Adventures of fly angler in Poland

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 ...

Early in the morning I drove to Raba, to test leaks in my repaired waders, and maybe catch some fish. I arrived at 4:10AM, it was still dark. The river was calm and very low (220 cm). While I unpacked my gear, darkness gone, and I started fishing with first light. First 30 minutes was empty. I got couple of strikes on my colorful wooly bugger, and landed only one small fish. Then I changed gear to my nymphing rod, and got few small trout. Fish started to bite more actively with more sunlight. It took quite small brown nymph on size 16. I got few fish, but all were small. I alternated from time to time nymphing and streamer rod, to work the run in different way. Upstream with nymphs, then down and across with streamer. Something should work. As the sun raised higher, fog cleared. I went upsream to check another run. There were no takes, so I returned to the riffle. Bigger trout often hangs where riffle enters deeper hole. I caught couple of good ones on streamer i...

Recently I tied couple of Wooly Buggers in experimental colors.  Legend: hook - Knapek barbless streamer type S, size 6 head - tungsten 4mm, hot pink tail - purple marabou body - brown SLF dubbing, brown rooster saddle hackle throat - Whiting  American hen soft hackle Early in the morning I drove to Raba, to make them swim! It was a beautiful morning, nobody at the river this time. I thought it would be successful fly for rainbow trout. To my surprise, I got few nice browns on it, and one was quite big (for Raba river) and thick. I also tried black wooly buggers, and nymphs, but got only smaller fish. Two biggest trout tempted by the Purple Bugger! Does the color really matter? I don't know. I never believed that fantasy colors work better than natural ones, but this was an exception. Also, I tested new fly line - Ego Microskagit.  It is a 5,5 m integrated shooting head, dedicated for roll casting in tight ...