Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Nice weather called me for fishing on Raba again. Air temperature was +8 C in the middle of the way, water temp. +4 C, level 246 cm, flow 9,8 m3/sec. Very good conditions for winter fishing, plenty of sun and very clear water. Shortly once I started with nymphing, I got a fish on. It was a strong fish, probably rainbow trout. I played it with caution, but it came off after 1 minute of fight. What a disaster! I probed all deep spots, changing flies, there were no other bites. I moved upstream to fast, waist-deep run with few large stones, breaking the current. Far side of the river has softer water. I worked through current seam, without any success. Then I changed tactics. I cast 45 degrees downstream, and let it swing on the tight line, as people do with wet flies and streamers. Cast - two steps down - cast. Whoooa!!!! I got a fish! Nice , silvery trout, strong fish. It was hard to pull the fish against the current, so I decided to run downstream, outrun the fish and gra

I got bigger landing net for rainbows. My regular net was too small to handle 20'-21" trout (hoop length 35 cm or 13"7").  This net has hoop 53 cm ( 21'), and capable to handle fish up to 65 cm. Unfortunately, once I got new net, bigger trout stopped to bite. What a bad luck. But today, I landed nice 45 cm rainbow. It was thick, and took small red tag nymph. I fought fish very carefully, to avoid break off of thin leader 0,12 mm. Sorry for crappy photo, I asked passing by man to make a photo with fish, but he didn't press shutter properly, and didn't make actual photos. Later, I caught smaller brown trout.  This net obviously too big for it. Raba was in good (low) condition. Water level 247 cm, water very clear (as always in winter), flow 10,1 m3/sec and temperature 4 C. Air temperature +10 C, unusually warm for winter. Only two fish for one hour, until I got frozen feet from deep wading.

+12 C in the end of November. That's very unusual. Raba dropped to medium level, 246 cm and 9.8 m3/s flow.  Very good conditions for wading the river. But fish was not cooperative. After extensive coverage of 3 pools , I got only one small brown trout on "parkinson" nymph. Despite of warm weather, water was very cold. Probably that was the reason. I met couple of fishermen, but they also got only 1-2 small fish.  Since conditions going worse, I'll probably will skip whole December.

Saturday 11.11 was Polish national holiday - Independence day. I was on the river, there was small hatch, but I got no fish. It was very windy, and very hard to cast. There were no takes on nymph either. I almost gave up with November fishing till better times. But, on next day, Sunday 12.11, wind calmed down, and sun was shining in the middle of the day. Air temperature was 5,5 C, water level 259 cm, flow 14 m3/s. So I decided to go and check the river. It's not a long drive, 30 minutes, so even if conditions are not good, I have whole day to try another places. Surprisingly , there was no wind. And fish was raising. There was a hatch of small grey mayflies. Smallest insects are typical for this time of the year. I picked grey CDC fly, to match what is hatching. It was slightly bigger than actual insects, but probably fish will eat it anyway. First fish was a brown trout. Not small, quite average. Surprise , because most fish reacting to mayflies in this time of the

Grey sky, cold day, +6 C.  Doesn't look good for dry fly? River level was 259 cm, flow 14m3/sec. I arrived to Raba to try my new French nymphing setup. I rigged my rod with 9' tapered camou leader, coiled sighter and 0.12 mm tippet. Fish didn't take on nymphs. But I noticed growing surface activity. Graylings were eating small insects, something like gray midges. I didn't have rod for dry fly. So, I rigged my nymphing rod Traper Guide 3wt 11' with floating line. It was 4wt, but there is no big difference, especially on close distances. The insects hatching were very small. I found smallest dry fly in my box. It was still bigger, and not exact imitation, but that's all what I have. Soon, I got first grayling on dry fly. There were a lot of them , splashing in the middle of the river, on wide shallow run, on depth 30-50 cm. Unfortunately, my fly started to sink soon, and I didnt have a floatant.  So, I changed it to something different, white

Raba was very high recently, up to 320 cm. So I didn't consider it on this weekend. But, after not very successful attempt on Czarny Dunajec, I decided to stop at Dobczyce on the way back to Kraków. River was still high, 283 cm and flow 25,8 m3/s. Comfortable level, when it's OK to cross river in almost any place, is about 245.  Water was almost opaque, with clarity 25-30 cm. I didn't see my own boots in knee-deep water. Despite of this, I got fish almost immediately when I started. On third cast, I think. And that was a nice rainbow. Unfortunately, fish had tail fin damage, which indicates hatchery-grown fish. In hatcheries fish often suspected to infections, which cause rotten fins. I crossed the river to the other side. and moved to tailout. Soon I hooked second rainbow - also in shallower water. This fish fought harder and longer, but I managed to bring it to the net. My new Loop Classic reel helped to leverage trout attempts to escape far downstream.

Czarny Dunajec was nice grayling river in the past. It is mostly low water river, with low average flow. So it was a reasonable choice for high water season. When I arrived to the spot, it was freezing and foggy. Level 164 cm, flow 6,9 m3/s. Water was a bit murky, clarity 50 cm or so. I tried my French nymphing setup for the first time. 9ft tapered "Camou" leader, spring-type bicolored indicator and 3' tippet. Due to high flow (for that river), I tried more quiet spots and side channels with slow current. There were no bites at all, on different flies. That's strange, I was on Czarny Dunajec year ago and I had 30 takes in two hours. Fish was mostly small graylings and trout, but there was a lot. Where all that fish gone? I changed my rig to Czech nymphing with drop-style indicator, because it's better in deeper spots. Then I tried deepest holes , where bigger fish can hide. In one place, there is a strong backcurrent. I dropped my pink head nym

Another visit to my favorite Slovak river Vah. This time I booked guiding session with Peter Ďurišík. Vah is his home water, and I believe he knows that river as nobody else. We drove to the city centre. River is very shallow there, average depth is below knee level. Water level measured at Besenova dam was 53 cm, very comfortable. I rigged my rod with three fly setup: two small dark nymphs as anchor, and on the middle dropper, and spider-style wet fly on upper dropper.  We started in shallow water near the bank. Soon, I got first grayling on wet fly.  Then it was 3 or 4 fish on the same spot. 3 graylings on spider, and one brown trout on anchor nymph. It was a cold morning, but good start of the day, 4 fish in short period of time. Then we moved to deeper spots. Rain started to pour down. I fished for one hour in the middle of the river, there were no fish takes. Once rain stopped, I moved closer to the bank.  Now Peter spotted graylings feeding on the surface

Last Saturday I visited Catch-and-release fishery on river Vah in the city Ružomberok, Slovakia This part of the river located in city limits. It starts from Jambor weir, and ends in the city center near railway and bus station. Water level was 53 cm , pretty low and easy for wading. Water temperature +13 C, air +17 C. Unusually warm day for middle of October. Fish species living there are grayling, rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, common barbel (Barbus barbus), common nase (Chondrostoma nasus) and perch. So much of diversity, huh? My biggest wish was to catch rainbow trout on streamer. I started from the weir, and moved downstream, covering water as much as possible. I stopped near rapids, to fish it more thoroughly, as I supposed there should be a decent fish hiding under that broken surface. I tied pretty nice zonkers. But, trout was not cooperative. Near the bank, there were many perches. They attacked my streamers on every cast. Not really a fish I