Idrijca pools below the Skvarč farm
Between Stopnik and Laze the Idrijca forms two pools at a left and then right bend below the Skvarč farm, popular with bathers in summer and well lit by the sun. The upper pool, nearly 6 m at its deepest, has an even current that keeps the fish moving. You drift over a shallow into the lower pool, a metre shallower and branched, where eddies and back-currents let big fish lie in ambush. In spring, once the river passes 15 °C, toads gather to mate in the slack water.
Facts
- Region: Slovenia – Lakes, Rivers & Caves
- Area: Idrijca valley & Idrija
- Depth: 0–6 m
- Level: beginner
- Current: moderate
- Type: drift, channel
- Coordinates: 46.10202, 13.89911
- Highlights: two pools linked by a shallow, eddies and back-currents with large fish, spring toad mating in slack water, small cargo cableway over the upper pool
- Tips: Parking is very limited: a few one-car spaces on the regional road and one on the bend above the pools – in summer bathers take them all, so dive in other seasons (the sheet recommends spring). Use the path to the shallow between the pools. Swim up into the upper pool, drift back, and use the back-current in the lower pool to return to the start. The wide rapids below the lower pool can be dangerous. Take 2–3 kg extra weight and a snorkel. The sheet dates from 2012.