Editor’s note: the original video was pulled down by its owner. I hope it will come back up, but in the meantime, here’s a video of an angler catching a huchen in Slovenia.
Here’s a sometimes beautiful trailer for an upcoming film about a fish that’s not often discussed in fly-fishing circle: the Huchen (Hucho hucho) or Danube salmon. A close relative of the taimen of the Far East, the Huchen is native to the Danube watershed, but it has been introduced throughout eastern Europe. However, the species is threatened by overfishing and habitat loss. In this video, angler Jan Haman casts some truly monster patterns on the River Sana in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It looks to be a fascinating project.
This is the prewiev of my private work not alowed for Publishing. Please do erase it fast. Thank you. With respect. Velibor Ivanovic
Not the best video, but I fished with Rok Lustrik a couple of times when I was stationed in Germany and he is an excellent guide and teacher. My wife’s angling ability improved dramatically in two days.
Unfortunately the sinking population of the hucho especially in Austria has nothing to do with “overfishing”. The Problems are much harder to earase. In the past 10-15 years the otter has been reintroduced to Austria and hunting them has been banned. Those animals can now unrestrictedly multiply and have been reported to get into feeding frenzies killing sometimes dozends of fish without eating them. Together with Cormorants (a species which is also illegal to hunt) they empty our small to medium sized rivers oftentimes completely. While the otters and cormorants don’t eat huchos, those smaller fish of course mean food for them and as the food vanishes, the huchen vanishes too. The habitat has hardly changed for them since they became extinct and even less people fish for them now. Conservation stops underneath the water surface. Atleast here in Austria it does.