Every year, I head to the Dolomites for some fishing, and this year was no exception. My family and I traveled to Molveno for a vacation, and I took the opportunity to do some fishing for a few days. I spent the first day fishing the tributaries of the upper Maso River. I didn’t fish the Maso itself because the water had turned brown due to the draining of a reservoir; furthermore, most of the river was already closed to fishing to protect spawning trout. Consequently, I started on a very small stream, where I caught a few small brown trout. The stream was crystal clear with a swift current and occasional deep pools.

After fishing that stream, I moved on to another one—slightly wider and home to more fish—quite a few more, in fact. I caught about 20 small brown trout and a few slightly larger ones. Unfortunately, there was no sign of any marble trout. Once I finished fishing, I headed back to the apartment and called it a day.

The next day, I went with my family to Lake Nembia, where the fish have seen it all. It’s a catch-and-release area that faces significant fishing pressure; the fish are covered in hook marks and rarely take a fly. I managed to fool a nice brown trout using an egg pattern, and a few rainbow trout with a small Hare’s Ear nymph. It was a solid two hours of fishing.

Finally, I fished at Lake Neves—the spot I had been looking forward to the most. It took a two-hour drive to get there, but in the end, things didn’t quite go as I had expected. Last year, I caught about 5 marble trout and many rainbow trout there—including one that was 70 cm long.

This year, there was plenty of stocked fish—all of the same kind—plus I also caught a few brook trout and a couple of grayling.So, that was my trip to the Dolomites this year.