The mixed Croatian boar and fishing trip

[Dunkield]

I have been meaning to do this for a while, so was glad it came together and I got 3 mates along for the ride as well.

It was a fairly hectic schedule but we knew that was going to be the case, trying to fit as much shooting and fishing into a 5 day break as possible.

 

It got off to a good start as Drovers got down to mine the evening before and went to look for sickly roebuck that had been reported to me.

We got onto the the land, I had a quick scan and saw it straight away, we drove to within 200 yards of it, carefully stalked in and dropped him on the spot.

Gralloch done, deer in the chiller and down the pub all inside and hour, quality guiding on my part, even if I say so myself - cheers.

 

Next morning was the first of many early starts, up at 03:30 out the door at 04:00 start, god bless the M25 being shut exactly where we needed to be, and then being jerked about by security at Stansted for about an hour didn't help.

When we got to the gate with 10 minutes before the plane was due to take off it was 50/50 whether they would let us on or not.

Presumably as they had 3 rifles and few hundred rounds of ammo on board it was easier to let us on, we didn't get slow hand clapped but did get the evils from most passengers walking to our seats on the plane, things could only get better...

Having grabbed some zed's on the plane we landed in Ljubiana and were straight off and through the green channel, no bother at all.

Into the hire car and a 4 hour blat to the opposite end of Croatia.

After all that and feeling slightly jaded we appreciated the cold beer before even thinking about the evening high seat session.

None of us wanted to out there too long but dropping 5 guns off into 5 high seats a reasonable distance apart takes time.

 

This was the view from my tower, logically I expected the boar to come to the wallow and the maize just behind it - they didn't

 

 

What actually happened, way after dark, so dark I had packed my rifle away, was they came to the big puddle in this picture.

It was absolutely pitch black, I have decent bins and scope on that rifle and all I could see were grey shapes enjoying themselves in the mud, it was frustrating but entertaining at the same time. I borrowed a torch off my mate after that evening.

 

 

After dinner and collapsing into bed, it seemed like only minutes later we were woken at 04:30 to get back out there, this was my view once light broke, again it looked pretty promising. No pigs came but a roebuck was taunting me at about 130 yards, first with a stony ride behind and a main road in the distance, which I didn't like the look of, and then right into the sun, so much so my eyes were streaming so again no shot fired.

 

 

 

The 'seats' are pretty decent, more like personal towers, this place is so big there are over 50 of these!

 

 

The evening session that day produced nothing for me, but my mate was dropped off at the tower I was in the day before and as he climbed up there were pigs already there so we all heard the boom of .444 he had borrowed. One down.

So of course that called for a celebratory beers over dinner, luckily we got off to bed at a sensible time as we were up again the following morning at half 4 again.

 

I was dropped off at the end of a ride in pitch black and told to walk (through water and mud a foot deep) for 200 yards and my seat would there. One of my mates had sat there before and said it was a good one. It was actually 400 yards and once I got there and got comfortable I just fell asleep. I was woken by the squealing of pigs splashing about in the wallow 70 yards in front of me, unfortunately it was still absolutely pitch black. I gambled that they would be there long enough for the little light I needed. They cleared off twice but luckily came back both times, I didn't think they would do that again so had to take my chance, luckily one of them split off and started coming towards me as they others were overlapping each other so not a shot.

As soon as I was happy I dropped it, a quartering shot, but it did the job perfectly. That was 6am so we still had another 1.5 hours to sit it out before being picked up, the amount of wildlife to watch was mind blowing which just made it even more magical.

I saw red deer, roe deer, a barn owl, woodpeckers and massive pigs criss crossing the rides

 

 

The view back from the wallow

 

 

Red hind crossing the ride

 

 

Roe doe in the distance on the right, a bit feint that one

 

 

On the last session we were joined on the estate by a doctor who had asked to shoot a trophy red stag, they have 10 that are part of their plan so if successful this would be number one. He and his guide found 'the one' pretty quickly and that was back at the larder when we got back to the farm, with one very happy hunter.

I have tried telling people how big the deer are over there, this was the first one I had seen really close up all 32 stone of it!

