Belá graylings
In September 2017 year, Slovakia hosted World fly fishing championship.
River Bela was chosen as one of WFFC locations. This is one of the finest grayling rivers, holding plenty of fish in 30-35 cm size, with occasional specimens up to 50 cm.
I planned that trip together with my friend Sergey. River level promised to be good, despite of chances of rain.
We met in the morning at Borová Sihoť hotel near the river, where we bought the licenses. Also, licenses can be bought in two fishing stores in the city Liptovský Mikuláš.
Here are the addresses , where to get the license:
Hotel – Camping Borová Sihoť
Borová Sihoť, s.r.o., 033 01 Liptovský Hrádok, Slovensko
Esox (fishing store)
Kamenné pole 12, 031 01 Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovensko
Starfish (fishing store)
Ul. 1. mája 941/118, 031 01 Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovensko
We started our fishing from the mouth of Bela, where it joins Vah. Catch and release part goes from the river mouth, to the highway bridge in village Dovalovo.
I expected to catch big number of graylings in the lowest part, but there was nothing. Probably, fish migrated to other parts of the river, or it didn't like our offerings. I hooked only small brown trout, and microscopic grayling in the lower section.
Also, the rain started and continued for an hour. My jacket slowly became wet from the inside.
As we progressed upstream to the first bridge, Sergey and I caught couple of small graylings. But it was not what I wanted from this river.
As we reached first bridge, deep hole on the right side caught my attention. It looks like holding spot for big brown trout. I should give it a try. I replaced small "grayling" nymph with big red worm imitation on 4.5mm tungsten, aka "san juan worm" or "parkinson". That's my number one nymph for big trout in deepest holes.
Immediately at first cast to that hole, I got a fish. Nice , strong fish. That was a "proper" grayling, 35-37 cm. I ask Sergey to come here and make a photo.
i suggested Sergey to change tactics, and use bigger fly. In short period, I hooked second grayling in this hole, also 35+ cm. On the same hot pink "parkinson". It doesn't look like a grayling fly?
Sergey still got no fish. I offered him a short help, how to build a tackle for "czech nymphing". The key is sensitivity of the rig. I use very thin fly line Ego UltraSlim DT0F, which has competition-legal diameter 0.55 mm and dedicated to Czech and Polish nymphing styles. It doesn't sag though the rod guides and increases sensitivity to feel subtle strikes. On the end of fly line I have piece of 2-tone indicator (50-60 cm of bright orange/yellow monofilament line), and after indicator piece of fluorocarbon tippet, approximately 1,5x longer than depth of the river.
30-50 cm above end of the tippet, I tie in dropper for second fly. Regulations in Slovakia allow 3 flies, in Poland limit is 2. I tried 3-fly rigs, but in my opinion it creates more problems with tangling and snagging. So I prefer 2-fly setup most of the time.
For grayling 0,1 mm fluorocarbon for tippet is enough. I usually match line diameter to the fly size. Even big graylings are not superstrong fighters, like rainbow trout of the same size. I netted 42 cm grayling in a short time without any complications.
So, we re-tied Sergey's rig and continued to move upstream to the next spots.
Above the railway bridge, river gets faster. There are few islands in the middle, and nice side channels, which hold the fish. Here, Sergey got couple of graylings.
There were some holes, which looked very "fishy", but almost impossible to cast into. Numerous fallen trees offer good protection to fish from anglers.
River is mostly shallow in the middle, with many small islands of gravel. But, it's dangerous to wade due to high velocity of flow.
About 1,8 km from the river's mouth, there is a weir with rapids, and footbridge above it.
There can be a big trout hiding in these rapids, I tried to work it out with heaviest nymph, but I had no luck.
But after the bridge, there is classic knee-deep grayling water. As I started to work through the run, I immediately got a fish. There was very strong current, and fish didn't want to come to me, so I moved down below the bridge, and netted it in the softer water. This grayling gave me a good fight. Another nice 35+ cm specimen!
Then we decided to make a break and go for dinner. Sergey shown me some good local restaurant in Liptovski Hradok.
After lunch time, we continued on different spot, near Chateu GrandCastle hotel and restaurant. This spot is about 2 km from the river mouth. It's convenient place to leave car on the parking, and go up river.
River section after the Castle is more wild and scenic. It has many small islands, channels, logjams and pocket water.
Current is stronger because of higher gradient. It doesn't hold as many fish as lower section of the river, but looks very beautiful.
We passed about 1,5 kilometers from parking upstream. There was not so many fish. I caught only one grayling in the fast shallow riffle.
