Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Another visit to my favorite Slovak river Vah. This time I booked guiding session with Peter Ďurišík. Vah is his home water, and I believe he knows that river as nobody else. We drove to the city centre. River is very shallow there, average depth is below knee level. Water level measured at Besenova dam was 53 cm, very comfortable. I rigged my rod with three fly setup: two small dark nymphs as anchor, and on the middle dropper, and spider-style wet fly on upper dropper.  We started in shallow water near the bank. Soon, I got first grayling on wet fly.  Then it was 3 or 4 fish on the same spot. 3 graylings on spider, and one brown trout on anchor nymph. It was a cold morning, but good start of the day, 4 fish in short period of time. Then we moved to deeper spots. Rain started to pour down. I fished for one hour in the middle of the river, there were no fish takes. Once rain stopped, I moved closer to the bank.  Now Peter spotted graylings feeding ...

Last Saturday I visited Catch-and-release fishery on river Vah in the city Ružomberok, Slovakia This part of the river located in city limits. It starts from Jambor weir, and ends in the city center near railway and bus station. Water level was 53 cm , pretty low and easy for wading. Water temperature +13 C, air +17 C. Unusually warm day for middle of October. Fish species living there are grayling, rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, common barbel (Barbus barbus), common nase (Chondrostoma nasus) and perch. So much of diversity, huh? My biggest wish was to catch rainbow trout on streamer. I started from the weir, and moved downstream, covering water as much as possible. I stopped near rapids, to fish it more thoroughly, as I supposed there should be a decent fish hiding under that broken surface. I tied pretty nice zonkers. But, trout was not cooperative. Near the bank, there were many perches. They attacked my streamers on every cast. Not really ...

Water dropped to 243 cm. Flow 8,9 m3/sec. It means that should be good time for graylings in riffles. My first fish on Raba is always grayling. Almost. Now it took on red tag No.16. I moved from the riffle to tailout. Next fish was brown trout on small "Mr Brown" fly. Here's Mr Brown legend: hook: Hends BL120 No.18 head: 2,5 mm tungsten, hot pink body: turkey biot over brown dubbing throat: rusty dubbing When I moved to deeper water, I attached parkinson with 4,5 mm head. Got two browns on it. They love it! But, my goal was big rainbow. I moved down the riffle, and probed one spot with current seam between fast and slow water. While I worked my fly through the run, big fish jumped, I saw it's bright pink side. Rainbow! Here it is, just in front on me.   I thorously covered all water around the spot where I saw that fish. Even tried from another side of the river. Nothing. Maybe I scared this fish off.  OK, see you next time, Mr ...

Nice weather in the middle of the week. Why not go fishing? That's was a spontaneous decision. I tied couple of my new super-secret nymphs: size 18 hook, brown dubbing and turkey biot wraps on the body, and hot pink 2,5 mm head. That fly was successful for graylings, and I took nice rainbow trout on it last time. So, I hoped that fish will like it again. Water level was 257 cm, flow 13,7 m3/sec. Quite comfortable for wading. I started with 3 mm red tag on the botton, and "Mr Brown" on the dropper. Soon, I got first fish - a grayling on the red tag.  Small grayling, but I love them all. I know that , where is one grayling, can be many of them. I was in knee-deep water with fine gravel bottom and medium current.  Then I slowly moved couple of steps upstream. Next time, I got bigger fish. Whoooa, rainbow!  Nice catch!  Calm down, calm down, don't force it, said I to myself. I tried to bring fish closer and net him, but he wasn't ready. I released ree...

Due to 6 days of intense rain, all rivers in Southern Poland were blown out. I wanted to go to Slovakia on last day of trout season on September 30. But, Vah river level was too high for 4 days, so it was not an option. I checked Polish river level monitoring stations on http://monitor.pogodynka.pl/ Raba near Kraków was on acceptable level 260 cm and flow 14 m3/sec. I was pretty sure river was dirty, but I decided to give it a try. Teaser! River level was 30-40 cm higher than usual summer flow. So, when I crossed the river, water was up to my crotch in the deepest part, although it's usually near knee level. The conditions complicated by dense fog. Everything was cloudy - water and air. So I crossed the river, and started to run my Polish nymph setup.  Deep hole where I usually fish in, was unreacheable, and there was too high velocity. I decided to concentrate on shallow water near the bank. When I retied my fly, I've seen big fish splash just 2 mete...