Adventures of fly angler in Poland

I planned this visit to San in December, to fish for Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho). This big predator is more feeding more actively in coldest time of year, so December is the right time to catch it. We teamed up with Piotr Michna, the guide, but he wasn't guiding on this trip, just fishing. Unfortunately, the trip started with road incident.  Somewhere near Rzeszów, I had a small collision with truck. We waited for police, and lost two hours to fill all papers.  It was my fault, as police concluded, and I got in addition 500 PLN ticket for traffic violation. That sucks! So, beginning of the trip was spoiled. And when we arrived to the river, it was already crowded . Someone caught Hucho.  The fish which could be mine. I was s frustrated. In the meantime, we started fishing with nymphs. I caught one small brown trout, and one big lost.  I almost brought it to hand, but fish slipped out of landing net and released from the hook. In the meantime, the...

Unusually hot summer in 2015 caused many rivers to run low. Białka almost had no water. I wanted to repeat my previous success, which was in June. Unfortunately , river looked so different. The holes I used to catch fish in, were too small to hold something. I caught few small trouts. But I walked quite a long foot distance to find them. I walked to natural reserve area. There's a deep pool with awesome turquise colored water. Unfortunately, cannot fish there. I think , all trout now in this pool. The river was twice wider, when I met it first time in June. I tried other spots. Fishing wasn't good. When I returned to my car, I also tried spots near the road bridge. I decided to leave. But before that, I said to myself - let's try last time, only two casts into that hole. White rapid water between the boulders. I throw heavy nymph, and immediately fish grabs it. Yeees, what a trout! Big one. 40 cm or so. Never seen such big fish in Białka. I...

San is the most famous fly fishing river in Poland. It's about 260 km from me, or 5 hours of driving. So it make sense only for 2-days trip or more. I went there without prior knowledge. When I arrived to the rver, I found it's very-very shallow. The average depth was 30-50 cm. Also, it was middle of very hot summer, with temperatures up to +36 C. I got a license and went to the river. It was hard to find approach from road. I parked my car in the pocked, and descended from steep cliff. There was small river enterin San. it's called Hoczewka. The river was wide and flat. Somewhat similar to Dunajec, but much more shallower, and boring. I wasn't impressed. I fished the long riffle, down to Hoczewka mouth. I caught 3 or 4 small trouts there, one rainbow and few browns. Nothing special. Mostly I used small wooly bugger on floating line, with long mono leader. Just swinging it downstream, no stripping. Also, I tried wet fly. There's a small island, ...

Since I got familiar with Dunajec, I started to visit it quite often. Particularly, I stuck to area near adventure park in Krościenko nad Dunajcem, because it's easy to reach, and you can fish both sides of the river. There's couple of places, where oit's possible to wade across to the opposite side. First, I started with nymphs. I had some success, but fish weren't big. I explored area near the bank, just under adventure park. There's a high bank with trees and bushes. It's only possible to fish from the middle of the river. I threw heaviest nymph to the rapids, just below big boulder. Oh, fish! Nice trout, bigger than my usual catch. Now I know where to search for bigger ones. They are sitting under whitewater, below the rapids.  But it's only possible with very heavy nymph, to reach the bottom in plunge pools. Here is that nymph, on the right. I got one more fish in the rapids with similar way. Next time, I decided to switch to st...

Białka Tatrzanska is a mountain river , originated in High Tatras, near Polish-Slovakian border. It's characterized by strong flow, generally high gradient, and very clear water. Brown trout dominates in Białka as the only species, able to thrive in cold and fast water. I also heard about some graylings, but never caught one in Białka. The river is typical freestone stream, which changes course often, after major flood. It has wide riverbed, surrounded by gravel bars. I left my car on the parking spot near the bridge in Trybsz. Then I walked downstream, probing every hole with Czech nymphing. When I reached natural reservation area (prohibited for fishing),  I found very nice deep pool, where many streams join together. It was kind of Eldorado. I got a first trout there. Then more and more. I caught 5 or 7 fish in that pool. I spotted there's fish feeding on hatching mayflies. Unfortunately, I didnt have dry fly rig with me. So I continued with E...

This was my second trip to Dunajec river. Now, it was self planned trip, without guide. I contacted with Wojtek Kudłacz, who prepared the license to me. Then I headed to Dunajec river in the city Krościenko nad Dunajcem. I left my car near adventure park. The river there has few deep pools, and fast rapids between them. This is the first time I tried my new Euro nymphing rod: Hends GPX 11'-12' (3,35m - 3,64m), rated as class 3-4. This rod has extender, which gives more 30 cm of length. I didn't like too much this extender, because rod with it is not well balanced, very tip heavy. So, I stuck with 11' configuration, as more usable. There were many fishermen in the river, but also many fish.  Someone constantly was playing the fish. Nice brown trouts.  I, as less experienced, had few bites , and mostly small trout. Well, not so small, but 25-30 cm trout is not that exciting, when I see that somebody playing 40-50 cm. I tried both sides of the river. T...

I came to Poland in January 2015.  This trip was my first fishing in Poland ever. The guide, Piotr Michna of polishwovennymphs.com, organized this trip for me. Piotr suggested that we should go to the river Dunajec in town Krościenko nad Dunajcem, to the special "no kill" section, dedicated for fly flshing and catch-and-release only. Beginning of the season means usually streamer time, so I prepared some streamers. Piotr gave me a rod with sinking line. We arrived to the spot, called "First wall" (Perwszy mur) on the river Dunajec. It's called like that, because of long concrete wall, which separates river from the highway and protects road bed from flood damage. We started at the pool across the wall, from opposite side.  The tactic was very simple - cast 90 degree to the opposite side, let it swing downstream, and strip at the same time. I had two steamers attached - bigger olive zonker on the end of the leader, and small black woolybugger on the dropp...