Fly fishing Black Lake, Žabljak

Fly fishing Black Lake: what to expect

Black Lake, Crno jezero, is the best known of the eighteen glacial lakes of Durmitor National Park, the park’s own pages say, and the largest. It is two basins, the Big lake and the Little lake, joined by a narrow neck, under the peak of Međed, with spruce forest down to the water. The 2025 state monitoring report gives the Big lake a surface at about 1,419 m; the park gives 1,416 m. Either way it is the highest water I guide.

Two fish live in it: brown trout and lake char. We fish from the bank; there are no boats on the national park lakes. The water is very clear, which is the beauty of the place and the difficulty of the fishing: the fish see you long before you see them. We move quietly round the shore, fish a floating line and a team of nymphs or a dry fly where fish are moving, and an intermediate line where the bottom drops away. I carry the lines. I follow the park’s rules on the day, and I tell you what they are when you write.

Catch and release only, barbless hooks, a landing net. Every fish goes back.

Black Lake is a day of its own. The lake deserves the whole day, and it is not a water I combine with another.

When to come

I fish Black Lake from 1 May to 1 October, from the bank, and not after that. Early in those dates the water is cold and the fish are close to the surface; later it warms and the char go deep. Which fish, which month, on every water I guide: Fish and seasons.

Visiting Žabljak

Žabljak stands at about 1,450 m, the highest town in the Balkans by the national tourist board’s count, and the lake is about 3 km from its centre by road, the 2025 monitoring report says. The town is the gate of Durmitor National Park, which has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage list since 1980.

For a half day off the water, or for a partner who does not fish:

• The lake path. An easy 3.6 km loop round Black Lake, about an hour, by the park, with the visitor centre and a “reading forest” of deckchairs and book boxes at the shore.
• Durmitor. More than fifty peaks over 2,000 m, the Žabljak tourist organisation says, the highest Bobotov Kuk at 2,525 m; the walk from the Sedlo pass to its top is one of the park’s recommended routes. From the lake a marked path climbs to the old katun at Lokvice.
• The Tara canyon. Below Žabljak the Tara runs through the deepest canyon in Europe, 1,333 m by the park’s figure, more than sixty kilometres long by UNESCO’s. Rafting on it is run from Žabljak; so are canyoning, zip-lines, horse riding and cycling.
• The stećci. The medieval tombstones near Riblje Lake and at Bare Žugića have been on UNESCO’s list since 2017.

Žabljak is a ski town too, and the park’s visitor centre rents bicycles and snowshoes.

Getting there

Stay in Žabljak and make it a quiet day on the lake: I collect you there and drive you to the lake and back, and that is in the price. If you are staying where the other waters are, or further away, on the coast, in Podgorica or arriving at an airport, tell me when you write and we arrange the pickup.

The town, and the drive to it: Žabljak.

Permits

Black Lake is inside Durmitor National Park, so the day needs the park’s fishing permit as well as the usual one. I get both, and both are in my price. You carry your rod and nothing else. How a day works: Plan your trip.

Questions anglers ask about Black Lake

Can I fish from a boat? No. The two national park lakes are fished from the bank. On Plav Lake we fish from a boat; that is the lake for it.

Is there char in Black Lake? Yes, lake char, the fish also called Arctic char, and brown trout. The other water with char is Biogradsko Lake, near Kolašin.

Can I fly a drone here? No. There are no drones in the national parks. Photographs on the day, yes; ask me.

Can I combine Black Lake with the Tara? Not on one day. The Tara I guide is at Kolašin and Mojkovac, upstream of the canyon; put the two on different days of a multi-day trip, or make Black Lake a single day.

Sources

• National Parks of Montenegro, Durmitor: active holidays and the park’s education page. The lake’s height, basins and setting; the path, the visitor centre, the routes, the peaks, the canyon’s depth, the lakes, UNESCO, the stećci.
• Government of Montenegro, state monitoring of lakes, 2025 report. The Big lake’s mean level.
• National Tourist Organisation of Montenegro, Charming mountain towns. Žabljak’s height and activities.
• Tourist Organisation of Žabljak, zabljak.travel. The peaks over 2,000 m, the canyon, the activities.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Durmitor National Park. The year of inscription and the canyon’s length.