A bit late, but I’d still like to share a few words about the competition I took part in this September. The event is called the Adriatic–Danube Cup, bringing together countries situated along the Adriatic coast and the Danube basin. This year it was held for the fifth time. The venue was Montenegro — in the towns of Plav and Berane on the Lim River. The target species were grayling, trout, and small hucho.
Seventeen teams participated, representing Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Our Bulgarian team consisted of Dr. Vencislav Stoev and myself. Since we didn’t have a third member, we were assigned a local young angler who, unfortunately, wasn’t able to contribute much to our overall team ranking.
The competition consisted of three sessions across three sectors, and each competitor rotates through all of them. I had good luck with my sector in the first session and won it with 11 grayling, while a competitor from Bosnia finished second with 5. In the second session, I managed to catch only one grayling, which placed me 6th. The river had become very muddy due to heavy rainfall the previous day. The rain continued throughout the competition. In the third session I drew sector 17, where the water was at its darkest, and I didn’t manage to land a fish over the 20 cm minimum. This placed me 12th overall — just one fish away from taking a medal, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
As a team, we finished 14th, at least staying clear of the very last positions.
The competition was well organized and definitely worth attending. I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition in 2015, which will take place in Bosnia. I hope Bulgaria will be able to send more than one team next time.
Special thanks to the organizers. Here are a few photos showing what the river, the insects, the weather, and the people looked like during the event.
