Georgia - A beautiful fairytale country

Published: 20.09.18

It was time to travel abroad and our fishing poles were coming. The destination was Georgia. Everything had been booked via Shota Jokhadze, a local fishing guide, and we had one week to explore and enjoy the culture, nature, history, local food, drinks and fishing. Our objective was to fly fish for brown trout.

Shota can very well be considered to be an expert at fly fishing and trout. I quickly realized that he has a lot of good knowledge and experience. He also turned out to be the president of Georgia Fly Fishing Club! We arrived at 4:30am and were surprised with the local tradition of having an aperitif with breakfast. The drink in question is "Chacha" and it is sure to warm you up from the inside out. After breakfast we took off. Time to sleep? Nope. Sleeping and resting is something we can do back at home. We found ourselves standing in a beautiful river merely two hours after arriving in Georgia, after having flown for over 10 hours overnight. It was a fantastic river with completely clear water, surrounded by thick forest. We felt as if we were fishing in a jungle.

It didn't take too long before I had my first brown trout. Not very big, but not to worry. It was a beautiful moment surrounded by magnificent and lush nature.

The next day we travelled to Mtirala national park. It was so beautiful. It felt like a lush and green rainforest, also with crystal clear rivers. It couldn't have been better. Shota landed a beautiful trout on his first throw. We fished here for two days, and we enjoyed ourselves in the wild and gorgeous nature despite the somewhat slow fishing, as we enjoyed good food, wine, beer, and of course chacha.

The last part of our trip was up North and into the mountains. It has always been a dream of mine to visit the Kaukasus range. Finally it came true! The first trip was to Mestia in the Svaneti region. Mestia is a beautiful mountain village, surrounded by steep and majestic mountains and rivers with spectacular waterfalls. We savoured it all. Unfortunately we experienced heavy rainfall and the fishing got complicated as the rivers got big and brown, so we had to find a new spot. Shota knew of a small lake that was supposed to house some large trout. I was excited of the thought, what a great bonus! We would get to see even more of the country and also get the opportunity to catch big trout!

Stepandsminda was our next stop, a few hours east of Mestia. We were met with even more spectacular nature, and even larger mountains. Absolutely unreal! We stayed here to fish the last two days and it proved to be a smart move. We fished in thunder, rain, wind with some glimmers of sun, but the fish bit and we got a lot of it. Shota landed one on 800g, I got one on 500g, and we saw multiple fish in the 2-3kg range.

It was an absolutely fantastic trip and I can warmly recommend everyone to go visit. The people are warm and inviting, and the country has a lot of history and culture. The cities were clean and beautiful, the nature was spectacular and it will have to be experienced if you choose this destination. And most importantly; don't forget your fishing pole!

//Christer Nannestad - Youtube & Instagram: Nansen_Bamsen

Translated by Bergljot Sindredottir Støer - Instagram: bergy_b