Adventures of fly angler in Poland

In this trip to Dunajec river I was not alone. Jaroslav, my friend from Belarus, joined the company. I gave him my Euro nymphing rod, Traped Guide Nymph 11' 3wt. I myself used double handed rod Winston boron iiith microspey 11' 4wt, and SA skagit intermediate line. We started at Gołkowice.  The river was 163 cm, and  40,9 m3/s. Water was a bit coloured, but quite fine. First fish came very soon on black wooly bugger. Also, there were more smaller ones. I noticed Jaroslav played big fish in the rapids. It was a hard fight on 3wt rod.  I came for help, and netted this beauty. I think it's 50 cm. Interesting, that it took very small black nymph, in shallow riffle. There was many takes by small trout. But I wanted something bigger, like Jaroslav had. We moved to another water, fast, with deep pockets between the rocks. Ideal water for Euro nymphing. But, there was nothing on nymph in this place. I got one rainbow trout on streamer, and couple ...

Today I participated in stocking program in Raba river. We came early in the morning, to explore freshly stocked part of the river. It was done week before. River was low, 234 cm and 6,8 m3/s. Despite of some promising holes, we didn't get even a single strike. I don't know why it is so. We used only streamers. Maybe this freshly stocked fish only reacts to nymph?  Or there's no fish? When we crossed the bridge, we noticed two shadows on the bottom - two big trout behind the rock.  So there is a fish, but why we can't catch them? Still open question. After that, we met with club Rabiane 100, and headed for stocking.  Fish from hatchery arrived on special vehicle, equipped with big water tank, and oxygen supply. Then, it was placed into rubber basin, filled with water, or inflatable raft as alternative. These trout from hatchery are adult fish, nearly 25-35 cm. Then, fish was distributed along the river course from floating raft, in small port...

This is my second trip on Dunajec river in this year. According to last reports, fishing gets better and better, as water warms up. I woke up at 5:00, and started at 5:30. My first stop was gas station at Łącko. I had a rest and coffee, changed my dress to waders and boots, and proceeded to my fishing spot. Traffic was light, I didn't pay attention to speed limit when it's dropped from 70km/h to 50km/h, and was caught on police radar. Officer issued a ticket for 100 PLN. Ok, let's see , maybe river will compensate this with good catches. I arrived to Gołkowice, and assembled my trout spey rod - Winston Boron iiiTH-MS, rigged with SA spey lite Skagit intermediate, and 8' SA Sink7 sink tip. This combination was a winner last time. Conditions were good. 162 cm and 39,6 m3/s at Gołkowice. Temperature 8 C (measured). At Krościenko nad Dunajcem it was 193 cm and 33,8 m3/s respectively. Temperature 5,9 C (official data). Soon I got couple of strikes, but fish wasn...

This is my third excursion to river Warta in Poraj/Częstochowa area. It's a strange place for me. I never caught a fish in this river, but still have a hope. Why? I love that kind of small stream fishing in solitude. Warta was running low (55 cm , 1,5 m3/s), and water was a bit coloured. Clarity about 50-60 cm or so. Water temperature was +12 C, too warm for this time of year. I heard bad prognosis for Warta as trout stream. Too low water level and high temperatures in the summer make river unsuitable as trout habitat. So, all fish  stocked in early April or March will migrate downstream, and there's really nothing to catch during the summer. But I have a hope, that all these big brown trout which were stocked for competition, still there. I started my exploration from the river stretch near town Kamienica Polska. Near the trail to the river, there is a private house, guarded by dogs. These puppies were so curious, even tried to lick me through the fence. Down t...