Fly fishing in Montenegro, from the Tara to the Lim and Durmitor's lakes

In Montenegro fly fishing is sometimes called “royal fishing”, and the national tourist board sells it as a kind of nature therapy. It likes to point out that within an hour you can fish rivers from two different basins, the Black Sea and the Adriatic, in water as clear as glass. The big names are the Tara, the Lim, the Ljuča and the Ćehotina, with grayling, brown trout and huchen, the Danube salmon.

The rules

Fishing is governed by the freshwater fisheries law and its bylaws. Fly zones allow a single hook only, and the permit is a daily one for a specific zone, issued by the sports clubs that manage the fish stocks on that stretch. Most zones are catch and release, with a landing net and barbless flies. In the national parks the park itself issues the permit, and on Black Lake and in Biogradska Gora it costs €20 a day.

Plav and the Lim valley

Fly fishing took off in Montenegro thanks to Plav, Gusinje, Andrijevica and Berane, which hosted the European Fly Fishing Championship on Lake Plav and the Ljuča, Lim and Zlorečica rivers. The Ljuča and the first 4 km of the Lim are grayling water, with trout, huchen, pike and other species too, and the season opens between 1 April and 15 May depending on how much snow is left in Prokletije. At Andrijevica, the Lim and the Zlorečica hold brown trout, grayling and rainbow trout, best in September and October. Berane has a 3 km zone by the town plus the Bistrica, with wild brown trout all year. At Bijelo Polje, the Bistrica zone starts 7 km out of town at the Lozna Luka bridge and runs down to where the Bistrica meets the Lim. In the same town you can fish the Lim between the Gubavački and Gošino bridges, for both salmonids and coarse fish, and the Ljuboviđa for the kilometre from 500 m above to 500 m below the Vuković ethno village, which is full of trout.

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The Tara and Durmitor

The stretch of the Tara between Kolašin and Mojkovac, alongside Biogradska Gora, is one of the best according to the tourist board, with rapids, deep pools and waterfalls, and it’s open all year. On the rest of the river the season runs from June to October. Biogradska Gora National Park runs fly fishing on a managed stretch of the Tara, catch and release only, and you can also fish Lake Biograd and Kapetanovo Lake, with endemic and brook trout. In Durmitor you can fly fish four of its 18 glacial lakes, Crno, Riblje, Vražje and Zminičko, from May to September. On Black Lake you can fish between 2pm and 7pm, Mondays excepted, with a limit of four trout of at least 25 cm, though the park encourages you to put them back.

Other rivers

The Mrtvica canyon is fished from May to October for brown trout, catch and release only. Around Šavnik you can fish the Bijela, Pridvorica, Komarnica and Tušinja, best in May and June and in September and October. The 125 km Ćehotina flows through Montenegro and on into Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it joins the Drina; near Pljevlja it’s open from June to November for grayling, huchen and brown trout, catch and release only. On the Adriatic side there are two zones, the Morača in Podgorica, between the Millennium Bridge and the Union Bridge, open all year on catch and release, with Adriatic trout, marble trout, grayling and coarse fish, and the Cijevna, for 2 km downstream of the Albanian border, with Adriatic trout.

I’d bring my own flies and buy the permit in the village nearest each stretch, asking about fishing hours too, as some rivers have them. Of the country’s two airports, Podgorica and Tivat, Podgorica is the closer to the northern rivers.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Plav and pick one that fits your day.

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