Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 The last two trips to Raba were with zero results, so I decided not to write about it.  Today was quite a warm day for late November (+8 C), a good day for fishing, even if fish doesn't take. The river was low and clear, 239 cm and 8,92 m3/s.  I tried all perspective places with no results. I walked a few kilometers up and down.  In the middle of the day, I spent more time in the deep run below the rapids.  Here I got this fish. Not the biggest rainbow trout I caught, but it was an award for patience. It took big olive scud imitation. Before that, I tried almost all nymphs from my catalog, with no luck. in such cold water, fish is very lazy. I thought one fish is enough achievement and decided to go home soon. But before that, I worked through this run a few times. My heavy scud snagged something on the bottom. Oh, not snag, that's a fish! It was a strong fish. I ran a little bit downstream along the bank, for a more convenient position. Fish did a few pulls, i...

 Chubs chubs chubs. I never caught them on Raba. But this day is an exception. The river level is the same as in previous days, 240-241 cm, flow 9,20-9,53 m3/s. I started from bright pink silicone worm, and got this. Nice fat chub. Fish had some symmetric wounds on the spine, probably otter bite. Not bad start. Unfortunately, other fish were not cooperative. No graylings, no trout. I've seen couple of graylings rising on a caddis hatch. But not too many. Despite of nice weather conditions, I didn't catch anything else.   On the way back, I caught another chub. On small black nymph with hot orange head. I fished until the darkness came.   Fish, where you are?  I don't know.  Raba is not a fishless river. It is stocked regularly with brown trout, also there are rainbows, graylings, chubs, and barbels.  But today only 2 chubs paid attention to my nymphs. 

 Last time on Raba Jaroslav hooked a very nice rainbow trout, which torn off the leader when we tried to net the fish. I was jealous. This time, I came to the river for revanche.  Conditions were almost the same, as on Wednesday. 241 cm, 9,53 m3/s.  I started in a medium-deep run with cobblestone bottom. Ideal for euro nymphing.  In the first 20 minutes or so, I hooked that fish. Woooah, that a torpedo! Rainbows are the most hard-fighting fish in our waters. That's why it's so much sought-after fish for me.  Fish made few runs to the other side, spooling out the reel, but finally ended up in my big landing net. Also, it was the first proper usage of my new euro nymphing rod, Thomas&Thomas Contact II 11'2 3wt. That's the beauty of the water. You never know what on the other end.  Catch and release! That run is really nice for euro nymphing. I believe there's more fish like that. But there was no other bites, so I moved upstream to another spots. I walked...

 Good weather in October is a rarity. I checked the weather report and found that Wednesday is the warmest day before rainy next week. I took a day off on my work and headed to the Raba river. The river level was 242 cm, flow 9,86 m3/s. A bit dropped and cleared after heavy rain, but the water was still turbid. In such conditions, I favor silicone worm nymph ("parkinson") over anything else. We parked the car near the bridge and headed upstream. In the first hole with chest-deep water, I hooked my first fish. That was a nice grayling.  Lovely grayling, not so many of them in Raba, so I was very happy to start my day with this fish.  We hiked 1 km upstream along the river, and found another nice place.  I didn't catch anything from there, except this tiny fish. Don't know what is it, kind of minnow. Our last stop was this fast water with deep eddy near the bank. Quite perspective place, but no bites. I pulled only one small brown trout from there. Then we returned bac...

 First time I was in the North-East part of Poland, in the region called Mazury.  My primary purpose was participation in orienteering competitions.  But, I took my fly rod and associated gear with me, just in case of the opportunity.  I got a hint from a friend, that there are some streams with graylings, not so far from the camping where I stayed overnight. These streams are small and not widely known.   The stream flows in the forested canyon. I left my car in the nearest village and hiked along forest trail. The lower part of the stream looked very clear, and shallow. No signs of the fish presented.  The water didn't look like proper grayling habitat. The river banks are swampy, and the bottom covered with sand. I need to look for the gravel bottom. So I hiked further upriver. From the high point, I spotted some gravel patches in the river and faster water stretch. I descended down and started fishing.  I caught a couple of small chubs, 4-6 cm...

September is the last month, when we can fish in most of Slovak trout and grayling rivers. I decided to give a visit to Slovak river Vah , first time in this year due to COVID, which disrupted many fishing plans and trips. I arrived early at 6:00 AM to the license shop in the village Ivachnova. I had plenty of time to assemble my rods and dress up in waders and boots. The shop owner, a lovely lady, arrived at 6:40 AM. Water was low 35 cm in Besenova, and quite warm, +16 C The first hour I spend with Euro nymphing, using various nymphs. Nothing. Looks like a dead river. Quite unusual, because I usually had trout bites in this place.  I crossed the river to the other side. Fished along the edge of the fast and slow current.  No bites at all. My polarized glasses fogged. It ended up in the wading incident. I tripped over a rock under the water, which I didn't see, and I fell into the river. All my clothes became wet, water penetrated inside waders, and even to my baselay...

On the way back from Wejherowo to Kraków, I stopped near another nice Pomeranian river.  It was very low and clear, so I was able to spot shools of graylings through polarized glasses. Unfortunately, it is very popular kayaking route. Which means, there's huge traffic of kayaks. Every 1-2 minute someone floats down the river and ask: "Got fish?". Many of them were drunk, or shout very loudly, so the atmosphere was a bit nervous. There's a lot of graylings in this river, but mostly they are small.  Also, fishing is very challenging because of low hanging tree branches.  I lost a lot of flies on these trees. I used euro nymphing method with short glass rod Echo Glass 8'6" 4wt. Normally this is my dry fly rod. But I needed shorter rod on this stream, due to tight space and many obstructions. Here's I captured moment of grayling take on the video: Then I found one nice place, where I spotted bigger graylings. Unfortunately, it was extremely hard to cast into....

 I spent 3 days in Kashubian Tricity - an aglomeration of 3 closely spaced towns: Wejherowo, Reda and Rumia.  Reda is a small river which flows through Wejherowo and joins Baltic sea nearby.  The river was running very low and clear. The depth is less than knee-deep in many places, with occasional deep holes up to 1-2 m.   Dominating species in this area are grayling and brown trout.  Once I started, I caught a grayling. Most of catches were very small brown trout, a lot of them. Also I caught perch.  I tried to avoid too much wading, in such small river it spooks fish. Deeper spots near undercut banks are perspective for holding larger trout. Unfortunately, I caught only small fish. It was a hot day by Polish means (+27 C), but most of the river is covered by dense treeline, so it was very pleasant experience. I caught 30 or maybe 40 fish in 3 hours. They all were small. Nothing to brag about from fishing prospective. But I love special atmosphere of ...

I rarely fish during the summer heat. First, I usually spend more with family and kids. Second, I don't like to be in waders under the hot sun. But, since trout season in Poland soon to be ended, need to use limited opportunities. Generally, there's hot weather now in Poland. But, early in the morning, there was fog in the river. The level is medium, 169 cm and flow 40,4 m3/s at Gołkowice. I started with Euro nymphing setup: big pink "parkinson" nymph, and smaller brown with chartreuse head. Soon, maybe on second cast, I got a nice brown trout. Then I got second fish, smaller one, in first 5 minutes. It took chartreuse brown nymph. So good start of the day. There were no other takes in this place. I moved down to the Mostki, the deepest pool in the river. I caught 3 trout in this pool, all on nymph. Unfortunately, there were too many pieces of grass swimming down the river. They are very annoying, you need to clean up hooks before every second cast...