Newsletter

Fly-Fishing in the Italian Alps Part 5: The Packing List

It's not the be-all end-all Ultimate Fly Fishing Destination Packing List, but it's what I wound up bringing to Italy, where the trout fishing is much like at home.

Nick Parish

07 Oct 2024 — 6 min read

In Milan, where the fish on the naviglio grande tempted us for one last cast...

Rewinding through all the prosciutto and melon, the molto bene, bravissimo! best and the scheiße würst...

This time, reviewing a casual packing philosophy and some essential items for fly fishing abroad.

Previously in the Fly Fishing in the Italian Alps series:

A couple of folks have asked for this, so here it is. With some caveats:

I'm a perpetual over-packer. It's one thing I'd like to get better at. And, in anticipation of my big family trip, which included a lot of side quests fly fishing in the Italian alps, where I had never visited before, I wasn't sure exactly what fishing situations I'd find myself in. So, main disclaimer: I probably brought a little more than I needed.

Hopefully this can serve as a basis for your own planning, when you may travel on that once-in-a-lifetime fly fishing destination trip. Salt, the tropics, anadromous fish—those will be totally different scenarios. But for trout in Europe, this is probably all you need.

Rods and reels

I knew we’d be nymphing most of the time, so I brought my primary 10’ 3wt nymphIng rod.

I also wanted to fish dry flies, so I brought a 8’6” 4wt. And, of course, a backup rod. In this case, my tenkara.

Reel-wise, I fish the nymph rod with a mono rig, and a double-taper line as a backup in case I want to switch to dries. The 4wt had an extra spool with a WF line.

In hindsight, I could have fished the one tight brushy creek, the only time we fished dry flies, just fine with the 3wt, so I could have left the short 4wt and extra spool at home. And the few times I had to throw streamers with the 3wt, it worked out fine.

10’ 3wt
8’6” 4 wt
Tenkara rod and lines
Reel with extra spool, with WF4 and DT3 lines loaded

Flies, terminal tackle, and tools

I brought my main working boxes (2) that hold dries, wets, nymphs, streamers, and terrestrials. I didn’t really bother to pre-select flies that might work especially well. I figured I’d just try to find similar flies to what was happening on the local rivers. And that worked out OK.

One oversight: I was short on stoneflies, since all those live in a separate box for skwala / salmonfly season out here. And for some reason I didn’t think they were important in Italy. Luckily two smaller stonefly nymphs were in my main box when I got to a stretch where I saw spent shucks.

I didn’t buy too many flies while I was there, because we only really visited one specialty fly shop. If it weren’t summer vacation (at least three I wanted to visit were closed) I probably would have bought and used more locally-tied flies. But my stuff worked OK.

Main fly boxes
Drying box to clip to waders
Dry fly floatant / dust
Lanyard with nippers, hemostat, floatant, amadou patch
Assorted tapered leaders
Tippet dispenser (0x (sighter) - 7x)
Split shot dispenser / tungsten putty
Hip pack for storage / cheeses and meats for snacking
A rubber-bag net (essential item for most regulated stretches)

Waders and clothing

Traveling with waders and boots takes up a lot of space. They wound up riding in my main luggage, along with clothing. I wet-waded a few times, which was simple enough.

Wading sandals
Boots
Waders
Sun shirt
Lightweight pants
Button-up fishing shirt
Sunglasses and spares
Fishing hat
Baseball hat
Buff & sun gloves
Raincoat (hiking windbreaker rather than PNW winter angling water-shedder)

Our bags all carried Airtags, and given horror stories I've heard about fly rods disappearing this was the one I was most worried about losing, but it made it through with flying colors. One note: it was just long enough to be considered "oversized baggage" and wind up in special pickup zones, not on the main baggage claim conveyor belt.

Luggage

For me, packing is somewhat like the old proverb “I wanted to write you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.”

I’d rather throw everything together a day or two before a trip than think about it for several weeks and stress every detail. Especially when I don’t have to.

Key to the “why stress to take less?” mentality is a) I already own all the stuff, so I didn’t have to buy anything new b) it’s pretty lightweight c) it fit in the (Airtagged) bags.

Both of these bags come highly recommended. I could probably fit all the gear I needed to fly fish anywhere on the planet in those two pieces. With space for a bottle or two of grappa to bring home.

Summary:

My approach was pretty simple: bring trout stuff, primarily nymphing.

I only felt under-rodded one day, on the Sesia, where we got into a pod of chunky rainbows and I needed a few more sundowner Negronis than usual to help my wrist feel better.

Largely, I found fly fishing in Italy, gear-wise, to be a pretty close analog to the trout fishing we do at home, albeit smaller scale. I didn’t need a 6wt to punch through the wind like I would on the Madison in Montana. The longest cast I made all trip was probably 25 feet. I certainly didn’t double-haul at all.

In fact, I probably could have just fished the tenkara the whole time, with a box of a dozen flies. My buddy who lives there, Mike, gave mine a try during our visit. He then went out and picked one up, and hasn’t stopped fishing one since.

Which makes sense, since that’s the way people have been fly fishing on those rivers for hundreds of years. In true Italian fashion, sometimes the old ways are the best ways.