Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Nice weather called me for fishing on Raba again. Air temperature was +8 C in the middle of the way, water temp. +4 C, level 246 cm, flow 9,8 m3/sec. Very good conditions for winter fishing, plenty of sun and very clear water. Shortly once I started with nymphing, I got a fish on. It was a strong fish, probably rainbow trout. I played it with caution, but it came off after 1 minute of fight. What a disaster! I probed all deep spots, changing flies, there were no other bites. I moved upstream to fast, waist-deep run with few large stones, breaking the current. Far side of the river has softer water. I worked through current seam, without any success. Then I changed tactics. I cast 45 degrees downstream, and let it swing on the tight line, as people do with wet flies and streamers. Cast - two steps down - cast. Whoooa!!!! I got a fish! Nice , silvery trout, strong fish. It was hard to pull the fish against the current, so I decided to run downstream, outrun the fis...

I got bigger landing net for rainbows. My regular net was too small to handle 20'-21" trout (hoop length 35 cm or 13"7").  This net has hoop 53 cm ( 21'), and capable to handle fish up to 65 cm. Unfortunately, once I got new net, bigger trout stopped to bite. What a bad luck. But today, I landed nice 45 cm rainbow. It was thick, and took small red tag nymph. I fought fish very carefully, to avoid break off of thin leader 0,12 mm. Sorry for crappy photo, I asked passing by man to make a photo with fish, but he didn't press shutter properly, and didn't make actual photos. Later, I caught smaller brown trout.  This net obviously too big for it. Raba was in good (low) condition. Water level 247 cm, water very clear (as always in winter), flow 10,1 m3/sec and temperature 4 C. Air temperature +10 C, unusually warm for winter. Only two fish for one hour, until I got frozen feet from deep wading.