This story started innocently, with mail from Tanguy. He said he has a friend who would like to come to Croatia for fishing. A month later, Etienne came to Croatia and blowed us away. We thought we ́ll spend some time with normal (fisher)man. He even introduced himself as an average fisherman. We even made fun of him because of his his carpfishing past. But it didn ́t take long time for Robert and me see he is ordnary man, but no ordinary fisherman.
[ezcol_1half]
[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]
[/ezcol_1half_end]
When a man just listens to him talking about fishing and fish, he sees that this guy knows a lot. When you see him on a water, you know he knows even more than you thought. Our plan was to take him to Sava river, for some barbel, chub, asp, and so on. Unfortunately, water level didn ́t let us so we went trout fishing. We took him on Dobra river and there his talent and knowledge, quick adaptation to changing conditions and understanding of fish behavour came to the fore. At the same time, some kind of easiness and calmness which he exudes while fishing simply can ́t be unnoticed.
In simple words, fishing looks like a walk through the park when Etienne is doing it. Wild brown trouts, those predatory but finicky fish look as silly as those rainbows from fish farms when they are at Etienne ́s gunpoint. It took him some time to get the hang and after that Robert and me did the smartest thing we could- watched a master, an artist at work. We got first row tickets for Etienne show and we enjoyed every minute of it.
I could write how and on what he caught all those trout, but I won ́t. Man is preparing an article on that subject so wait for it. I will just say it was done with such ease that my pal Robert and I commented that he is crazy, that it can ́t be done, that it ́s insane and so on. You get it.
We were curious how he will perform at Čabranka river the next day. Well, he nailed it as well. Čabranka is a bit different than Dobra, it ́s smaller, with more rapids and nice population of brown and rainbow trout as well. Etienne caught his first rainbow in first cast, I even had him in a number of fish for some time and then happened what happened at Dobra the day before. Again he took some time to find a pattern and then run that pattern for the rest of the day. Once again I forgot my rod from time to time and watched what he ́s doing. Once again I enjoyed the show. It was smartest thing I could do.
All three of us caught fish in rapids, calm water, pools, in any given situation, but again our French friend caught more. Many more. Although he said he is no expert in trout fishing, results speak for themselves. Either he is too modest, or Croatian trouts fell on his charm and smile. Let ́s say it is this other thing, just to make us feel better.
[ezcol_1half]
[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]
[/ezcol_1half_end]
Anyway, big finale came late afternoon. On a 200-300 meters long part of Čabranka he caught more than 15 trout in 15-20 minutes. Last 6 of them in as many casts. That was it, he took apart his rod and didn ́t want to fish no more.
Till next time, Etienne and thanks a lot for magic you shared with us!
