Exciting day with trout spey. Bending my Winston all the day
Fresh reports from Dunajec river were promising. Many brown trout recently caught on nymph and streamer. I decided to go to lower Dunajec special C&R section , which is less popular than famous upper section.
The river is much bigger there, very fast and powerful. Level at Gołkowice was 165 cm, flow 43,5 m3/s. That's a lot. Most rivers I fish, have less than 30 m3/s. My thermometer measured water at 5,5-6 C.
Dunajec at Gołkowice looks like a Scandinavian salmon river. With abundant rock ridges, boulders, rapids, and very deep holes.
The river of that kind is a good choice for trout spey gear. With double handed rod it's easier to cover wide runs and pools.
I parket my car near the bridge in Gołkowice, and descended to the river. There's powerful rapids.
There are a lot of deep pockets and holes between rocks, but no sense to fish it in such high flow.
It's very hard to approach, and dangerous. But, during low water, there's probably trout sitting in every pocket.
Water was a little bit colored. Not turbid so much, that fish don't see fly, but tinted enough, so fish doesn't see fisherman :-) Ideal conditions for fly fishing with streamers and nymphs.
For the start, I took only Euro nymphing rod with me. I got one average trout on "parkinson" nymph.
There was no other bites. I decided to cross the river, and try near inlet of stream Jastrząbka on the opposite side.
Powerful rapids are the most exciting feature of this river. Numerous rocks breaking the current, creating pockets and holes. How many fish must be hiding there between the rocks.
Near the left bank, there's quiet pool. It looks like good holding water in such condition, but it's extremely hard to fish it from the bank. I'll go and try in another place.
Here's Jastrząbka. Small stream, which flows into Dunajec from the left side.
The place looked promising, but I found it's very hard to fish. There's labyrinth of rocks on the bottom, and wading is dangerous. I didn't catch anything there.
I returned to my car and assembled my trout spey rod, Winston Boron iiTH-MS 4wt. I rigged it with Scientific Anglers spey lite Skagit intermediate 270 head, 7'5 Sink6 tip, and 5' tippet section.
The fly I selected was black wooly bugger with orange head.
The tactic is traditional for fishing streamers in deep river. Cast diagonally downstream, make two steps down to let rig a sink , then mend. When streamer swings towards the bank, I add twitching motion to the fly, using rod tip. Then retrieve and cast again.
In the end of the swing , something grabbed my fly. Fish! Yesss! But while I was picking my running line to the reel, fish gone :-( . Oh shit, it was a decent fish.
I returned back to the beginning of the run, and started again. Now, exactly in the same place, I got a fish again. I decided not to use reel to avoid slack, and pulled line by hand. Fish jumped couple of times, and landed in my net. That was a very beautiful brownee, strong, sleek.
I removed hook, and released it to the river. Come again!
I returned to the beginning and started doing the same thing. Swing-strip-swing-strip. Fish on!
Another brownee. They are like twins.
Interesting, that both fish were hooked in the same place. I left my second rod for Euro nymphing (Traper Guide nymph 11' 3wt) on the rocks. And both fish takes happened exactly on the spot opposite that rocks.
I continued with my streamer, and whaaat? Fish again! Big one! Bigger than previous. I picked line to the reel, and used both rod and reel to bring it to hand.
Wow, what a trout! It measured 55 cm (22"). Record for today.
Unfortunately, the hook was deep in the fish mouth. I forgot forceps in my car, and used fingers to keep trout jaws open. Oh, that teeth are so sharp! Even blood dripped a bit from my bitten finger.
With 6 fish hooked in one spot (4 landed, two lost), I decided that this hole is exhausted.
Time to find new place.
I drove tot he place called "uście Słomki" (Słomka mouth).That's another small river, left tributary of Dunajec. This place I also didn't like. Same type of bottom as in Jastrząbka mouth, with tricky wading. Also, the water downstream from mouth is very dirty. This stream carries a lot of sand and soil. Not good.
