Paco Soria

About Me

Basic Information

Gender

Birthday

01/01/1960

About me

Paco
lives and works as a professional veterinarian in Gerona, Spain. Although
he works with all animals his most interesting specialty is breeding Coq de
Leon. There is no better authority that I know of.

The Ter River is within 5 minutes of his home and provides areas of
good trout fishing.
On weekends and holidays he drives three hours west to his ancestors
home in a small village called Gerri de La
Sal, nestled in the Pirineos Mountains. From his bed, or tying desk,
he can see insects hatching and trout rising in the beautiful Noguera
Pallaresa River.

Pictured at
left is Paco's friend Jordi, fishing the beautiful Noguera Pallaresa River.
Pictured below right is the town of Gerri de la Sal and an arrow points to Paco's ancestor's home.
Below that pcture is a closer picture of the Noguera Pallaresa River.

Paco remembers fishing when he was 5 years old by using the "guarnicion" method.
This is a traditional Spanish method of attaching three wet flies to a nylon line, with a ball float, and casting with a current
(casting) rod. He couldn't afford tackle because his mother was widowed and had to support 6
children, so he relied on finding guarnicions in tree branches that others had lost.

In the afternoons he made a point to fish near the Priest because he
fished from shore and lost a lot of guarnicions to trees in the water.
He would remember the location and return the next morning in his
bathing
costume, with a big knife to cut tree branches, and retrieved the rigs.

The
local Priest furnished flies for many years. Paco said he suspected
the Priest was aware of his fly retrieval method and lost the rigs
intentionally, or he was the worst fisherman on the river, which was
not
likely. He regrets never confessing to the Priest even though he feels
the Priest knew.

Paco (holding trout above) said he gets his genetic fishing traits from
his grandfather, who died while fishing the Noguera Pallaresa River.
He hoped that when his time came he too would leave this world as his
grandfather did.

Paco uses Coq de Leon to tie many different patterns. One of his most creative
accomplishments is the "Ugly Fly" method of tying dry flies. It may not be attractive
to some fly anglers but it certainly is attractive to trout. The Ugly Fly method
provides a very realistic fly on the water and has proven to be very effective.

Click
Ugly
Fly Instructions to learn how to tie them. Indio Coq de Leon is as
rare as hen teeth so you may have to settle for regular dry fly hackle. Be
sure to choose the highest of quality stiff dry fly hackle with as much glossy
appearance as possible. The flies may not be as good as Indio Coq de Leon
but likely better than traditionally tied dry flies, especially in still water
to runs and even small riffles.