Adventures of fly angler in Poland

I Love DH is an annual meet of Polish double hand fly fishermen, organised by Robert Karlewsky. This time it was in the same place, village Nowa Wieś, on the river Drwęca in the vicinity of Toruń. River was at medium level, 95cm and 23,5 m3/s. Recently Robert reported, that there's fresh sea trout in the river. I was really excited about sea trout, so I planned to arrive early, and fish from 5:00 to the 9:00, before the meeting. But, driving in the night was tough test for me. I fallen asleep 3 times behind the wheel, and stopped couple of times at gas stations, to have some short sleep. So, in reality I arrived to the river only at 7:00. First, I started in fast water section near Nowa Wieś. There are some deep holes and fast current. I've seen some fish jumping, but probably it was an asp (Aspius aspius). Then I returned to the event place.  We met with Robert and other fishermen and fisherwomen. Some brought there their spouses and kids. We had a lunch, g...

Most rivers in Southern Poland were blown up after prolonged rain. But Dunajec started to drop 3 days ago. It was promising. When I arrived to Gołkowice, water level was a bit high. Level 170 cm and 50m3/s . I never fished it above 43 m3/s. But, my favourite stretch looked quite OK. Once I arrived, I started to fish with my Skagit setup and streamer.  First, I attached black wooly bugger with orange head. It was top producer in previous trip. Soon, I got first fish, which was pretty nice brown trout. Thanks to fellow angler Michał, he made this photo. First trout was quite decent size. There were also many small fish, I didn't make pictures of them, and released immediately. The weather was excellent, a mix of sun and clouds. Fish were biting from time to time, but not very often. Fishing improved, when I replaced my streamer with white zonker.  That was a catcher! I caught 10 fish or so on that white zonker. This was probably the biggest trout....

When I was in Wejherowo, I tried small river Reda, which flows into the Baltic sea. There is some brown trout and grayling population, as well as other "coarse" fish probably (perch, pike). River is very small and mostly shallow. But there's some deep holes, up to 2 m in depth. Despite of recent rain, water was crystal clear, and the bottom is seen almost everywhere. First location I tried near horse riding farm. Farm owners built the fence around the bridge and the river, making access limited. I found a hole and entered inside. The river was very cute, but I didn't see any sign of the fish. I moved 5 km upstream. There is Catch and Release section. It has "no wading" restriction to the end of May, because this section of the river has grayling spawning grounds. Reda has very winding course here, with many deep holes, and shallow riffles.  I've seen some fish in the riffle, probably graylings. I didn't bother with them, instead ...

I planned a 3-day trip to the north of Poland. On the way stopped near Toruń, on the river Drwęca. This is quite famous sea trout river in Poland. Level was 62 cm at Elgiszewo, flow 16 m3/s. Fishing is not easy, because wading is limited due to immediate depth. River is waist deep already 1-2 meters from the bank. Unfortunately water was dirty, turbid and brown color after recent rain. I wasn't able to see my boots, when standing in knee-deep water. There was no signs of fish in this location. I moved to another stretch, in Nowa Wieś. River makes a turn there, and there's a cliff on the left side. A lot of wood in the water. That's probably how river got his name Drwęca - "woody", or "made of wood". After woody section, there is nice fast water riffle, and deep hole in the end. This place is more appropriate for trout. So I stayed longer there. I didn't expect any catch, because there's very minor chance that sea tro...