The next spot is on the opposite site of the river, and called "Bania w Mostkach" (hole near village Mostki). Actually it's very close, 600 m on a straight line. But, due to road configuration, I drove 6 km around. "Bania" regarded as deepest place in the whole section of Dunajec.
This stretch has fast flow. But, there's slower water near the edges. And that's where the fish are lying.
I changed my wooly bugger to white zonker. Soon, I got another trout. Not the biggest fish for today, but it was hard to drag it against the current. I used reel at this time.
Soon another fish took my fly, but came off the hook.
I alternated spey rod with my Euro nymphing rod. This one I got on parkinson nymph.
Nice run, great for spey casting. You can walk hundreds of meters, casting and fishing continuously.
Another trout, same size as previous.
After that, I broke my Lazar running line by accident. Probably, there was abrasion damage, and 50 cm of line with connection loop broke away. I'm happy that it didn't happen when shooting head was in the water. Otherwise I would have lost my precious Skagit head, together with sinktip, leader and the fly.
Now it's time to change location. I sat in my car and drove to the upper Dunajec C&R section. It was not crowded, I met only two Slovak fishermen. They caught only 1 trout during the day.
I arrived to Krościenko nad Dunajcem, to the beginning of special C&R section (upper part).
Level at Krościenko was 195 cm, flow 33,8 m3/s.
There's deep and slow hole. To fish it properly, I needed to do a lot of stripping.
I got two fish in it. Both on black wooly bugger.
My total fish count was 9. I wanted to catch 10, and continued to run streamer through the hole.
Finally, I got a strike. Yes, that's a big one. Suddenly, it came off. Shit! I tried for another 10 minutes, and decided to go home. the dusk was coming, and fishing in dark hours is prohibited in Poland on trout streams.
this is my assortment of trout streamers. But I used only black and white in this trip.
It was awesome day, and the best result from a single trip in this year. Better was only in 2016, when I was on Dunajec on 1st of April, and we met massive hatch and excellent dry fly fishing.
Start of previous trout season was much weaker, when I had two trips to Dunajec with zero catches.
This is because winter was surprisingly warm, and spring started already in February.
Let's see how the season will progress in next weeks. Start is very promising.
The river is much bigger there, very fast and powerful. Level at Gołkowice was 165 cm, flow 43,5 m3/s. That's a lot. Most rivers I fish, have less than 30 m3/s. My thermometer measured water at 5,5-6 C.
Dunajec at Gołkowice looks like a Scandinavian salmon river. With abundant rock ridges, boulders, rapids, and very deep holes.
The river of that kind is a good choice for trout spey gear. With double handed rod it's easier to cover wide runs and pools.
I parket my car near the bridge in Gołkowice, and descended to the river. There's powerful rapids.
There are a lot of deep pockets and holes between rocks, but no sense to fish it in such high flow.
It's very hard to approach, and dangerous. But, during low water, there's probably trout sitting in every pocket.
Water was a little bit colored. Not turbid so much, that fish don't see fly, but tinted enough, so fish doesn't see fisherman :-) Ideal conditions for fly fishing with streamers and nymphs.
For the start, I took only Euro nymphing rod with me. I got one average trout on "parkinson" nymph.
There was no other bites. I decided to cross the river, and try near inlet of stream Jastrząbka on the opposite side.
Powerful rapids are the most exciting feature of this river. Numerous rocks breaking the current, creating pockets and holes. How many fish must be hiding there between the rocks.
Near the left bank, there's quiet pool. It looks like good holding water in such condition, but it's extremely hard to fish it from the bank. I'll go and try in another place.
Here's Jastrząbka. Small stream, which flows into Dunajec from the left side.
The place looked promising, but I found it's very hard to fish. There's labyrinth of rocks on the bottom, and wading is dangerous. I didn't catch anything there.
I returned to my car and assembled my trout spey rod, Winston Boron iiTH-MS 4wt. I rigged it with Scientific Anglers spey lite Skagit intermediate 270 head, 7'5 Sink6 tip, and 5' tippet section.
