Vah - river of big fish
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 very strong, so it's dangerous to wade deeper than knee depth in fast water.
River conditions were low and clear, 45 cm level and+14 C temperature.
I started with streamers, worked through the hole down and across. No luck.
Then I moved down, where river makes left turn. There is deep hole, left from the main current.
Main current enters hole from the right side. Near the right bank there is turbulent chest-deep water, dangerous to wade. Left side near the bank is deep, slow, and easy to access.
I started with Czech nymphing, and hooked first fish - grayling. At this time, 3 other anglers arrived to the site and started to fish up and down from me. I prefer fishing alone, so I changed location to another site.
I moved to the bridge in Besenova, near Summit hotel. From the bridge, I spotted big trout near right bank. I tried to cast various flies to that fish, no reaction. I moved to the other side.
There is very deep hole under the bridge, probably 2 meters. It's hard to fish with streamer, because you'll never reach the bottom. The only way to get down is to use Czech nymphing rig with super-heavy anchor nymph. But, fishing with streamer and Skagit line is more fun to me. So I wanted to catch a fish with Skagit , just for the sake of it.
I worked the hole down and across. On second swing I got hit - fish on! Strong, fat brown trout. Common trout size in Vah is 35-55 cm. Trophy specimens grow up to 70-80 cm. This was 42 cm, pretty standard for that river.
There is nice channel on the left side below this hole. I fished it all till the end of small island, no strikes. I returned to the bridge. Big fish was still there. I descended to the water, and tried again with wooly bugger, small nymphs, big nymphs. No reaction, that fish was not interested in feeding.
In the middle of the day, I decided to take a break. I drove to my hotel, got a keys from room. Dried out my leaky waders a bit, and ordered a dinner. After that I returned to the river.
My next goal was "the island". I heard from friends this is very fishy place. It's quite hard to access. I parked my car near small cemetery on the south side of the river. There is a footpath along the river, starting from cemetery and going eastward. The bank is very steep, covered with trees and bushes, so there are not so many access spots to get to the water. Approximately 100-150 meters from cemetery there is small creek, and barely noticed path, steeply going down through bushes.
Around the island, there is fast current, quite dangerous to wade. It's safer to follow the bank very close to it, there is more calm water than in the middle of the channel.
There is a deeper ditch, near the left bank. First cast to the ditch, and there is a fish! Short nymphing in action.
I carefully walked to the downstream part of the island. There is deeper hole on the right side, and underwater "island" in the middle of the river. It's covered with grass, looks very beautiful.
That hole definitely holds a fish. I run my streamers down and across few times. I got two aggressive strikes. One fish attacked fly so fiercely, so it jumped airborne and landed to the water 2 meters upstream. Unfortunately, came off during the aerobatics. Another fish took brown zonker on the swing in the upper part of the hole. I managed to bring it close, but it self-released before I can reach it with my landing net.
On the left side , there was Polish angler, playing the fish. Fish was hot, and jumped few times. I offered him quick photo session. Nice brown! He used and praised Vision Cult 11' 4wt rod, which I'm considering to buy for Czech nymphing style.
There were no more bites in this place. My feet were wet, so it was uncomfortable.
I returned to the hotel, ordered a meal and Slovak beer.
Next day I started early, to avoid mid-day heat. I arrived at deep hole, where I caught first grayling.
I fished this place with Czech nymphing, caught one more brown , and rainbow trout. 30-40 cm brown and rainbow trout are bread and butter.
I used "Parkinson" nymph as anchor fly, because it was the heaviest in my box, tied on 4.5 mm tungsten. I used smaller fly, 3mm bead as top fly. Most fish took top fly. It looks like fish preferring small nymphs.
To my surprise, I hooked big grayling, on that huge Parkinson. Graylings prefer micro nymphs on 18-22 size hooks, right? So it was untypical grayling. Monster grayling, 42 cm. I never caught graylings like that before. That was the best fish of the day.
I made a short pause, and sat on the bank. I woke up, when two men approached the hole. They were two Czech anglers with spinning rods. I re-tied my leader as soon as possible, to get to my favorite spot faster than they. That was a mistake to neglect quality of the knots.
As I worked my Czech nymph rig trough the water, I attached 4mm hare's ear on the bottom and 3mm pink head nymph to the top. Something grabbed my rig... Snag? Noo, that was a fish. At first, I thought that was a regular trout, and tried to force it. No way! That fish was too strong, it didn't want to come to the surface. I let it go, released my hand from the reel. Fish ran across the pool to the other side, spooling out my reel.
