River San, fly fishing competition and training
River San in Poland is quite famous destination, and it's popular site for fly fishing competitions. During 8-12.08.2018 there was 17th Cortland World Youth Fly fishing championship.
You can check competition sectiors here:
http://www.wyffc2018.com/sectors/sector-ii
On 11.08 Ukrainians held it's own event - training and competition for Ukrainian fly fishing team, in preparation to World championship in Italy. I was invited as special guest to take part in it. The sectors was in special part ("OS") of river San in Zwierzyń, from power station, to so-called Eldorado site near village Nowa Wieś.
Early in the morning we had training on Eldorado. I crossed the river to the far bank (left side of the river). There were small browns taking on dry fly. I caught 3 fish and there were more empty takes.
Then we returned to the site "Vision Fishing hut" (Vision wiata) , built and maintained by Vision Polska. We had a breakfast and draw, to select pools and zones.
The place is very beautiful, with many small islands, and submerged trees. It looks like place for trophy trout.
Downstream view from the hut.
At 9:00 we started first competition session. I got beat known as "Traper", named after another fishing hut, built by Traper company (Polish brand of fly fishing equipment). By the way, I own few pieces of equipment, notably Traper Competition Nymph fly rod, polarized sunglasses, and fly box.
This beat has wide and long stretch of the river, with very shallow water. I was a bit skeptical about it.
I didn't see any irregularities, river looked quite the same for another 200 meters. Water was very low and clear (171 cm and 15,8 m3/s at Lesko). It was easy to wade, and you can cross river almost everywhere. But , below the hut, there is island. So, I decided to try there first.
Near the island, I found deeper water just near the bank. There's a lot of dead trees. It was the place, where most fish were biting.
Fish wasn't big, mostly brown trout from 15 to 25 cm.
I released most of it immediately. Only two fish I counted for the scorecard. Minimal size for competition was 15 cm, but length of the fish rounded to nearest upper limit.
So, this one qualified as 30 cm.
and this as 25 cm. But I caught more, 5 or 6, which I didn't measure.
Then there was a mid-day break for lunch and registering intermediate results. The winner of the session got 10 fish or so. I had only 2.
After the break, I went to Eldorado. The place, where we held the training session early in the morning. It's more diverse than Traper site, and has more fish in it.
I switched to dry fly setup. Suddenly, the sky darkened, and heavy rain with thunderstorm started.
I locked in the car for a while, but then continued fishing.
To my surprise, fish became more active during the rain. It was attacking dry fly immediately, after it hit the water. Most fish concentrated on the far side, where's calm current.
I got only two fish suitable for the scorecard. Most of them was smaller than 15-20 cm, so I didn't register.
and one grayling. on dry fly, too
River San is famous for it's big graylings. I've seen 40-45 cm specimens , but they were not interested in my flies.
Other guys had better results. Someone got 17 fish in the session. Biggest catch of the day were 50 cm brown trout, and 40+ cm graylings.
It was a nice meeting. Disregard fishing results, it as more like a chance to meet Ukrainian fly fishing friends, which I didn't see for a long time.
You can check competition sectiors here:
http://www.wyffc2018.com/sectors/sector-ii
On 11.08 Ukrainians held it's own event - training and competition for Ukrainian fly fishing team, in preparation to World championship in Italy. I was invited as special guest to take part in it. The sectors was in special part ("OS") of river San in Zwierzyń, from power station, to so-called Eldorado site near village Nowa Wieś.
Early in the morning we had training on Eldorado. I crossed the river to the far bank (left side of the river). There were small browns taking on dry fly. I caught 3 fish and there were more empty takes.
Then we returned to the site "Vision Fishing hut" (Vision wiata) , built and maintained by Vision Polska. We had a breakfast and draw, to select pools and zones.
The place is very beautiful, with many small islands, and submerged trees. It looks like place for trophy trout.
Downstream view from the hut.
At 9:00 we started first competition session. I got beat known as "Traper", named after another fishing hut, built by Traper company (Polish brand of fly fishing equipment). By the way, I own few pieces of equipment, notably Traper Competition Nymph fly rod, polarized sunglasses, and fly box.
This beat has wide and long stretch of the river, with very shallow water. I was a bit skeptical about it.
I didn't see any irregularities, river looked quite the same for another 200 meters. Water was very low and clear (171 cm and 15,8 m3/s at Lesko). It was easy to wade, and you can cross river almost everywhere. But , below the hut, there is island. So, I decided to try there first.
Near the island, I found deeper water just near the bank. There's a lot of dead trees. It was the place, where most fish were biting.
Fish wasn't big, mostly brown trout from 15 to 25 cm.
I released most of it immediately. Only two fish I counted for the scorecard. Minimal size for competition was 15 cm, but length of the fish rounded to nearest upper limit.
So, this one qualified as 30 cm.
and this as 25 cm. But I caught more, 5 or 6, which I didn't measure.
Then there was a mid-day break for lunch and registering intermediate results. The winner of the session got 10 fish or so. I had only 2.
After the break, I went to Eldorado. The place, where we held the training session early in the morning. It's more diverse than Traper site, and has more fish in it.
I switched to dry fly setup. Suddenly, the sky darkened, and heavy rain with thunderstorm started.
I locked in the car for a while, but then continued fishing.
To my surprise, fish became more active during the rain. It was attacking dry fly immediately, after it hit the water. Most fish concentrated on the far side, where's calm current.
I got only two fish suitable for the scorecard. Most of them was smaller than 15-20 cm, so I didn't register.
and one grayling. on dry fly, too
River San is famous for it's big graylings. I've seen 40-45 cm specimens , but they were not interested in my flies.
Other guys had better results. Someone got 17 fish in the session. Biggest catch of the day were 50 cm brown trout, and 40+ cm graylings.
It was a nice meeting. Disregard fishing results, it as more like a chance to meet Ukrainian fly fishing friends, which I didn't see for a long time.
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