 

Nice rack

 

 

No one would say exactly how much that cost him but I can't imagine it was cheap.

I had a look at the other trophies on his phone back in the bar and was pretty obvious this man doesn't muck about, he has been over here and shot gold medal muntjac, CWD and some decent sika as well.

 

We had one last early morning session the next day, fairly uneventful few hours apart from watching wildlife and the sun come slowly up.

Then it then it was a case gathering everyone up, back to the farm for breakfast then all the gear into the van to drive the 3 hours back to the Slovenian border for a couple of days fishing. Luckily fish keep office hours so we were all looking forward to some quality lay-ins.

[shaun4860]

Cheers,

 

Nice write up

 

[Cranfield]

All excellent stuff, its nice to live the experience without spending the money, or suffering the early mornings.

[Teal]

Super photographs and write-up - hugely enjoyed it - congratulations on the pig. Was it a case of bag limit when you had shot the pig that the high seat you were in you didn't take any other shots?

 

I seem to recall before you have taken a photograph of the total bag on branches, was that the case this time? I also thought you did a driven event rather than high seats in mornings and evenings - am I mistaken?

 

I guess if you were busy hauling out trout and grayling that may have taken up the most of the day? Looks a fabulous trip

[Dunkield]

OK, in order

 

No limit on pigs, but only anything under 50 kg, this was culling/management.

We were allowed one non-medal or non-special (whatever that is) roebuck each as well

I now appreciate that pigs are a million times more timid than deer, they don't hang about to be shot, so one per session per person is all you are going to get.

Two were shot in total by us. if I knew then what I know now I would have shot [at] the roebuck and probably taken another pig under torchlight.

If we go back we may double in towers if they will let us as you have to watch 360 degrees all the time

Driven shooting is during the daytime, hight seat is dusk and dawn. we were offered the option to spend all day out there if we wanted but it would be uber tiring.

[Cranfield]

My USA friends that shoot pigs (hogs) have always said that they are more intelligent/wary than deer.

Videos of them being shot from helicopters, or at very long ranges, are the only way you are going to get bags in numbers.

Even when they use dogs to drive them to guns, they have ways of hiding, or slipping back, or out the side, of the line and getting away.

[Dunkield]

Onto the fishing bit.

So having arrived at our accommodation for the next few days, we were greeted with the traditional shot of home made Rakia on the bar, not my favourite drink by any means, but when in Rome...

Passports handed over, licences bought, spot of lunch and it was off to one of the few rivers that weren't in flood after all the rain the area had suffered fro weeks.

 

Although it was a bit overcast, not too shabby a spot

 

 

Although I struggled the others were all soon into grayling

 

 

As we were still a bit sleep deprived, once everyone (apart from me) had landed grayling, a couple for the first time, we headed off for a quick beer before back 'home' for dinner.

 

Next day was Saturday so after a nice lay in and relaxed breakfast we moved across to a smaller river as there and been an influx of Italian and French anglers after the weeks of unfishable water.

So we were guided to a whole stretch of river all to ourselves, it was misty at first but then the sun came out, almost perfect.

 

 

I had a great spot and after losing a reasonable amount of flies and leader in overhanging trees started to catch fairly regularly.

I never manage to get pictures of the fish as like to return them asap [it's all catch & release] juggling the rod, net, fish and camera and not falling in isn't easy so I was pretty pleased with this graying selfie, not quite but you know what I mean..

 

 

Although a bit smaller than usual it still amazes me just how hard they fight in fast running water on light tackle.

I caught half a dozen, so went to see how the others were fairing, and it was getting close to beer o'clock..

 

Some random pictures along the way

 

 

 

After lunch and bit of relaxing in the sun, we moved on again to couple of less productive spots and then to some dry fly water in case there was an evening hatch. Nothing was moving on the surface but gave sedges a go and ban, straight into free rising grayling and brown trout.

