Slovak vacation Pt.1 Vah, Waiting for the big one

In the end of August I planned to visit Vah river once again, to catch a big rainbow trout. The goal, which I missed in previous visit. In previous trip we had two big fish lost due to broken tippet.

Now I prepared to more serious fight, and equipped my terminal tackle with Soldarini 0.185 mm fluorocarbon.

It looks to me like a bullet-proof combination.

Also, it was a test-drive for my new rod for nymphing rod, Traper Guide Nymphing 11' 3wt.

When I arrived to the river, it was a dark sky, and a bit cold, air temperature +12.5 C - + 14 C.
First, I probed my favorite "hole of the big fish", but river was silent.

As I progressed downstream, I stopped near "Pharmacy" hole, and tried to use small brown nymph (sort of pheasant tail) on number 18.

I caught few graylings, they liked that small fly. There was no takes on the anchor fly,  Red tag on size 12 with 4 mm head, so it's used only for weight.

Soon, I felt a pull a bigger fish. That's not a grayling.  After short fight, nice brownee landed in my net. Also on size 18 pheasant tail.

I see they like small flies today.  But still, nothing on the red tag. I changed anchor fly on San Juan worm with 4 mm pink head. Immediately, at first cast, bigger trout took it!  This fish was more powerful, and it took longer time to land it. Hopefully, my Traper handled it with a confidence.

There were more and more graylings, I didnt count. They all took small brown fly.

After day break, I drove to my hotel in Jasna, ordered a dinner, and dried out my waders. Left sock was full of water. Unfortunately, gluing didn't help, as there is a lot of holes. 

In the evening , I continued with succesfull combination: pink San Juan worm No. 12 and pheasant tail No. 18.
There was more graylings. Finally, I got a pull from something bigger. The rod bent seriously, fish started to runaway to the deeper water. I added more palming force, and I lost it:-(

Tippet was untact, fish just came off the hook.

I tried more and more, and hooked this beauty. Fat, powerful rainbow. It was a longer, spectacular fight. When fish was close to me, I tried to grab it by the tail, but it slipped out, and I fell into the water. Hopefully, there was shallow water, and my shirt soaked only a little bit.

Finally, I netted it. That was best catch of the day. Hard-earned rainbow.

I tried more, until it gets darker. One more rainbow took my worm, jumped like a rocket, and spat out fly in the air. That was awesome!

I scored no more fish, and drove to home.