First on dry fly in this year
After couple of fruitless trips to Kielce an Częstochowa areas, I missed something on the end of my line. Not grass, not tree twigs, but something with fins, eyes and assorted black and red dots.
So, this time I headed to my favourite river (starts with S..) , to make a revanche.
Conditions were not promising. With level 160 cm and 28 m3/s, it looks like river is not wadeable, and heavy flow isn't comfortable for fish too.
I started with Czech nymphing in deep hole with slow current. Fish spends most time in winter in such places, and don't move so much. It was easiest way to catch something.
Soon , I got first fish. Rainbow on small grey nymph with green head.
Good start! I changed flies couple of times. The river was too deep for wading. Some places, which were knee deep, now became waist deep. So it was a challenge to cross the river. But in the middle there's shallow flat area. I walked along flats and fished the other side of the hole.
In the end of the run I snagged. It looks like stone. I tried to pull line forcefully, to unsnag it, or break the leader. To my surprise, there was something alive. Fish! Looks like big trout, but it was slowly moving, not jumping and not trying to runaway. When I brought it up close, I found that it was bigger than my net! I think it was 40-45 cm, while my net hoop is only 30 cm .
I netted this wild beauty, and carefully released it. Nice catch!
Then I changed place, and headed to upper pool with streamer rod. There was too much current and very uncomfortable. I think fish looks for quiet places during heavy flow, so there's hardly I can catch anything. I returned to the "quiet" place.
While I was throwing streamer, I noticed some rolling movement in the water. There was sparse mayfly hatch, but fish were feeding on them in shallow flat area.
I ran to my car as soon as possible, to change gear. I assembled my dry fly rod, and returned to the riffle. There was fish rising downstream from me. I used downstream dry fly presentation - throw line with some slack (sort of "wiggle cast"), so fly goes without drag, and line slowly straightens by the current. Fish were rising not very often, but I got couple of hits (and misses) on my fly.
Later I changed position, so it was more comfortable to throw fly upstream.
Now, I hooked a fish! Not big trout, but that's first one on dry fly. Quite an achievement for me.
I'm not good dry fly fisherman. I usually miss a lot of fish, with hooked to landed ration 5 to 1.
There was more takes, but couple of fish were lost or poorly hooked.
But this was a decent action. I'm really surprised that mayflies hatching in such cold water (temperature 4 C or 5 C).
I fished until 15:00 or so, until I got frozen feet. It was a nice day!
So, this time I headed to my favourite river (starts with S..) , to make a revanche.
Conditions were not promising. With level 160 cm and 28 m3/s, it looks like river is not wadeable, and heavy flow isn't comfortable for fish too.
I started with Czech nymphing in deep hole with slow current. Fish spends most time in winter in such places, and don't move so much. It was easiest way to catch something.
Soon , I got first fish. Rainbow on small grey nymph with green head.
Good start! I changed flies couple of times. The river was too deep for wading. Some places, which were knee deep, now became waist deep. So it was a challenge to cross the river. But in the middle there's shallow flat area. I walked along flats and fished the other side of the hole.
In the end of the run I snagged. It looks like stone. I tried to pull line forcefully, to unsnag it, or break the leader. To my surprise, there was something alive. Fish! Looks like big trout, but it was slowly moving, not jumping and not trying to runaway. When I brought it up close, I found that it was bigger than my net! I think it was 40-45 cm, while my net hoop is only 30 cm .
I netted this wild beauty, and carefully released it. Nice catch!
Then I changed place, and headed to upper pool with streamer rod. There was too much current and very uncomfortable. I think fish looks for quiet places during heavy flow, so there's hardly I can catch anything. I returned to the "quiet" place.
While I was throwing streamer, I noticed some rolling movement in the water. There was sparse mayfly hatch, but fish were feeding on them in shallow flat area.
I ran to my car as soon as possible, to change gear. I assembled my dry fly rod, and returned to the riffle. There was fish rising downstream from me. I used downstream dry fly presentation - throw line with some slack (sort of "wiggle cast"), so fly goes without drag, and line slowly straightens by the current. Fish were rising not very often, but I got couple of hits (and misses) on my fly.
Later I changed position, so it was more comfortable to throw fly upstream.
Now, I hooked a fish! Not big trout, but that's first one on dry fly. Quite an achievement for me.
I'm not good dry fly fisherman. I usually miss a lot of fish, with hooked to landed ration 5 to 1.
There was more takes, but couple of fish were lost or poorly hooked.
But this was a decent action. I'm really surprised that mayflies hatching in such cold water (temperature 4 C or 5 C).
I fished until 15:00 or so, until I got frozen feet. It was a nice day!
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