After that, we crossed the wild river, and returned to the parking.
I felt physically tired in the end of the day. But, I beloved in Bela river, and it is one of my top favorite destinations.
River Bela was chosen as one of WFFC locations. This is one of the finest grayling rivers, holding plenty of fish in 30-35 cm size, with occasional specimens up to 50 cm.
I planned that trip together with my friend Sergey. River level promised to be good, despite of chances of rain.
We met in the morning at Borová Sihoť hotel near the river, where we bought the licenses. Also, licenses can be bought in two fishing stores in the city Liptovský Mikuláš.
Here are the addresses , where to get the license:
Hotel – Camping Borová Sihoť
Borová Sihoť, s.r.o., 033 01 Liptovský Hrádok, Slovensko
Esox (fishing store)
Kamenné pole 12, 031 01 Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovensko
Starfish (fishing store)
Ul. 1. mája 941/118, 031 01 Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovensko
We started our fishing from the mouth of Bela, where it joins Vah. Catch and release part goes from the river mouth, to the highway bridge in village Dovalovo.
I expected to catch big number of graylings in the lowest part, but there was nothing. Probably, fish migrated to other parts of the river, or it didn't like our offerings. I hooked only small brown trout, and microscopic grayling in the lower section.
Also, the rain started and continued for an hour. My jacket slowly became wet from the inside.
As we progressed upstream to the first bridge, Sergey and I caught couple of small graylings. But it was not what I wanted from this river.
Immediately at first cast to that hole, I got a fish. Nice , strong fish. That was a "proper" grayling, 35-37 cm. I ask Sergey to come here and make a photo.
i suggested Sergey to change tactics, and use bigger fly. In short period, I hooked second grayling in this hole, also 35+ cm. On the same hot pink "parkinson". It doesn't look like a grayling fly?
Sergey still got no fish. I offered him a short help, how to build a tackle for "czech nymphing". The key is sensitivity of the rig. I use very thin fly line Ego UltraSlim DT0F, which has competition-legal diameter 0.55 mm and dedicated to Czech and Polish nymphing styles. It doesn't sag though the rod guides and increases sensitivity to feel subtle strikes. On the end of fly line I have piece of 2-tone indicator (50-60 cm of bright orange/yellow monofilament line), and after indicator piece of fluorocarbon tippet, approximately 1,5x longer than depth of the river.
30-50 cm above end of the tippet, I tie in dropper for second fly. Regulations in Slovakia allow 3 flies, in Poland limit is 2. I tried 3-fly rigs, but in my opinion it creates more problems with tangling and snagging. So I prefer 2-fly setup most of the time.
For grayling 0,1 mm fluorocarbon for tippet is enough. I usually match line diameter to the fly size. Even big graylings are not superstrong fighters, like rainbow trout of the same size. I netted 42 cm grayling in a short time without any complications.
So, we re-tied Sergey's rig and continued to move upstream to the next spots.
Above the railway bridge, river gets faster. There are few islands in the middle, and nice side channels, which hold the fish. Here, Sergey got couple of graylings.
There were some holes, which looked very "fishy", but almost impossible to cast into. Numerous fallen trees offer good protection to fish from anglers.
River is mostly shallow in the middle, with many small islands of gravel. But, it's dangerous to wade due to high velocity of flow.
About 1,8 km from the river's mouth, there is a weir with rapids, and footbridge above it.
There can be a big trout hiding in these rapids, I tried to work it out with heaviest nymph, but I had no luck.
But after the bridge, there is classic knee-deep grayling water. As I started to work through the run, I immediately got a fish. There was very strong current, and fish didn't want to come to me, so I moved down below the bridge, and netted it in the softer water. This grayling gave me a good fight. Another nice 35+ cm specimen!
Then we decided to make a break and go for dinner. Sergey shown me some good local restaurant in Liptovski Hradok.
After lunch time, we continued on different spot, near Chateu GrandCastle hotel and restaurant. This spot is about 2 km from the river mouth. It's convenient place to leave car on the parking, and go up river.
River section after the Castle is more wild and scenic. It has many small islands, channels, logjams and pocket water.
Current is stronger because of higher gradient. It doesn't hold as many fish as lower section of the river, but looks very beautiful.
We passed about 1,5 kilometers from parking upstream. There was not so many fish. I caught only one grayling in the fast shallow riffle.
After that, we crossed the wild river, and returned to the parking.
I felt physically tired in the end of the day. But, I beloved in Bela river, and it is one of my top favorite destinations.
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