Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 Really weird story happened to me.  In my previous trip to Czarny Dunajec, I hooked enormous number of fish, like 40-50 fish in 4 hours. Fish were mostly small, but the count is unusually high for mountain stream. This time it was not so good. It was very cold and windy. I caught 3-4 small graylings.  Not even close to my previous trip, when I hooked 40+ fish, and one grayling was about 33-35 cm. Next I drove to another river, Biały Dunajec. It's only 20 km or so.  I went to the water section in the village, named after the river. This part characterised by many rapids and pools. I reached big rapids, and stepped into the fast current. My boots slipped on the slick rock polished by water. It's all happened in seconds.... I'm in the water up to my chest, and I hold in my hand only piece of the rod handle. Fortunately, I didn't break my leg or hand, only rod.  Since it was connected with the reel by line, I caught the missing piece and returned to the stream bank...

One friend on Facebook recommended me to go to Czarny Dunajec in the middle section. This part of the river is not very popular, actually I didn't meet any other anglers that day. The river was a bit dirty after rain, with colored water. I fished only with short nymphing method, due to water conditions.  The fish was almost in every pocket. I walked downstream from the bridge where I parked my car. I had 40 or 50 hits on my nymph in 3 hours. The fish was mostly small, but of diverse types:  brown trout, grayling, chub.  The best action was in the morning. During middle of the day, fish became more lazy. When I was about to leave, I hooked biggest grayling of the day. This fish made my day. Very beautiful. I didn't take many photos of my catch, but there was big number of fish caught and released. One of the most productive fishing sessions ever. The photos are a bit gloomy, but in reality it looks better.

 On the Saturday evening I headed to Raba river in Gdow. The ares is popular beaching place. The river above splits to 3 separate channels, with gravel islands between them.  Where two flows join together, there's deep hole with backwater eddie.  I was suspected that there should be a trout waiting just under the inlet of the main current flow. I made a cast into the spot, and the fish took immediately. First cast, first fish, what a luck!  Due to weekend, there were quite a lot of recreational kayakers. But they didn't interrupt my fishing. I fished this eddie from different sides, from upstream and from downstream. It looks like fishy spot.  I caught few graylings in it. Which is good for Raba. Graylings are not so common there, compared to brown trout in numbers. The place was very productive. I caught many graylings. Later in the evening, I hooked a bigger fish. It was a rainbow trout. The fish made few speedy runs up and down , and jumped few times. Very st...

 Porpad river in Slovak town Svit is a small stream, with riverbed altered so it looks like artificial channel. The river originates in Tatra mountains, and this part is close to the headwaters , so it is very cold. The urban part of the stream has chain of artificial waterfalls, and plunge pools.  There's many fish in these pools, particularly big rainbows. Also some brown trout too.  When I started fishing with nymphs, fish was not cooperating. They willingly took bread thrown into the water, but ignored my flies.  I tried to animate my "parkinson" nymph , moving it with short strips, like streamer. This movement triggered fish attack, and I got my first rainbow.  The tactic of stripping worm imitation proven to be successful. I caught few fish like that, but there were bigger ones. I moved upstream to the next waterfall. After few attempts, and few fish unreliably hooked, I landed my first big rainbow. This fish was very strong and beautiful. I moved to the n...

I got up very early to fish at the sunrise on Raba.  When I arrived to Dobczyce, it was 4:40 and still dark. I waited a little bit when the sun gets higher. The fish wasn't cooperative. I only got one small/medium brown trout.  Still better than zero. Morning hours are spectacular.  Fishing wasn't very good, but I like the atmosphere. 

 This trip was rather unproductive. I started from Białka Tatrzanska. I came to the river early in the morning. Something changed on the river, after big water the lovely pools I used to fish just disappeared. New pools formed on new places. Białka is freestone stream, and it changes it's shape quite often. But it needs time to fish to accomodate to changed environment. I didn't catch anything on Białka, and decided to move closely located river in the Podhale region, Biały Dunajec. i arrived to the popular spot. Snagged couple of times, and decided to move upstream. When I returned, I found that another man is fishing the spot which I left 5 minutes ago. And he fighting a big fish. It was a 45 cm brown trout.  I was jealous, I can catch this trout myself if I spent more time on this spot. Frustrated, I drove to another river. In fishing, I don't like rivalry. It's a big frustration when someone else is catching, but you are not. So, I arrived to Dunajec in Krościenko, ...

 This trip to Dunajec was rather short and unusual. When I arrived, the rain started. It was very poor visibility.  The prognosis for the day was poor, but I decided to give it a try. In the same place, as in my previous trip, I caught a nase. It was a biggest nase fish I ever caught, 50 cm. My personal record.  I called the fish Queen Of Rain, after Roxette song. After tough fight, it landed in my net, and returned to the home pool.  There were no other takes and no other fish caught. The rain became stronger and my fishing ended prematurely. In this trip I discovered a power of this nymph. It's especially good for nase. Also, for trout in turbid water.

 Dunajec is great fly fishing destination, where you can always catch something in any time of the year. I loaded my car with all my gear - rods for streamer, nymphing and dry fly. But I never had a luck with dry fly in the summer time. It's more a big thing in spring. In the mid-summer my main methods are streamer and nymph. In streamer fishing I like the dynamics and pace. Euro nymphing looks like more passive, but with it you can catch more than a trout.  I started to fish with nymphs in a hole below adventure park in Krościenko nad Dunajcem. This place is particularly famous for many swinka ("pigfish"), or nase.   When I arrived to the spot, it was occupied by family of mallard ducks. But they didn't mind my presence. After few small brown trouts, I had a snag on the bottom. I was ready to break off my fly, but "snag" started to move. It's a big fish!  I played it carefully, even ran a little bit downstream to avoid breaking off the fish. And it safe...

 After my unsuccessful trip to Sweden, I returned to Poland, my second motherland. Białka Tatrzanska became my favorite destination in this year, and I decided to visit it again. I woke up at 3:00 , and at 4:40 was already fishing.  My primary gear was Winston Boron iii TH-MS 4wt, Airflo Scandi compact floating shooting head and long 11' leader.  No polyleaders, no sinktip, just straight tapered mono.  The water in Białka is very clear this time of year, and is fish able to see woolybugger swinging in the upper water column from 1,5 m deep hole.  Here it comes, wild Białka brown trout. I caught a few on black woolybugger. Not a big fish, but nice entertainment. Then I crossed the river and started to fish the run, where I caught big brown month ago.  Olive zonker, same rod, same fly line. Cast diagonally downstream, swing the fly to the bank, strip.. Baaang!  There's something bigger on the other end. I had a deja vu. I think I lived this moment before...