Dunajec in the heat of the season
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. So, I had 50% less productive drifts.
As the sun went high, I moved to other location - the rapids. There's fast current and deep pools below it. It looks like very fishy place.
I started with nymphs, but had no success. Due to backcurrent and big depth, it's hard to make a proper drift of the nymphs. I switched to spinning rod then.
I had assortment of the Rapala lures: Countdown, X-rap Countdown and Scatter Rap Countdown. I re-rigged them with single barbless hooks, according to OS Dunajec catch-and-release regulations.
Top to down: Scatter Rap (deepest action 1,2 - 1,8m), Countdown (0,9-1,8 m) and X-Rap Countdown (shallower, fast sinking 0,6 - 1,2m)
I started to cast upstream to the rapids, and let my lure go with the flow. Soon I got first fish - chub in Rapala Scatter Rap Countdown 5 cm. Chubs are omnivorous, and often predators for small baitfish.
There's very promising quiet water between the rapids and gravel bar. In the upper part of this pool, there are big underwater boulders, with 0,5-0,7 water above them.
I attached Rapala X-Rap with shallower running depth. After the second cast to the edge of the current, I got nice trout! So strong fish.
and release!
That place has great potential. Abundant underwater boulders, which offer protection from the current.
I tried to use nymphs again, with without success. Only lost few flies.
Moved to the tailout section of water, and switched to spinning again. Once I've seen trout chasing my lure, but it didn't take. But, soon I got another one. Now on Rapala countdown 5cm.
Quite a lot of fly fishermen condemn spinning as unsporty and almost blasphemous. But I do love it, and I'd say it adds more diversity to fishing approaches. It would be a boring to drift nymphs 8 hours a day. Spinning does no more damage to the fish, if you use barbless single hooks, and practice catch and release (as I do).
I got 9 fish in the first half of day. 5 on nymph, and 4 on spinning.
Then I drove to Krościenko for lunch. After the restaurant, I continued on the upper Dunajec river C&R section, which is fly fishing only.
There I got fixated with nymphs, because I wanted to catch barbel or nase fish. Despite conditions were good, there were no takes at all. Only when I switched to small woolybugger, I got small brown trout.
This place is full of fish. Should be. But where they are?
The evening I spend on the (in)famous "second wall", casting dry fly along the concrete wall. Not very picturesque place, but fishy. unfortunately, I had no luck.
It wasn't my best trip to Dunajec, but quite good, especially in the morning. That's why I don't like summer heat too much. Best fishing usually in early hours, when there's no sun. And in the middle of the day, fish activity goes down.
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. So, I had 50% less productive drifts.
As the sun went high, I moved to other location - the rapids. There's fast current and deep pools below it. It looks like very fishy place.
I started with nymphs, but had no success. Due to backcurrent and big depth, it's hard to make a proper drift of the nymphs. I switched to spinning rod then.
I had assortment of the Rapala lures: Countdown, X-rap Countdown and Scatter Rap Countdown. I re-rigged them with single barbless hooks, according to OS Dunajec catch-and-release regulations.
Top to down: Scatter Rap (deepest action 1,2 - 1,8m), Countdown (0,9-1,8 m) and X-Rap Countdown (shallower, fast sinking 0,6 - 1,2m)
I started to cast upstream to the rapids, and let my lure go with the flow. Soon I got first fish - chub in Rapala Scatter Rap Countdown 5 cm. Chubs are omnivorous, and often predators for small baitfish.
There's very promising quiet water between the rapids and gravel bar. In the upper part of this pool, there are big underwater boulders, with 0,5-0,7 water above them.
I attached Rapala X-Rap with shallower running depth. After the second cast to the edge of the current, I got nice trout! So strong fish.
and release!
That place has great potential. Abundant underwater boulders, which offer protection from the current.
I tried to use nymphs again, with without success. Only lost few flies.
Moved to the tailout section of water, and switched to spinning again. Once I've seen trout chasing my lure, but it didn't take. But, soon I got another one. Now on Rapala countdown 5cm.
Quite a lot of fly fishermen condemn spinning as unsporty and almost blasphemous. But I do love it, and I'd say it adds more diversity to fishing approaches. It would be a boring to drift nymphs 8 hours a day. Spinning does no more damage to the fish, if you use barbless single hooks, and practice catch and release (as I do).
I got 9 fish in the first half of day. 5 on nymph, and 4 on spinning.
Then I drove to Krościenko for lunch. After the restaurant, I continued on the upper Dunajec river C&R section, which is fly fishing only.
There I got fixated with nymphs, because I wanted to catch barbel or nase fish. Despite conditions were good, there were no takes at all. Only when I switched to small woolybugger, I got small brown trout.
This place is full of fish. Should be. But where they are?
The evening I spend on the (in)famous "second wall", casting dry fly along the concrete wall. Not very picturesque place, but fishy. unfortunately, I had no luck.
It wasn't my best trip to Dunajec, but quite good, especially in the morning. That's why I don't like summer heat too much. Best fishing usually in early hours, when there's no sun. And in the middle of the day, fish activity goes down.
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