I reeled it back, but it doesn't give up easily. Fish ran again downstream, then across. I ran after the fish, reeling as fast as possible. I managed to bring it closer, and what I saw, it was a huge rainbow! 65-70 cm maybe, thick as my leg.
What a monster fish. I've been waiting for you the whole day. I must, must land it. I prepared my landing net, fish ran to the side.... Ooops! Fuck! Shit! Oh kurwa, ja pierdole. Блядь, ебаная хуйня! It tore off my leader. Leader torn in the junction, where dropper attached to the main line.
I always have problems with dropper knot, its often weakest part. I used triple surgeon in the past but its weaker than knots for attaching fly, so when I snagged to the bottom, I often lose both flies - anchor fly and dropper. Last time I switched to Orvis tippet knot, which is more reliable (theoretically). But today, I lost biggest fish of the day! That was a big frustration.
I decided to take a break and change location. It's always good idea to change settings after disaster.
So I drove to Summit hotel and ordered a dinner in the restaurant. It was very good.
It was too hot for fishing in the noon. Water is so clear, so you can see everything what's under water.
After the break, I checked area near the Ivachnova bridge. There is nice deep hole on the left side. There must be a big fish in it, more than one. That there can be a hlavatka or huchen (Danubian salmon) - largest freshwater salmonid fish in Europe, which grows to 150 cm length.
But the river was silent, no bites, no even small trout.
A bit later, I returned to the first hole, and got more nice brownie. But that was not what I wanted. I came here for trophy rainbow. Where is it?
There was no fish activity on the surface, so I decided to wait. In the bright sun, fish rarely visits such places, but situation changes, when it gets dark. Fish actively feeding on flats during dark hours.
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 very strong, so it's dangerous to wade deeper than knee depth in fast water.
River conditions were low and clear, 45 cm level and
I started with streamers, worked through the hole down and across. No luck.
Then I moved down, where river makes left turn. There is deep hole, left from the main current.
Main current enters hole from the right side. Near the right bank there is turbulent chest-deep water, dangerous to wade. Left side near the bank is deep, slow, and easy to access.
I started with Czech nymphing, and hooked first fish - grayling. At this time, 3 other anglers arrived to the site and started to fish up and down from me. I prefer fishing alone, so I changed location to another site.
I moved to the bridge in Besenova, near Summit hotel. From the bridge, I spotted big trout near right bank. I tried to cast various flies to that fish, no reaction. I moved to the other side.
There is very deep hole under the bridge, probably 2 meters. It's hard to fish with streamer, because you'll never reach the bottom. The only way to get down is to use Czech nymphing rig with super-heavy anchor nymph. But, fishing with streamer and Skagit line is more fun to me. So I wanted to catch a fish with Skagit , just for the sake of it.
I worked the hole down and across. On second swing I got hit - fish on! Strong, fat brown trout. Common trout size in Vah is 35-55 cm. Trophy specimens grow up to 70-80 cm. This was 42 cm, pretty standard for that river.
There is nice channel on the left side below this hole. I fished it all till the end of small island, no strikes. I returned to the bridge. Big fish was still there. I descended to the water, and tried again with wooly bugger, small nymphs, big nymphs. No reaction, that fish was not interested in feeding.
In the middle of the day, I decided to take a break. I drove to my hotel, got a keys from room. Dried out my leaky waders a bit, and ordered a dinner. After that I returned to the river.
My next goal was "the island". I heard from friends this is very fishy place. It's quite hard to access. I parked my car near small cemetery on the south side of the river. There is a footpath along the river, starting from cemetery and going eastward. The bank is very steep, covered with trees and bushes, so there are not so many access spots to get to the water. Approximately 100-150 meters from cemetery there is small creek, and barely noticed path, steeply going down through bushes.
Around the island, there is fast current, quite dangerous to wade. It's safer to follow the bank very close to it, there is more calm water than in the middle of the channel.
There is a deeper ditch, near the left bank. First cast to the ditch, and there is a fish! Short nymphing in action.
I carefully walked to the downstream part of the island. There is deeper hole on the right side, and underwater "island" in the middle of the river. It's covered with grass, looks very beautiful.
That hole definitely holds a fish. I run my streamers down and across few times. I got two aggressive strikes. One fish attacked fly so fiercely, so it jumped airborne and landed to the water 2 meters upstream. Unfortunately, came off during the aerobatics. Another fish took brown zonker on the swing in the upper part of the hole. I managed to bring it close, but it self-released before I can reach it with my landing net.
