Labour Day trip. Svit, River Poprad, Slovakia
Recent heavy rain in Poland made most of our local river unfishable. Even sidewalks along Wisła river in Kraków's city centre were flooded.
So, prognosis for fishing on Labour day holidays were poor. I planned a trip to small town Svit in Slovakia to spend holidays with my family. But I also took my fishing gear , if conditions are good.
We stayed at small hotel Koliba Svit, near the river. Poprad is small mountain river, very clear and cold. In the city limits, however, it looks like artifical channel. River is channelized, it's banks are straightened and there are numerous artifical waterfalls.
Poprad has native stocks of brown trout and grayling. Channel part of the river also stocked with rainbow trout, which provides recreational fishing, especially popular among hotel guests. Licenses are sold at hotel reception. Average size of rainbows is 30-40 cm, but there are some bigger specimens. Last year I caught fish near 60 cm size, which gave me spectacular fight. I hoped for some similar experience.
We came at 10.00. It was sunny, +16 C. Water temperature in the river was +7 C, water was medium-clear, in spite of recent rain. Poprad in city limits is mostly very shallow river, mostly below knee level, with only few deep holes behind the waterfalls. So, water clarity doesn't affect fishing that much.
While we unpacked our belongings, and moved from car to hotel, there was two fishermen on the river, constantly pulling some fish from the river. I was kind of jealous, and wanted to start as soon as possible. This section of the river is C&R, but hooked and released fish will not bite again immediately, need some time to calm down.
I started in the first pool, just across the hotel. This place informally known as "bread rapids", because it's stocked with many big rainbows, and hotel guests often feed fish with bread.
I started with my Czech nymphing rod Hends GPX 11' 3/4 class , and attached an earthworm imitation, made from "squirmy wormy" material (sort of soft rubber). Polish anglers call this fly "parkinson". This worm nymph especially effective in colored high water, during or after rain. It has a very natural explanation. Rainfall washes out a lot of earthworms to the river. So, trout during high water often hangs very close to the bank, and feeds on worms. In such conditions, worm imitation is extremely effective.
Brown trout also were biting my worm fly. Most of them were small, but extremely colorful.
There was some bigger brown, too.
My nymph was quite heavy, for this shallow river. I took heaviest fly, because I wanted to penetrate through whitewater and quickly reach the bottom in heavy rapids. Biggest fish usually hangs under waterfalls, but they hard to reach with light nymph. So I snagged to the bottom quite often.
Once I snagged again, and pulled the rod up to let the fly off the rocks. Ooooh! It was not a snag!
This time bigger trout took my fly. It didn't give up easily. Oh, it's a brown! I never had such a big brown trout specimen in the river stocked with rainbows. Rainbows considered "invasive species" for Europe, and they even prohibited to plant in some countries, with exception of isolated fish farms. That's because rainbows compete for food with native fish species, and also can eat smaller fish. So, they are dangerous for most smaller trout, but not for this one!
40+ cm brown trout happily landed in my net.
I was happy, while my wife and daughter spent time on the playground, I caught few beautiful trout, and one was almost a trophy for such small river.
In the middle of the day, when sun was high, fish stopped to bite. We went to aquapark (Aquacity Poprad" with my family, and spend the rest of the day swimming and bathing.
In the late evening, I tried to catch a trout with dry fly. Unfortunately, fish didn't react to "March brown" mayfly imitation.
Then I changed it to "parkinson", and immediately caught one rainbow.
After that, it was getting darker, and hard to see what happens. I had couple of bites in the dusk, but fish wasn't hooked properly. Nice trip, many family entertainment beside fishing.
Thanks to American socialists for Labour day. Thanks to my wife and daughter for patience :-). Thanks to Igor Sokolov for revealing to me this wonderful place in last year.
So, prognosis for fishing on Labour day holidays were poor. I planned a trip to small town Svit in Slovakia to spend holidays with my family. But I also took my fishing gear , if conditions are good.
We stayed at small hotel Koliba Svit, near the river. Poprad is small mountain river, very clear and cold. In the city limits, however, it looks like artifical channel. River is channelized, it's banks are straightened and there are numerous artifical waterfalls.
Poprad has native stocks of brown trout and grayling. Channel part of the river also stocked with rainbow trout, which provides recreational fishing, especially popular among hotel guests. Licenses are sold at hotel reception. Average size of rainbows is 30-40 cm, but there are some bigger specimens. Last year I caught fish near 60 cm size, which gave me spectacular fight. I hoped for some similar experience.
We came at 10.00. It was sunny, +16 C. Water temperature in the river was +7 C, water was medium-clear, in spite of recent rain. Poprad in city limits is mostly very shallow river, mostly below knee level, with only few deep holes behind the waterfalls. So, water clarity doesn't affect fishing that much.
While we unpacked our belongings, and moved from car to hotel, there was two fishermen on the river, constantly pulling some fish from the river. I was kind of jealous, and wanted to start as soon as possible. This section of the river is C&R, but hooked and released fish will not bite again immediately, need some time to calm down.
I started in the first pool, just across the hotel. This place informally known as "bread rapids", because it's stocked with many big rainbows, and hotel guests often feed fish with bread.
I started with my Czech nymphing rod Hends GPX 11' 3/4 class , and attached an earthworm imitation, made from "squirmy wormy" material (sort of soft rubber). Polish anglers call this fly "parkinson". This worm nymph especially effective in colored high water, during or after rain. It has a very natural explanation. Rainfall washes out a lot of earthworms to the river. So, trout during high water often hangs very close to the bank, and feeds on worms. In such conditions, worm imitation is extremely effective.
Very soon as I started, I caught first rainbow. Not a record specimen, 30 cm. Next fish also was rainbow. This was bigger, and very colorful, with tint of gold.
There was some bigger brown, too.
My nymph was quite heavy, for this shallow river. I took heaviest fly, because I wanted to penetrate through whitewater and quickly reach the bottom in heavy rapids. Biggest fish usually hangs under waterfalls, but they hard to reach with light nymph. So I snagged to the bottom quite often.
Once I snagged again, and pulled the rod up to let the fly off the rocks. Ooooh! It was not a snag!
This time bigger trout took my fly. It didn't give up easily. Oh, it's a brown! I never had such a big brown trout specimen in the river stocked with rainbows. Rainbows considered "invasive species" for Europe, and they even prohibited to plant in some countries, with exception of isolated fish farms. That's because rainbows compete for food with native fish species, and also can eat smaller fish. So, they are dangerous for most smaller trout, but not for this one!
40+ cm brown trout happily landed in my net.
I was happy, while my wife and daughter spent time on the playground, I caught few beautiful trout, and one was almost a trophy for such small river.
In the middle of the day, when sun was high, fish stopped to bite. We went to aquapark (Aquacity Poprad" with my family, and spend the rest of the day swimming and bathing.
In the late evening, I tried to catch a trout with dry fly. Unfortunately, fish didn't react to "March brown" mayfly imitation.
Then I changed it to "parkinson", and immediately caught one rainbow.
After that, it was getting darker, and hard to see what happens. I had couple of bites in the dusk, but fish wasn't hooked properly. Nice trip, many family entertainment beside fishing.
Thanks to American socialists for Labour day. Thanks to my wife and daughter for patience :-). Thanks to Igor Sokolov for revealing to me this wonderful place in last year.
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