Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 Trout season on Vah closed in the last day of September. So I tried to catch the last train. The river level at Besenova was 53 cm and temperature 15 C. It looks like ideal water level.  I arrived at 7:00 and bought a license in the Korchma Ivachnova. In this trip, I took my new rod Ego Competitor 10'/2wt (really it is 3 wt). I assembled two my euro nymphing rods to compare them. First location is deep pool near the town hall. The main current goes along the bank, and this spot is quite long and deep. 2 years ago, I caught there 8 rainbows in one hour or so.  But this time, there were no strikes. I tried different nymphs. In 30 minutes or so, I got a nice rainbow. The fish was strong, and jumped few times. I allowed it to play a bit and calm down, then grabbed in the net.  The bite was on small "raczki" (cryfish) nymph on hook size 18 and 2,5mm bead. Raczek(Crayfish) is an original Polish style of nymphs. It does not imitate crayfish, and the size is usually small. ...

Trout season in Poland has ended. It's time to sum up the results.  I has not so much fishing in this year.  Compared to 2019, the success is modest.   Here are some biggest fish of the year, different species. Rainbow trout - 55 cm  , Vah river, dry fly (tiny CDC emerger no.20) Rainbow trout - 56 cm, Dolina Będkowska, hopper-dropper (micronymph) Brown trout -  54 cm, Dunajec river, black nymph size 14.  Brown trout -  52 cm, Raba river, nymph Nase fish, 48 cm, Dunajec river, nymph   

On Sunday, I headed to Skawa with intention to catch something on dry fly. Unfortunately, water condition was not promising. I do love cafe latte. But not fishing in the water like latte.  The level was 143 cm, flow 19,3 m3/s. Quite a lot for September, such flow is usually in Spring, when snow is melting in the mountains. With river flow altered by dam, you never know what fishing will be . Once I arrived to the river, I checked other fishermen, what they doing. One was playing a nice big trout. That was a good sign. Fish is taking, despite of turbid water. Also, the weather was sunny, which means fish will se fly better in the water column. I assembled my euro nymphing rig, and started fishing. Soon, I got my first fish - average brown trout. That was a good start. I caught it on my new fancy nymph - red tag, with grey body and burgundy metallic bead on the hol Dohiku HDJ No. 10. I made that nymphs just yesterday.  Then, 2 hours passed. Nothing. No takes. I tried different l...

 On the third day, I had tough choice - what river and part to choose. Vah at Besenova was still high, at 85-87 cm. Not good option. I was about to go to Bela again, but different part. Or upper section of Vah, where I never fished before. I drove to Esox fishing shop again. Now it was normally open from 9:00. We had a nice talk with store owner again. Very sympathetic man. I decided to buy license to Vah section #21 . It's a river between Liptovski Hradok (junction with Bela river)  and up to Hotel Janosik in the city Liptovski Mikulas. Quite long section, 11 km.  The upper section of the Vah #21 starts in Liptovski Hradok. This part, colloquially named "Borova Sihot stretch", is the most wild and senic. River is unaltered by dams and channelisation there. Water is very fast, with many rapids and plunge pools. Level at Liptovski Mikulas 111 cm, temperature 13 C. Unfortunately, from fishing prospective, it's not as good as it looks. I fished from Bela mouth to the Bor...

My first goal was to catch graylings in Slovakia. In Poland population of graylings declined due to environment degradation. Even on river San, which was once considered a "grayling Eldorado", now fishing reports are modest. In Slovakia, grayling fisheries are more reliable. Particularly, Bela was one of  top grayling rivers in the past. Now it's getting worse too. There's still plenty of graylings, but smaller in size. 50cm specimens are probably extinct, and 40 cm are rare. I fished it 3 years ago, when 40-45 cm graylings was quite common.  In the morning , I drove to Borova Sihot' hotel at the village Liptovski Hradok, to get a license for Bela. There was a surprise... Hotel doesn't sell fishing licenses anymore. I can only get in in some fishing shop. I drove another 15 km back to the Liptovski Mikulas. There's big square with shops, and one of them is fishing shop Esox.  But, today there was a national holiday in Slovakia - Feast of Our Lady Of Sorrow...

An Indian summer arrived to Europe. After two weeks of rain, the weather became sunny and warm, with day temperatures up to +24 C. This is usually one of the best seasons for fishing. Unfortunately, trout season in Poland has ended with last day of August. So I booked a 3-day trip to Slovakia. There you can fish for trout for the whole September, and in certain waters - even until December. Of course it means really fishing for rainbow trout and grayling, because brown trout spawning in October and November, and targeting them considered illegal or non-ethical.  At 7AM I arrived to river Vah , to the village Ivachnova. The lady in the convenience story, who also sells fishing licenses, recognised me. Maybe because im fishing in river Vah for 5 years. I got license for Jambor Weir stretch, it considered "grayling" water, but there's diversity of fish species - two types of trout, grayling, barbel, nase, perch, and rarely - Danubian salmon. The river level at Besenova was h...