On the left side , there was Polish angler, playing the fish. Fish was hot, and jumped few times. I offered him quick photo session. Nice brown! He used and praised Vision Cult 11' 4wt rod, which I'm considering to buy for Czech nymphing style.
There were no more bites in this place. My feet were wet, so it was uncomfortable.
I returned to the hotel, ordered a meal and Slovak beer.
Next day I started early, to avoid mid-day heat. I arrived at deep hole, where I caught first grayling.
I fished this place with Czech nymphing, caught one more brown , and rainbow trout. 30-40 cm brown and rainbow trout are bread and butter.
I used "Parkinson" nymph as anchor fly, because it was the heaviest in my box, tied on 4.5 mm tungsten. I used smaller fly, 3mm bead as top fly. Most fish took top fly. It looks like fish preferring small nymphs.
To my surprise, I hooked big grayling, on that huge Parkinson. Graylings prefer micro nymphs on 18-22 size hooks, right? So it was untypical grayling. Monster grayling, 42 cm. I never caught graylings like that before. That was the best fish of the day.
I made a short pause, and sat on the bank. I woke up, when two men approached the hole. They were two Czech anglers with spinning rods. I re-tied my leader as soon as possible, to get to my favorite spot faster than they. That was a mistake to neglect quality of the knots.
As I worked my Czech nymph rig trough the water, I attached 4mm hare's ear on the bottom and 3mm pink head nymph to the top. Something grabbed my rig... Snag? Noo, that was a fish. At first, I thought that was a regular trout, and tried to force it. No way! That fish was too strong, it didn't want to come to the surface. I let it go, released my hand from the reel. Fish ran across the pool to the other side, spooling out my reel.
I reeled it back, but it doesn't give up easily. Fish ran again downstream, then across. I ran after the fish, reeling as fast as possible. I managed to bring it closer, and what I saw, it was a huge rainbow! 65-70 cm maybe, thick as my leg.
What a monster fish. I've been waiting for you the whole day. I must, must land it. I prepared my landing net, fish ran to the side.... Ooops! Fuck! Shit! Oh kurwa, ja pierdole. Блядь, ебаная хуйня! It tore off my leader. Leader torn in the junction, where dropper attached to the main line.
I always have problems with dropper knot, its often weakest part. I used triple surgeon in the past but its weaker than knots for attaching fly, so when I snagged to the bottom, I often lose both flies - anchor fly and dropper. Last time I switched to Orvis tippet knot, which is more reliable (theoretically). But today, I lost biggest fish of the day! That was a big frustration.
I decided to take a break and change location. It's always good idea to change settings after disaster.
So I drove to Summit hotel and ordered a dinner in the restaurant. It was very good.
It was too hot for fishing in the noon. Water is so clear, so you can see everything what's under water.
After the break, I checked area near the Ivachnova bridge. There is nice deep hole on the left side. There must be a big fish in it, more than one. That there can be a hlavatka or huchen (Danubian salmon) - largest freshwater salmonid fish in Europe, which grows to 150 cm length.
But the river was silent, no bites, no even small trout.
A bit later, I returned to the first hole, and got more nice brownie. But that was not what I wanted. I came here for trophy rainbow. Where is it?
There is a flat, soft portion of the river above the shallow riffle in Ivachnova. It's located near 'lekaren' (farmacy) in village Liptovska Tepla. It looks like a good spot for dry fly fishing.
There was no fish activity on the surface, so I decided to wait. In the bright sun, fish rarely visits such places, but situation changes, when it gets dark. Fish actively feeding on flats during dark hours.
I was waiting , sitting on the bank.
At 19.00, I saw first fish raising on flats.
I slowly walked to the spot, and started to cast CDC mayfly imitation. There was small grey mayflies flying, so I approximately matched the hatch.
Fish was raising, but not very often. I spent 1,5 hours casting dry fly. No luck.
It was getting dark soon. I decided to fish until 20.30 and go to the parking spot. When I made my probably last cast, I got a strike. Yess, that's a fish! Not biggest fish, but it was brown trout on dry fly. I waited 1,5 hours for you!
That was decent ending of the day, so I decided to go home.
When I changed my dress, dusk changed to darkness in 30 minutes. It was 21:15 where it became completely dark.
My trip back to Kraków took 3 hours. I wanted to sleep so much, so I stopped twice at gas stations, to get a coffee and energizer. I arrived to home after midnight.
That was Vah, river of big fish. I'm dreaming to return there , and catch my big, fat rainbow trout.
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