Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Third day of my Huchen trip was substantially warmer. The air temperature raised to +4 C, and part of the snow melted. I had a hope that it will trigger fish feeding instincts.  In the morning I met couple of fishermen on the river, first time I saw somebody else fishing. We had a short talk, they were chasing graylings and not competing with me :-)    I fished pool under the rocks with sinking line from 9am to 13:00 with no success. After short break, I moved to the "hucho hole".  This pool is very interesting one. It starts with ridge of rocks at the end of the riffle. Below the dirge, main current goes on the left bank. Right side is very slow water.  I think that fish likely to be hold near the edge of the slow and fast current. I fished it from top of the run, covering both fast and slow water. In this pool , few year ago one of the biggest huchen on the fly was caught, 120 cm or so.  Then I crossed the river below the rocks. It has very dangerous bottom, uneven rocks wi

Today it was slightly warmer. Air temperature from -1 to 0. It's better prognosis for fishing.  But during the night, ice buildup grown more.  Hopefully, it didn't spoil fishing, because I can wade beyond the ice field near the edge of the hole. After couple of hours, I got a strike! On the steamer.   Just at the right end of this hole.  It gave me a hope, that there's fish and it can be caught. Later, i moved to so-called "Prison" site. It's named because the run is across from the state prison in Wielka Wieś village. This part of the river has main current near the right side. It is shallow, fast run with pocket water, boulders, and many hidden holes. It's better to fish with floating line and long leader, casting from the middle of the river to the right bank.  I fished it all the way downstream to Bachława ford across the river.  There were no other takes today.  

My second trip dedicated to chasing Hucho hucho (Danubian salmon) was a little bit spoiled by weather. The real winter came to the Bieszczady region. Air temperature expected to be -4 during the day, and -7 in the night.  From fishing prospective freezing temperature means, that fly line and rod guides will freeze immediately after contact with water.   But, I came for fishing, so I need to handle it somehow.  The river looked nice at lowest level,  166 cm and 10 m3/s. But in the areas with slowest current, the ice built up at the edges of the water. I started at well-known huchen place, pool under the rock.  It's one of the deepest and slowest portions of the river.  Unfortunately, it was not very easy. Rod guides were freezing despite of treatment by Loon Stanley paste.  Particularly it was bad with my streamer rod. I switched to double hand rod and nymph, because it allows to fish at fixed length of the fly line, so guides have less contact with water.  I fished for few hours wi

After night spent at "U Mirka i Dorotki", I headed to the Huchen pool with renewed vigor. It was cold and wet, +4 C and rain.  I arrived to the pool before sunrise, and started fishing. This time, I rigged my rod with Rio Outbound Short Sink3. If fish is not willing to rise after the fly, let's try to deliver fly closer to the bottom.  I saw fish splashed in the middle of the pool. I thoroughly fished it from top to the bottom and back. At one point, I snagged my streamer on the bottom in the middle of the pool.  I decided to tear it off and lose. Pulled my fly line with two hands, using a lot of force. Surprisingly, the leader didnt break off, but there's something dragged with my streamer. Looks like big piece of grass. I pulled my fly line with two hands. There was 30cm piece of grass attached to the hook. Suddenly, big fish chased the whole thing (streamer with patch of grass), tried to bite it, but missed and returned to the hole. It was a Hucho hucho. The River

 River San was once a top Polish fly fishing destination. River is rich on grayling particularly, also it has decent population of brown trout and huchen. The main goal of my trip was huchen , or Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho). The huchen is large freshwater salmonid, related to taimen. The native habitat range of this fish is Danube river basin in Europe. But, it successfully planted in few rivers which do not belong to Danube drainage, including Polish rivers San and Dunajec.  What is known about river San' huchen. Unlike rivers in Austria or Slovenia, where these fish live in deepest pools, which require heaviest lures and flies to reach them, San is a shallow river. It's depth is average 30 cm - 1 m, with rare holes more than 1,5 m deep.  Which means, in San, huchen can be effectively fished with intermediate , or even floating line. Especially now, when river level is 165 cm and 9,43 m3/s at Lesko. Early in the morning, I started to fish famous Huchen hole #1.  The place is

 2 weeks ago I planned 3-day fishing trip to river San in Southeast Poland. But on the way, I decided to visit Poprad river and catch some barbels.  On the way I stopped at Stary Sącz in McDonalds. About 8:30 I arrived at the fishing spot. I parked my car near the railway tracks. The river looked calm and cold. The river level was 118 cm and flow 9,29 m3/s at Stary Sącz, or 97 cm and 6,27 m3/s at Muszyna. Which means, river is very low and easy to cross to the other side in many places. The place where I started fishing was knee-deep in most of the width of the river. Only along the far bank, there was a long deep hole. I crossed this hole in shallowest lower part (it's up to my waist level), and started to fish slowly upstream with nymph.  Very soon, I got a fish strike. After short fight, fish came off the hook. But that's a good sign! It means I found a place with barbels! Another take, and I scored my first barbel. Very beautiful bronze sleek fish. Isn't it a perfect fi

 I used to fly fish for pike in Ukraine, but never tried in Poland. I don't have appropriate gear. In this year im trying to join the pike fly fishers team. If all our other fish like trout, grayling, chub, nase, barbel, ide, perch can be caught by using the same fly rod in range 4-6 wt, pike demands for very specific dedicated set.  So, I eventually acquired all necessary components.  Fly Rod - Traper Silence SW 9' 9wt.   Reel - Vision Kust(XLV), size 7-8 , with spare spool Fly lines:   Rio Outbound Short intermediate Rio Outbound Short Intermed/Sink 3 Vision Grand Daddy Intermed/Sink4 Leaders:  Vision Ace 9' 18lb tapered leader Vision Wireline 15lb wire tippet material Vision stripping basket. I never used stripping basket before, but it's very useful for pike or saltwater fishing with streamers and shooting heads, especially if you wading, and use intermediate or sinking running line. Without basket, the fly line falls in the water and sinks, which creates a drag, sh

Today we have a holiday in Poland - Independence Day. I planned a trip to Dunajec river, in attempt to catch Danubian salmon on streamers. When I arrived to known spot early in the morning, I found there's already someone fishing the run. River was very low. Dunajec Gołkowice 137 cm and 14,1 m3/s. I fished this run with streamers when it was 50 m3/s and it was awesome. Many big trout on streamers. But now, it looked too skinny and not attractive.  I drove to the Mostki, to the deepest hole in this part of Dunajec. I spent couple of cours, casting heavy streamer on intermediate line with 9wt rod. No luck.  Since it's a holiday, I wanted to celebrate it with some real fish, not just grass and sticks caught in the water.  Luckily, I had my car packed with various fly rods for different conditions and methods. I headed to the Poprad river , which is close to Gołkowice.  Poprad also was low. Measurement  20 cm, 9,85 m3/s at Stary Sącz, and 98 cm, 6,58 m3/s at Muszyna. On the way, I