 

I hooked a fairly small graying and then everything went tight, my initial thought was it had taken my line round and obstruction as I could feel movement but something didn't feel right. Our guide was just downstream and called across to ask what was happening, just as he said that line was coming back OK. Then there was and almighty splash and the shout of salmon! Just as that happened my line went slack and my fish came to hand, it was looking pretty unwell with 2 massive teeth mark scars on either side. Our guide reckoned he saw it briefly and estimated it was about 80cm, so that would have been fun on a 4 weight rod with 3lb tippet!

 

That was enough for me, so the evening followed the familiar format, chuck the stuff in the van back to the ranch for food, beers and shooting/fishing stories..

 

 

We had another quick fairly disappointing fish after breakfast the following morning, chucked all the wet gear into plastic bags and headed off over the border to the airport to come home

 

Needless to say I am already looking forward to next years trip.

 

Bring it on.

[flynny]

Excellent, that's what it's all about,

 

Good on you mate,

 

We only live once, so you've got to grab the experiences by the horns and get it done,

 

Atb

 

Flynny

[Bazooka Joe]

Nice write up, enjoyed the read...

 

Is it priced reasonable, or do you have to sell a kidney..?

[Dunkield]

Thanks. You wouldn't believe me if I told you

 

Flights were booked well in advance, about £100 return, including guns if I remember correctly.

Fishing is £15/day for the smaller rivers and £25/day for all including the main river.

Accommodation all up was a whopping £80 each end.

It's a cheap country, what can I say.

[Mungler]

Stuart,

 

Which bits of the Country were you in?

 

Grab a map and pen the route if you can.

 

The Bucket list has to have a shooting road trip across Europe on it.

[Dunkield]

The shooting was at Josavac - you know this place, don't worry the guy deerstalking says he say 'hundreds' of pigs

The fishing was on the Kupa and Turac rivers, both in Brod na Kupi - right on the Croatian/Slovenian border, in fact the Kupa/Kupi forms the border, you can walk between the countries in waders.

[Dunkield]

Here you go Andy, you need to get into the fishing bit as it doubles up your opportunities to do stuff.

We met some Spaniads who were making their way across Europe just stopping off and fishing rivers that looked nice.

 

As you already know 'bucket lists' tend to be just that, lists - you need to get out there and do it.

 

[Dunkield]

And BJ to answer your earlier question, I have tallied it up the whole trip all up was £500 dead, ridiculous isn't it? you can't even go to Torremolinos for 5 days for that

[Dougy]

Looks like some nice little rivers there.

Ive not touched a rod for nearly 6 years now, it certainly starts to bring those thoughts back of little brown trout taking the little Knotted gnats off the water . Those Boar you saw, i thought you would have dropped them all. They were lucky i wasn't in that high seat

The mighty would have been ringing in them there hills

Edited September 24, 2014 by Dougy

[Dunkield]

The boar are unbelievably timid when not driven Dougy, way more so than deer for instance, when you can drop one reload and drop another.

I had the same vision, unloading the mag and reaching for the spare, but in reality one shot and they are just gone.

[huffhuff]

Great write-up

 

Dobra dobra

[malkiserow]

Did you have to check your zero or adjust it?

[Dunkield]

After flying?

No I don't bother, expensive rings and scope and all that.

I did have to adjust it to take the mod off before travelling, they are illegal out there.

[Fatcatsplat]

That's ridikiluss for the money - Cracking deal

[Bazooka Joe]

And BJ to answer your earlier question, I have tallied it up the whole trip all up was £500 dead, ridiculous isn't it? you can't even go to Torremolinos for 5 days for that

 

 

Thanks Dunkield...I'd spend more than that for 5 days in Spain,.. ...certainly got me thinking.

[Dunkield]

At the other end of the scale, I just heard that red stag has been confirmed as a Gold it scored 217 CIC points, that cost him over £4,300 for one evening out.

Each to their own.

[sako751sg]

Unbelievable value for money for sure.Dont get much for £500 nowadays.

Nice pics and write up.

[babka3487]

Great write up, thanks for sharing. Did you arrange the shooting directly with the estate and would you be willing to share contact details?

[Dunkield]

I am not sure if you can book direct, I don't see why not.

We booked through a friend and mutual contact who may have got us discount as we have shot driven boar there a few times before.