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Bosnia - grayling eldorado. Day 5

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The last day of our fishing trip. In the morning we went to river Sana again. I asked to drop me out at the bridge, where I caught 2 big graylings day ago. I liked this place, it's the most spectacular area on the river Sana. We started earlier than usual, at 7, and it was very cold and foggy. I arrived to my favorite pool with fast current in the head of the pool, and big eddie on the side.  I had a high hopes for this place. There should be big fish in it. I fished the fsdt current in the head of the pool, the current seams, the eddie. I spent about a hour on this pool . Time to move to next section.  Upstream from the big pool, there's very good medium depth run, from knee deep to waist-deep. Should be ideal for graylings. I fished it over few times, with no contact. Above this run, there's small island, where river separated to two arms: small and big (main current). My attention caught small arm, where fast flow joins the small pool.  I made a few casts to this curre...
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Bosnia - grayling eldorado. Day 4

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On the next day we fished river Sana again, but different section, one or 2 kilometres downstream from previous place.  I was a bit sceptical. The river section looked boring. Perfectly straight, surrounded by fields and village houses, without spectacular landmarks or outstanding features.   I started with classic fly rod, and long nymphing method. It was barely usable, because of the current speed. I needed 3-4 overhead casts to lay the line and leader on the water, and only 2-3 seconds of drift. Too much wasted energy for very little fishing. Then I switched equipment to tenkara rod and short nymphing rig. In the fast current, it allows only short casts, but more time for fly spent in the water. Which in theory translated to more hooked fish. I concentrated my effort on shallow and fast water. The run was knee-deep or less, with current seams and hidden depressions. Unlike brown trout, grayling is fish of open water. It doesn't need cover or structure nearby, like boul...
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Bosnia - grayling eldorado. Day 3

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 This time our guides decided to show us different river, Sana. Ribnik is tributary to Sana, both rivers join near the village Velje. After the confluence, Sana carries twice much water than Ribnik. It's pretty wide mountain river in some places. There are some very deep holes, which potentially can hold the queen of Balkans mountain streams - the huchen.  But it wasn't our goal, we were targeting mainly graylings with rather light gear. Fly rods in classes 2-3-4 and 7X or 0,10 mm tippet. In such very clear and low water, like it is now, thinnest tippets and smallest flies on hooks 18-24 were preferred.  The river section featured few deep depressions and pools, so it was natural choice for contact nymphing, or euro nymphing.   I didn't have a proper fly rod for that, so I used my tenkara rod, Daiwa Expert LT36 for such method.  Colored level mono line slightly less than rod length, tippet ring on the end, and tippet. The whole rig is about 1,5x of the rod ...
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Bosnia - grayling eldorado. Day 2

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 On Tuesday our guides decided to take us to the Ribnik headwaters. We loaded into the van, and drove few kilometers upstream, to the area near the trout hatchery.  The very beginning of the river section set me into uplifting mood. There's booth called "Tenkara Ribnik". Funny, isn't?  I though I'm the only tenkara fisherman there, but looks like i'm not alone.  There's restaurant "Komuna" near the river . Above the restaurant, the river split into 2 arms with island between. In the junction, there's rapids and deep plunge pool. The best would be fishing it with contact nymphing (aka euro nymphing) method. But I didn't have proper gear for that.  Pawel suggested me that I'd go left arm from the island, moving upstream all the way. So I did. I rigged my rod for the long nymphing method for fishing micronymph upstream. I walked all this channel up to the point, where two flows merge into one river again. Ribnik is very wide and shallow ...
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Bosnia - grayling eldorado. Day 1

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First time I visited Balkans, this part of Europe is known as fly fishing paradise. Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Makedonia to less extent are well-known for it's beautiful mountains, pristine rivers, rich trout and grayling population.  This trip was organised by two avid Polish fly fishermen Pawel and Alek, they rented a van and gathered a team of 8 people (including themselves), to share the cost of the trip.  Early in Sunday we loaded all our fishing equipment to the van, and headed to south.  The road was long and quite boring. It took almost 12 hours. We crossed 7 countries: Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and finally Bosnia and Herzegovina.   Bosnia is not in European Union and not in Schengen area, so there's passport check on the border. We were lucky that there was no queue at the time, and we crossed border very quickly.   Need to say, that since Bosnia is not in EU, the cheap roaming doesn't work ther...
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I'm still a barbel virgin in 2024

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 Due to prolonged heat season, we have very low water in all rivers in Poland. The flow in Poprad near the mouth is about 6m3/s. Normally the river flow in September is about 11-16 m3/s.  I came to the river near 7:00. The first stop was in Głebokie. There's fast run under the bridge, where I saw fish 2 years ago. I checked this hole, and barbels are there! There's 3 or 4 fish in very shallow, knee-deep water. I came down and tried to catch it. Unfortunately, probably fish are gone because were spooked by casts. I think I hooked one, but fish briefly flashed and immediately came off the hook. I drove about half kilometer upstream. Parked my car on the dirt road and descended to the river. The area is very shallow, only about 30 cm of water. I concentrated on deeper part of the run, near the opposite bank. I worked through the run, it looks attractive, but not very long.  Then I skipped some very shallow water, and fished the next deep run. Ok, it's not very deep, slightly...
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