Bosnia – Sanica river catchment

This catchment was offered to CTCF as a pristine watershed with native trout populations. It therefore should have a high potential for realizing an ecotourism project. Inspection ‘in situ’ with Hans van Klinken taught that the river held freshly released hatchery brown trout of questionable origins plus extremely high densities of rainbow trout of which at least three generations were present in the river. In spite of the good intentions expressed by the local authorities, community representatives, local ngos, and the angling association to improve the current situation in favour of the indigenous (?) population there were doubts about the feasibility of the project from the start.

That very week, in -mind you- a Dutch all bait angling magazine, we discovered a multiple page editorial promotion profiling the Sanica as “a fisherman’s wet dream destination” for rainbow trout. Then we learnt that flyfishing championships (whatever those may be?) have been and are being held in this very river in the near future. Disillusioned the project was rejected unanimously.

Continental_Trout_Sanica_2