. They were still there! It was strange Euro nymphing in such slow and extremely clear water, but it was super fun to see all the underwater action and the fish going after the nymphs. Since the pool was deep it took me some time to get the hang of making good deep drifts, but when I figured it out, the fish started coming one after the other. There were some big ones producing good fights, and I was especially happy to land some pretty brown trout too (very varied in pattern) after all the marbles and rainbows of the Soča. I tried here and there walking to other places in the river and get something on the dry rod, but that was not to be on this day.

The days in Ljubljana were spent slow, in good weather, with delicious food, some sightseeing, and for me pretty much just riding the high I got from all the amazing fishing the days before.

Fishing the Ijse back home definitely needed some mental adjustment, but I still had fun showing Willem around on one of the evenings after work (only disturbed by hundreds of hikers passing by unexpectedly). Still, fishing here got a bit frustrating due to the crazy vegetation, so I tried going to the Ardennes as much as I could over the summer months. We also went back to have dinner again in the Louvain d’Anvers which moved a few houses to a new building, making it an even nicer place (I cannot understand how is it rated only 13/20 on the Gault&Millau).

I started July (Diogo Jota, YNWA) with celebrating my 1 year fly fishing anniversary: I started the day at a bit past 10 AM at my usual spot (East of Eupen) at the Vesdre. I had high hopes for a long fun day here, as the previous time (just before Slovenia) was also like that, but now something was off. I did not really notice it at the beginning in the shadows, but over the sunny stretches it became evident that the water was rather coloured. I found fish at much fewer places than usual, and only one rising one, so I stopped early in the afternoon after only 12 brownies (even though I did almost the whole stretch). Since I still had a lot of time until sunset, I decided to drive to the other area where I have a year licence, and discover a new section of the Petite (small) Amblève. I parked at La Salle de Bellevaux, and started wading upstream from there. The water here was perfectly clear. The first few hundred meters held a few rising fish, but then a long section of continuous rapids meant some frustratingly difficult wading through empty water until I arrived to the small bridge at the starting point of the next section. Here I found a long, slow pool with hatching insects and happily feeding trout. After missing a ridiculous amount of fish on a rather heavily hackled Adams-like fly, I decided to switch to a CDC emerger (where there is no hackle in the way of the hook), and that did the trick, I immediately started hooking and landing fish. That was a very fun area, but it was getting so dark under the trees that I had to switch to my normal glasses at the end, and even like that seeing the fly quickly became unpleasantly difficult, so I had to stop already an hour before sunset. I should have left the long Euro rod in the car, as except for a few places, it was impossible to cast under the trees with that, but the short, 7’6″ #3 dry rod was an excellent choice (but even with that I managed to get stuck on a tree and lose a fish…). At the end I caught 6 beautiful orange dotted brownies here. It was a fun day: I caught 18 brownies in two rivers (including a section that I have never fished before!), using three different rods and two different techniques.

The next week we had an excellent lunch on the beautiful garden terrace of the Michelin starred Essenciel (it’s been too long since our last time), before going to Han-sur-Lesse for the weekend (where the food was not great, but we went for the rivers anyway). I fished the Lesse and the Lomme around the confluence again, and while I caught some nice trout and a beautiful grayling, I was a bit disappointed by the seemingly low number of fish in this beautiful environment (so the next day I did not fish but we went home early and did a big walk to get ice cream in the forest instead). I also had a very close encounter with a tiny beaver, which was probably the cutest animal I have seen in the wild this year (or ever) – among the many bigger beavers, kingfishers, and the occasional deer. The next week I had a nice work dinner at the HOP Gastrobar while meeting with our hardware manufacturers. On my next fishing Friday I went back to the Petite Amblève to explore it further upstreams. I got up very early, and parked behind the event hall of Bellevaux already around 8AM. After making a few casts on the nearest section of the river (and catching the first trout of the day), I walked to the spot where I ended two weeks earlier (the small bridge SW of Lasneville). I fished from there all the way to the upper limit of this section (this is all part of the waters of La Truite Stavelot-Malmedy), which is nearly 2 km of river. At the end I climbed out of the river (which was not the easiest task) and walked back on the road to the small bridge for an evening round two, before finishing with a few casts where I started the day. I fished nearly 12 hours, caught and released 39 trout, of which 34 on the dry fly (new personal records). The fish were pretty but mostly small (not a surprise in such a tiny river), in the 15-20 cm range, the largest being around 25 cm. I also recorded a further 33 missed takes/lost fish. I had a blast, this was definitely one of the most fun days of fly fishing in Belgium in 2025.

To the occasion of the 1st anniversary of my first trout catch (and release) in Norway, I decided to surprise myself with some new tackle: I got a 8′ #4 Vision OnkII to fill the gap between my 3 and 5 weight rods. The rod is perfectly balanced with an Orvis Battenkill Click Reel (II), making the combination a very lightweight setup (62 g rod and 82 g reel). I equipped the reel with the Scientific Anglers Amplitude Smooth Creek Trout line (WF-4-F), since I still wanted to fish this rod mostly in close range. (Later I also got the standard Trout line too – without the creek -, and I have been using one of these with this rod depending on the situation: creek for close quarters, normal for delicate dry fly presentations.) The perfect river for this setup was the Vesdre, so I decided to go back there to test everything out. For the first time in a long while I decided to only carry this one rod (instead of also taking a specific nymphing rod along). I also tied up two new different kinds of dry flies on the evening before fishing, and I fished these exclusively. I started the day on the usual section of the river (West of Eupen), then in the late afternoon/evening I discovered some new waters further to the West (the remaining of this fly fishing only zone). While the start was rather slow, at the end I closed the day with 22 fish (and many more lost or missed), which is a nice result (especially considering my dry fly only approach). Another fun rod in the collection :)

As you can see these days I was either working, fishing (on Fridays), or enjoying a nice walk and brunch/coffee with Clio in Leuven (over the weekends). I still went to the Ijse too in one of the evenings, and I started tying some extra dry flies for Norway too (down to size 18, which was unimaginable just a few months earlier – practice does make perfect). [Note: I cheated with the gallery below a bit, the first three pictures are still from June, and the last two are from August, but it groups better this way. This is the in-between Slovenia and Norway gallery.]