Grayling season opening in Slovakia, river Vah

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 baselayer bottoms.

I didn't have spare clothes. The first thought was, fishing fucked up, let's go home.  it started so bad.  But, it wasn't cold outside, I accustomed to wet shirt and bottoms, and decided to continue and catch at least one decent fish until it became intolerable.

I moved to "Lekaren" (Pharmacy) pool, once a top producer.  There I got my first fish, nice grayling.


I don't remember which nymph it took, but it was a small nymph on the dropper.
Lovely fish was released.


I moved upstream, to the hole below fast water section. There I caught my PB grayling a couple of years ago.  I fished quieter water along the bank. Suddenly, fish hit my fly so hard and jumped like a rocket. That was a rainbow. All fights with rainbow trout in our rivers are memorable, for spectacular acrobatics.  after few attempts, I brought it to the net.  Here is it, my award for suffering in the wet underwear.


Surprisingly, it took small olive micronymph with hot oragne head, on the dropper.
Please, grow bigger and come again!


Generally, fishing was weak. There were few bites of juvenile trout.  I decided to take a break.

I spent another couple of hours in the local restaurant. Then I hanged my clothes on the car doors to dry it up.


After long break, I dressed up again for fishing. It was 5PM or 17.00.  I visited pools and runs near the island, close to the restaurant Koliba Besenevka.

It was only one fish I caught there.  Grayling again.


I found that graylings in the river Vah do love green grass, which grows on the bottom. All my graylings caught in this river, were caught on the bottom, covered with patches of that grass. I think it's not a coincidence.

Released grayling hides in the grass.


On the way back, I stopped near the bridge in Ivachnova.  I noticed there's fish rising for insects (small caddisfly hatch) in the middle of the river.  There were already two fishermen.

I tried to reach the spot from the other side of the river.  It wasn't a very good position due to deep water wading required. After the morning wading incident, I hated the idea of casting in wait-deep water. The other side of the river with easier access was occupied.   After a few attempts, I gave up and quit from the water.

Well, it wasn't my best trip to the Vah river.  But I have satisfied my desire of fishing in Slovakia this year.
You can read, how good it was 2 years ago, exactly the same river and same spots:
http://polishflyangler.blogspot.com/2018/09/vah-rainbow-happiness-in-september.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dunajec - lower special C&R section

Vah - river of big fish

Chasing Norwegian salmon in Mandalselva. Part 1