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IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:
Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Fishing in the Killing Fields of Bosnia
Our March 2003 contribution from Nick Sawyer
Nick Sawyer, grandson of the late Frank Sawyer, in his first contribution to Fish and Fly writes about fishing in Bosnia and picking his way through minefields to get to the rivers.
Several years ago I served in Bosnia as the operations officer of a large region centred on the Muslim town of Sanski Most. The area was mountainous and I was fortunate enough to spend some time on the many local rivers. The waters were teeming with life, including significant numbers of tiny snakes which lived on the banks of the river and fed on the vast shoals of fry from the shallows. The fish were astonishing. Grayling, trout, a type of char, and a non-migratory salmonid known as a huchen (hucho hucho), were often visible in the cold, clear, limestone water.
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The rocky nature of rivers in this area of Bosnia is clearly visible. |
My weeks along the rivers were spent trying to organize landmine clearance as part of the stabilization and normalizing of this area of Bosnia. Rivers, being formidable obstacles, tended to form part of the defensive networks on all sides and were therefore heavily mined. One of the locals who helped me identify the most important areas for de-mining was a keen fisherman, and exquisite fly tier, called Selman.
Before the war, Selman had been a river guide but became a soldier after he was forced to flee the area during a bout of ethnic cleansing. He had actually been a conscript in the Yugoslav Army (VJ) in the 1980s so it was remarkable that he had avoided being called-up earlier. At the height of the fighting around Sanski Most, Selman’s unit conducted a fighting withdrawal from the area in the face of strong opposition and laid minefields along the rivers to disrupt and harass the advancing forces.
Five years after these events, I found myself with Selman picking a way along a heavily mined road and river bank which led to a burned-out village a few miles north of Sanski Most. The village was abandoned because the only safe route to the houses was by a tortuous footpath over the hills. This made it unfeasible to transport in repair materials. Clearing the road of mines would allow over 200 people to return to their homes and work the surrounding fields. The river, with its snakes, fry and fish, was one of their main water sources.
Selman and I spent many days in this and other nearby minefields along the river prioritising the work for the overstretched minefield clearance agencies. The minefield survey patrol was an all day affair. My team would pick up Selman from his house and drive out to the area in my Land Rover. The three other members of the team provided cover for me and Selman, and also relayed communications from the high ground, as we made our way into the survey area using the few safe routes that existed. We developed the habit of taking a rod and tackle on our trips for the quieter moments during the day. Fishing with a rifle, combat webbing and body armour is not the easiest method of catching a trout – but it can be done.
The river, a tributary of the Sana, was fast flowing with deep pools and eddies scattered amongst the pockmarked limestone banks. The river bottom varied between gravel and smooth rock and was virtually weed free. The water, which ran off the surrounding mountains, was cold and clear. Scrubby oak bushes, typical of the Balkans, could be found on the slopes above the river valley. As ever in North West Bosnia, the summer days were very hot, bright and without a breath of air. In the heat of the day, the only movement in the river was from snakes and fry.
The fishing during these hours was an extremely frustrating experience. The fry were the only active fish and would nibble at dry flies only slightly smaller than themselves. It proved virtually impossible to hook them, but they would continually swamp the fly necessitating regular ‘resuscitation’ of the soggy lure. One would have thought that a good sized weighted nymph would be the answer in these circumstances; unfortunately the fry often managed to hook themselves on the nymphs and I found myself removing half inch fish from the pheasant tail every few minutes.
As the afternoon started to cool down, it was a completely different story. The first indicators of change were the appearance of small swarms of terrestrial flies among the bushes and trees lining the banks. A short time later the snakes and fry would disappear completely from the water leaving an apparently lifeless river. It didn’t last long. The nymphs and flies that appeared after the temperature had dropped several degrees were staggering. One could reach out into the air and grasp handfuls of thick, green flies. If a child’s fishing net was available, a sweep through the water would have pulled out scores of nymphs.
The bigger fish started to appear as the activity increased. The light was still good enough to see into the slower moving pools and one could not fail to witness the spectacular rises all over the river. Occasional fish of over 5lb could be seen gorging on nymphs and surface flies or throwing themselves clear of the water after the largest flies. One can only assume that any snakes or fry that were foolish enough not to hide became dinner as well. Selman quickly hooked a decent trout of about 1lb using a dry fly of his own design. We didn’t have a landing net so I had to lie on my belly and reach down the couple of feet from the rocky bank to hand land the struggling fish. It was a fine trout with a greenish tint to its markings and bold, dark yellow spots.
Selman handed me the rod and I cast a few metres upstream to a pool where there were regular rises from some very healthy specimens. The fly had barely touched the surface when the water erupted and a sizeable fish of about 2.5 lb sucked in the fly. The response as I struck was instantaneous and violent. The fish sprinted downstream dragging large amounts of line into the tricky rocks and fast flowing water. I couldn’t move from our spot on the bank as the surrounding area was not cleared of mines! The trout had the better of me and the 4 lb line soon snagged on a protruding rock and broke. Selman quickly attached another of his excellent flies and cast to the same pool. Again the reaction was positive and a fish similar in size to the previous example raced across the river complete with fly in mouth.
The situation was as ironic as it was depressing. The fish were rising, we were using the perfect imitation and Selman had a prize fish on his line. But time was against us. We were probably the only people who had fished here since the war, but we could not stay longer as we had to leave the mined areas while there was still plenty of light. Navigating safe lanes through a minefield during daylight is risky enough, in bad light or darkness it is suicide. I reminded Selman of the hour. With a resigned shake of his head and a jerk of the rod he broke the line and freed his fish. We lowered ourselves into the river and waded some 100 metres to the safe route out of the minefield and started the long walk back to the Land Rover.
A few weeks later once the minefield survey had been completed, Selman invited me to a fishing and barbeque party on the banks of a particularly popular (and mine free) river some way from Sanski Most. He explained that the fishing was nowhere near as spectacular as that to be found in the mined river areas, but there was good sport to be had. Bosnian fishing and barbeque parties are a unique experience. The day is spent in the shade drinking and eating. The speciality is a barbequed veal dish cooked with onions and vegetables then eaten with the local bread. The fishing only startss once the temperature begins to drop and the river starts its stunning transformation. The fishing continues until it is too dark to see. The men then return to the barbeque site and continue eating and drinking, before finally sleeping under the stars. Unfortunately, Standing Orders for British Forces did not allow me to accept Selman’s invitation, but I did manage to drop by for lunch during a ‘routine patrol’. After stuffing myself with veal and bread I took my rod and joined the snakes in the sweltering Bosnian heat wave. I caught eight, half inch fry on a Killer Bug!
Selman was killed in the summer of 2000 while clearing mines in the Bihac
area of Bosnia. The anti-tank mine he was working on exploded unexpectedly,
killing Selman and a colleague instantly. Later that year the road to
the village where we had worked together was cleared of mines and the
villagers returned to their homes for the first time in over six years.
The bodies of two murdered children and their mother were recovered from
a shallow, booby trapped grave in the middle of the minefield.
Nick Sawyer is a serving Major in the Royal Horse Artillery and a keen fisherman. He is on the committee of the Services Dry Fly Fishing Association (SDFFA) and a member of the Wiltshire Fisheries Association. Nick has spent all his life fishing, predominately on the Upper Avon in Wiltshire, where his grandfather, the late Frank Sawyer, was river keeper.
Nick has served in over 20 countries with the Army and seen active service in Cyprus, Bosnia and Kosovo (twice). He was decorated for gallantry in 1999 while attached to The Parachute Regiment in Pristina.
The author can be contacted at nicktsawyer@hotmail.com