Winston - my birthday gift

 I like to indulge myself with gifts related to fly fishing. I think my wife hates me for that, because shopping for rods and reels became my bad habit. But, my birthday is coming in 2 days, and I ordered some serious gift - a Winston Boron iii TH-MS, trout spey rod. 11'  (3,35m) length, 4wt class. 

The rod looks gorgeous, with dark green blank, and matched Nautilus FWX reel.


It was my first proper fishing with new Winston. I tried already to cast it on Raba river near Kraków, but didn't catch anything. Now I prepared more seriously. I rigged it with Airflo Scandi Compact shooting head (300 grain), and bright green OPST Lazar mono shooting line.


There was few strong takes. Unfortunately, 5 or 6 fish came off the hook.  The fish in Białka are very strong, despite of the size, because they accustomed to live in very heavy current. 


Unfortunately, size of the fish didnt impress me. But, the rod is joy to cast and fish.


I mostly used black woolybugger and caught few fish. 



The river has outlet, which goes to power station. There's small pond. Trout was raising for dry fly in it.  I tried dry fly rod too. 


But they didn't attack my fly. All fish I caught on black wooly bugger.

Winston is fantastic piece of gear. I would love to fish it more and more. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dunajec - lower special C&R section

Image
Dunajec river is familiar to everybody who ever heard of fly fishing in Poland. Special part "OS Dunajec" near the city Krościenko nad Dunajcem is one of the top destinations, known outside of Poland. Recently, second catch and release part opened. This is 5 km long section from bridge in town Gołkowice to the weir near Stary Sącz. Unlike first "OS Dunajec", which is fly fishing only, this section also allows spin fishing. Same regulations as for fly fishermen - artifical lures must have single barbless hooks, or hooks with crushed barbs. PZW (Polish Angling Association ) in Nowy Sącz launched electronic shop for fishing licenses , where it's possible to buy day card, multi-day or other types of licenses. Also, service available in English, which is a big step forward. Previously, it was almost impossible for foreigner to get fishing license in Poland, without assistance of Polish-speaking person. http://zezwolenia.pzwns.info.pl/index.php?krok=zezwoleni
Read more

Vah - river of big fish

Image
This weekend I spent two days in Slovak river Vah, near city Ruzomberok. Vah is the longest river in Slovakia. Catch-and-Release fishery in town Besenova is famous fly fishing destination. It's a 3 km long part of the river from Besenova lake dam to the bridge in village Ivachnova.  There are few accomodations near the river, including hotels and private apartments. I booked a small hotel in Ruzomberok, 8 km from fishing site. Early in the morning, I arrived to the license shop in Ivachnova. It opens at 7.00 in summer time. I met there Czech and Polish anglers, also waiting for license.  Vah is quite popular destination for foreigners from nearest countries. I bought licenses for 2 days (20 euro per day), and started in the middle of the C&R part, where the road follows right bank. There is wide and shallow riffle, and it has quiet deeper spot in the center. It looks like a good holding water for trout. To get there, you need to cross river above the riffle. Current is ve
Read more

Chasing Norwegian salmon in Mandalselva. Part 1

Image
I was dreaming about fishing in Norway almost a year, since I read about Mandal river in the blog of fellow German fly fisherman. I meticulously gathered all information about this river and the area: weather reports, fishing reports from previous years, river flow measurements, maps and locations of the pools and fishing beats. Everything needed I found in the Internet and from fellow fishermen, who already was of this river. Most of information was in Norwegian, Danish or German languages which I don't understand, but I used Google translator.  The most comprehensive source is afiskeri.eu , site maintained by Danish fisherman Michael Aasgard Olsen. Michael wrote almost encyclopedia about Mandal river, with maps, photos, video clips and descriptions of the beats. It's mostly in Danish, but when you read it from mobile phone, it's automatically translated to your language. To save time and get more productive, I hired a guide Ryan Marchese ( anglerpilot.no ). He tailor
Read more