The fly I selected was black wooly bugger with orange head.
The tactic is traditional for fishing streamers in deep river. Cast diagonally downstream, make two steps down to let rig a sink , then mend. When streamer swings towards the bank, I add twitching motion to the fly, using rod tip. Then retrieve and cast again.
In the end of the swing , something grabbed my fly. Fish! Yesss! But while I was picking my running line to the reel, fish gone :-( . Oh shit, it was a decent fish.
I returned back to the beginning of the run, and started again. Now, exactly in the same place, I got a fish again. I decided not to use reel to avoid slack, and pulled line by hand. Fish jumped couple of times, and landed in my net. That was a very beautiful brownee, strong, sleek.
I removed hook, and released it to the river. Come again!
I returned to the beginning and started doing the same thing. Swing-strip-swing-strip. Fish on!
Another brownee. They are like twins.
Interesting, that both fish were hooked in the same place. I left my second rod for Euro nymphing (Traper Guide nymph 11' 3wt) on the rocks. And both fish takes happened exactly on the spot opposite that rocks.
I continued with my streamer, and whaaat? Fish again! Big one! Bigger than previous. I picked line to the reel, and used both rod and reel to bring it to hand.
Wow, what a trout! It measured 55 cm (22"). Record for today.
Unfortunately, the hook was deep in the fish mouth. I forgot forceps in my car, and used fingers to keep trout jaws open. Oh, that teeth are so sharp! Even blood dripped a bit from my bitten finger.
With 6 fish hooked in one spot (4 landed, two lost), I decided that this hole is exhausted.
Time to find new place.
I drove tot he place called "uście Słomki" (Słomka mouth).That's another small river, left tributary of Dunajec. This place I also didn't like. Same type of bottom as in Jastrząbka mouth, with tricky wading. Also, the water downstream from mouth is very dirty. This stream carries a lot of sand and soil. Not good.
The next spot is on the opposite site of the river, and called "Bania w Mostkach" (hole near village Mostki). Actually it's very close, 600 m on a straight line. But, due to road configuration, I drove 6 km around. "Bania" regarded as deepest place in the whole section of Dunajec.
This stretch has fast flow. But, there's slower water near the edges. And that's where the fish are lying.
I changed my wooly bugger to white zonker. Soon, I got another trout. Not the biggest fish for today, but it was hard to drag it against the current. I used reel at this time.
I alternated spey rod with my Euro nymphing rod. This one I got on parkinson nymph.
Nice run, great for spey casting. You can walk hundreds of meters, casting and fishing continuously.
Another trout, same size as previous.
After that, I broke my Lazar running line by accident. Probably, there was abrasion damage, and 50 cm of line with connection loop broke away. I'm happy that it didn't happen when shooting head was in the water. Otherwise I would have lost my precious Skagit head, together with sinktip, leader and the fly.
Now it's time to change location. I sat in my car and drove to the upper Dunajec C&R section. It was not crowded, I met only two Slovak fishermen. They caught only 1 trout during the day.
I arrived to Krościenko nad Dunajcem, to the beginning of special C&R section (upper part).
Level at Krościenko was 195 cm, flow 33,8 m3/s.
There's deep and slow hole. To fish it properly, I needed to do a lot of stripping.
I got two fish in it. Both on black wooly bugger.
My total fish count was 9. I wanted to catch 10, and continued to run streamer through the hole.
Finally, I got a strike. Yes, that's a big one. Suddenly, it came off. Shit! I tried for another 10 minutes, and decided to go home. the dusk was coming, and fishing in dark hours is prohibited in Poland on trout streams.
this is my assortment of trout streamers. But I used only black and white in this trip.
It was awesome day, and the best result from a single trip in this year. Better was only in 2016, when I was on Dunajec on 1st of April, and we met massive hatch and excellent dry fly fishing.
Start of previous trout season was much weaker, when I had two trips to Dunajec with zero catches.
This is because winter was surprisingly warm, and spring started already in February.
Let's see how the season will progress in next weeks. Start is very promising.
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