Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Wisła is biggest Polish river, but now it is in very low level. The level at Czernichów is 129 cm, flow 11 m3/s.  At this stretch, Wisła carries only half of water, because part of the river diverted to artifical channel Lączany for powerplant cooling and other technical needs. It sounds like blasphemy in the fly fishing blog, but I took only ultralight spinning gear with me. I didn't use spinning for a long time, being so excited with fly fishing.  But, trout streams are out of rich till 31th of January due to spawning protection. And on lowland rivers, fly fishing is not so good in winter. So I packed a box with new shiny wobblers and small jig heads. I came to the area, where island divides river to left and right arm. Left side is deeper and carries more water. The water in the right arm was so low, so I easily crossed it to the island. Left arm has some deepest pools in this area. Good for jigging. Don't know what fish can be there, possibly zander, perch, chu...

Polish environmental organization "Przyjaciele Raby" (Friends of Raba river) , proposed voluntary event on Polish Independence day 11 November. -Clean you favourite river from trash. -Make photo of yourself with Polish national flag, and the place before and after cleaning. -Post the photo on the page of "Przyjaciele Raby" in Facebook. I decided to join the celebration of Independence day, and bought a Polish flag specially for this. It wasn't very easy to find, they sold it only in big hypermarkets, like Auchan or Carrefour. Unfortunately, there was a lot of trash along the bank. Remains from picknicks, beer bottles and such shit. This is disgusting :-( After There was nice weather by the way, and a lot of fishermen on the river. Some more self shots with the flag. After cleaning, I brought all that shit to the gas station, and discarded there.

We have unusually warm weather in Poland in the end of October. Daytime temperature is about +18 C +20 C.  It's a great conditions for insect hatches. I arrived to the river , with hope of good hatch. Water level was 106 cm, flow 5,6 m3/s. Unfortunately, water was dirty, and there was a lot of algae carried by the current. I spotted some decent fish from the bridge, in 40-50 cm range. Probably they were rainbows. I tried to seduce them with tiny emerger, with no success. Then I decided to take break of fishing, and have some running exercise.   Sport and fitness is another my passion.  I ran 5 km along the river, then returned to the spot. Then I changed dress and continued fishing. Surprisingly, there was only two fishermen apart me, on the whole river stretch. Quite rare thing, there's usually crowded spot.  I started with nymph in the rapids. Soon I got two fish strike, but both are lost.  They were average brown trout.  But I wanted...

Vah river in Slovakia is quite famous for it's big rainbow trout, willing to take dry fly. In previous year, I had couple of outstanding trips on Vah, both in terms of numbers and quality of fish.   This year I had far less fishing trips, and overall not very successful. I came to the river early in the morning. It was cold, air temperature +3 C. But water was still warm, +15 C. River level was low, 35 cm at Besenova station. I started with euro nymphing gear in the rapids.  Very fast water section , which creates pockets near the bottom, with slow current, or even backcurrent.  Big trout often stay in such bottom pockets. The only way to reach them in water like this is super-heavy Czech nymph. Tuck cast with super-heavy piece of tungsten, and nymph penetrates through the broken surface to the bottom in seconds, before it washed away by current.  Usually, if fish is hanging under the rapids, it reacts immediately. Couple of casts, and I got a fish. I...

Today is the last day of trout season in Poland.  I decided to spend it on lower section of Dunajec river, which is perfect for streamer fishing.  I really love streamer fishing, how I will live without it 5 months till 31th of January 2020? :-( Unfortunately, river was very dirty. Maybe it was a result of recent heavy rain. Level at Gołkowice 160 cm and flow 40 m3/s, which is OK. But, the water was almost opaque. There's very minor chance that fish will see my fly. But I had a backup plan. If fishing will be so-so, I planned to visit Obidza waterfall, and make few shots with tripod and Nikon DSLR camera. There were no fish takes on streamer on lower Dunajec OS (C&R section).  I moved to the upper section in Krościenco nad Dunajcem.  The river looked even worse, like coffee with milk. Anyway, I tried my favorite hole with streamer. To my surprise, fish took my fly so aggressively, almost pulled rod out of my hand.  Fish jumped like a rocket, be...

The post is not really about fishing. I wanted to checkout upper section of small stream.  I wasn't sure there is a fish, but who knows - maybe.  The stream is very cold and clear.  Mostly, the water is very shallow. If there's a fish, it should be in some deeper water. I found plunge pool under the weir (artifical waterfall), with plenty of water. There should be something in this water. Let's try There's small trout in it!  Tiny, nicely colored. But my goal wan't really fishing (or not only fishing). I took a tripod, Nikon DSLR camera, and neutral density filters.  ND-filter slows down shutter speed , to achieve effect of blurred moving water. That effect often used in calendars and photo books. Waders and wading boots are not only for fishermen. To make these shots, I set up tripod with camera to the water in the middle of the stream. After that, I drove another 40-50 km to another remote stream. There's no fish, but ni...

On the return way from Slovakia trip, I decided to stop near the stream, which I passed by many times. There's a cascade of rapids above the highway bridge. I walked there, and made few shots, using tripod and ND-filter on my Nikon DSLR camera. I drove few kilometers downstream of the river. There's very inviting place near the road.  An artifical waterfall created big and deep plunge pool. If there is a fish in this stream , it should be there. I decided to give it a try with my nymphing rod.  The water was super-cold in this stream. Much colder than in Raba, Dunajec, or other rivers I usually fish.  I caught one small brown trout.  I believe there's more, but it was too cold, and I decided to leave. The stream looks fantastic. I don't think there's trophy fish in it. But the scenery is very wild and beautiful. 

I planned short vacation in Slovakia. Two days I spent hiking in the mountains. One day I devoted to fishing on river Vah. Conditions were perfect - 46 cm at Besenova and 16,6 C temperature. First, I started at Besenova stretch. This river is famous for big rainbows. So I expected to catch few of them, especially on dry fly.  There was almost no takes on nymph. Only two small fish. I moved to Hotel Summit bridge.  There I spotted one decent rainbow trout, just under the bank. It was eating small insects from surface.  I tried to approach it with dry fly. Fish was very close to the bank, and in shallow water. I positioned myself, so fish don't see me. I made few casts, without reaction. Fish was still there, but I wasn't sure where exactly. I returned to the bridge and spotted this fish again. It moved a bit farther upstream. Probably disturbed by my casts.  I changed my position to upstream from fish.  I cast my fly few times downstream. Once fish struck i...