New article posted on Flyfishing.co.uk: Fly Fishing in Europe - Slovenia: The Marble Trout Religion

Has anyone else here fished for marble trout? Any photos or stories to share as this is a species I'd love to learn more about and get the chance to target one day.

On my first trip to Slovenia, one of my goals was to target a big Marble trout.
I stayed at the Villa in this article, and Branko had some large stuffed specimens on the wall of his breakfast room.
Getting information however was very difficult, it appears to be quite cultish, and almost a closed private club. I joined a local forum and not many were willing to give information up; I did however was given a clue when the administrator posted some pics of the "flies" used for marbles. Though I'm sure you can catch marbles on the gear suggested on this article (especially the small or hybrid ones), it seems a little on the light side given the heavy weights needed to be thrown.
These days my preference is to fish for the other big predator in that wonderful country, hucho hucho, but that's another story!

Thanks for the extra info - I guess any population of big fish like this will suffer from a bit of a ring-fencing by the locals which is understandable. Fishing with a local guide is always the best way to get access to the resource and learn a trick or two.
Huchen - as you say, that is another story and another that intrigues me also.

The locals fish v'large streamers massively leaded to get down through the currenty to the big fish and typically stored in a tin with a chicken liver/other flavour attractant. This may not strictly match the flyfishing rules of the catchment, but it seemed to be openly discussed and common practice when I was there.

As the article says use "pike" tactics...

Here's a slovene forum thread which features marble trout, and also shows the sorts of "flies" used to tempt them. Muharjenje v Sloveniji - Flyfishing in Slovenia: Forums / Revirji [Flyfishing rivers and districts] / Idrijca [RD Tolmin]
As you can see they are very large and very heavily weighted, and not cast in the traditional fly fishing sense, enabling the deep and fast channels and undercuts to be seached and fished. In this sense, the methods and flies to catch marbles are very similar to those for hucho, however marbles are from my understanding only in Adriatic rivers, whereas (in general) hucho do not live in these or co-exist with marbles.

I have been several times to Slovenia to try and catch a Marble trout and have thus far failed, my three freinds I travel with have all managed to get one though. You can see an article on last years trip here The Soldier Palmers Slovenia 2011

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Hi Ed
I fished down in Northern Italy Last summer,we didn,t target marble trout but still managed to catch a few while trying to catch browns and rainbows.They came to exactly the same flys we use over here - pheasant tails,hares ear,mostly with a thorax containing hot orange seals fur.Due to the size and flows of the rivers you needed to use heavy bugs to get down to them.We had a guide for one day who helped us a great deal in sorting out locations to fish and permits.The locals who we saw targeting marble trout were using live bait on very heavy spinning gear.Streamer fishing was another method that i heard works well but i didn't give it a go myself.Hope this is of some help.

Will any be about during the World Championships?

I've been several times and tried to catch a big one during my last trip and I've been closed to success and I've seen many... Not sure that a guide is helpfull (but sure it is costly!), you have to be there when the fish is hunting... Very early morning after a night thunderstorm for example. It is said that april and may are good. Deep pools are their home but they can come in the riffles and close to the bank for hunting. They are suspicious and shy.

I 've seen one huge trying to catch the rainbow that was at the end of my dry line one afternoon, the rainbow was above 1 pound... I 've seen one chasing for chubs over 2 pounds! The biggest that followed my streamer (that was too small indeed!) was may be 1.20 meter long at least... So imagine the size of the bait you've got to propose to get a real big one. Use big and heavy flies (size 1/0 and more!) tied as pike ones but with more natural colours, with some lead on the shank, or with coneheads.
Seen also one about 5/6 pounds biting the small trout I had hooked just in between my boots! Seen many of such size hunting for chubs and small trouts and grayling on very early morning.

Anyway, I've caught "normal" ones up to 3 pounds, with conehead streamers, made of olive, black and grey bucktail, size 1/0 smaller ones while fishing trout normally with dry flies and nymphs. Curiously, they are not very strong fighters, less than brown and rainbows, but I've never had a very big one anyway...

I'll go back there one day, for sure, if I get less mad with salmon...