Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 I visited Brzegi after my work. The fishing was slow. No bites and no fish activity for two hours. But near the sunset, trout started to feed near the surface. I re-rigged my fly rod with big dry fly as indicator, and tiny micronymph suspended 15 cm below the surface.  When I spotted fish rising near the bank, I changed my location to get close to them.  After sunset, I got first trout. The fish became more active. I got another one, but it fell off the hook. There were also more bites, but I didn't succeeded to hook them properly.  So it was only one fish scored for today.

I was in fly fishing competition on river Warta (Poland). It's annual event near city Częstochowa, sponsored by local fly shops and businesses. Warta is one of the longest Polish rivers but in the upper section it's typical overgrown small stream. It's tough for fly fishing, very few places with good access to water and space for overhead cast. Organizers made it even more difficult, and banned wading, so you can fish only from the bank. Exceptions are for crossing river to the other side or dealing with snags. Weather was cloudy with chance of rain. River was at low level, 71 cm and flow 2,2 m3/s. I arrived to my beat early and waited for the start time. Registration of catches electronic - you need to send photo of the fish to the organizers by phone. Photo shows the fish against the measurement tape. Only fish caught in the timeframe 9.15-13.15 is counted, if the length is more than 30 cm. I got nothing except small perch (doesn't qualify). The winner got 48 cm brown

 Today I have day off on my work. My main goal was a doctor visit in hospital in another town. After hospital, I headed to Raba river. It was very clear water, such water is only in spring. In summer, Raba runs dirty because of silt coming from the dam.   I hit couple of my favorite sports with euro nymphing, and got no bites.  Then I decided to drive home, but to stop on Brzegi quarry.   There was only one man fishing on Brzegi at a time.  The fishing was slow. I started with my Dragontail Hellbender tenkara rod, and streamer.   In the beginning  , there was nothing, But around 16:00, after one hour plus something of fishing, I got a strike.  Short but spectacular fight. It's always adrenaline fight, when using tenkara rod, because it's not forgiving mistakes. But I did it right, and nice 45cm rainbow trout landed in my net. I switched between my rods, alternating between tenkara and Vision Sisu 6wt fly rod, rigged with hopper-dropper set. A big dry fly and small nymph suspend

 My Dragontail Hellbender tenkara rod was broken recently. It is broke in my hands, not during fish fight, neither I hit the rod against hard subject.   The manufacturer decided this is manufacturing defect, and offered me to send a replacement part for free.  I decided to try my fixed rod on Brzegi quarry. I came to the site n the evening, as usually. There were no other fishermen, which was suspicious. Usually, my favorite spot is often occupied.   I started with my dry fly rod, then switched to tenkara.  I attached nymph imitating red worm, and slowly worked through the water, letting nymph sink, and pulling it up. Fishing nymph on stillwater more resembles streamer fishing, because you need to animate it.   Suddenly, fish grabbed my nymph. Fish on! The rod bent, and the fight started.   It is a challenge to fight a big fish on tenkara rod.   I held rod low and parallel to the ground (so it bends in the horizontal plane). When fish wants to go and makes a power run, I would release

 Today I was in the city park with kids. There is a small stream in the park. The stream is called Prądnik, a Wisła tributary. It goes through the northern part of the city. There's theoretically a brown trout in it. Also chubs are presented in the lower section. I was a bit sceptical about this stream. There was historically brown trout population, but majority of it in the Ojców national park, out of reach for anglers.   While my girls were playing in the playground, I assembled a tenkara rod and attached a nymph to it. I'm using euro nymphing method with tenkara rod in such streams.  The tree branches pose a great danger for the rod, so I should be very cautious.  There were lots of snags on the bottom, due to many logs and dead tree branches in this stream.  Particularly the place near small tributory inlet looked very perspective.  After few attemprs and snags, I got a little brown trout in it. First trout on Daiwa Expert LT36 tenkara rod. So this rod is finally "chri

 When fishing on stocked stillwater, I found that small nymphs are the way to go. When rainbow trout freshly stocked, they hit almost anything bright and flashy, including spinning lures and streamers. But when the fish accommodated to the body of water, they became extremely finicky.  Olive nymph on 18 hook is deadly on those lake-dwelling trout.  Despite warm weather , fishing was slow. I caught only one rainbow trout, and lost one. Also I caught small fish called common rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) . It reacts to dry fly pretty good.  They are mostly small fish, but easy target for beginning fly fishermen, especially on stillwater. The rod I mostly use for stillwater fishing is Vision Sisu 6wt, 9'. It's a fast and lightweight rod, good for propelling casts through the wind. It's also capable to throw streamers with 4mm beadheads on sinking line. 

 Yesterday I got new Tenkara rod from Amazon - DragonTail Hellbender. This rod is positioned as "big fish" tenkara rod, capable to handle 45-55 cm trout.  The tippet recommended is 3x. I decided to try it on Brzegi first.  I attached silicon worm nymph size 12 and started to twitch it near the bank.  Suprisingly, I got a fish. It was quite big rainbow trout, 50 cm or so. I remembered from Youtube clips, how to fight fish on tenkara rod. I used side pressure to maintain angle between rod and line. Unfortunately I let the fish move into position when angle became nearly 180 degrees, and fish broke off the tippet with the fly.  It was my first experience of fighting quite big fish on tenkara. I used 5x tippet, too thin for that kind of fish. It deserves 4x or even 3x. I switched to conventional 6wt rd, Vision Sisu. The rig contains big dry fly (hook no. 10), and tiny nymph suspended under it (hook 18 or 20). When the fish bites, dry fly disappears. Sometimes it's a small fis

 After 1 year break, i'm returning to fishing. I moved to new location, which is very close to Brzegi nr.2 . Brzegi is artificial small lake, a former quarry. It's popular recreational fishery, stocked with rainbow trout . Also other fish present in it: pike, perch, tench and probably something else. But rainbow trout is top of interest for fly fishermen. The lake was recently stocked with trout, but due to very intensive pressure on first week, the fish is very wary and spoiled. They often swim near the banks, but ignore most of the offers, like big nymphs, streamers, on spinning lures.  I found that there's small insects hatching. But they fish do not feed on the surface. They cruising on shallow depth, 10-30 cm from the surface.  I've seen couple of fishermen playing a fish from time to time.  I asked what flies do they use. They responded "dry fly", without specifics.  But I spent two visits without any results, trying to seduce these fish with dry fly.  P