Indian Summer in Slovakia Pt.1. High water

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 high the whole week, at 85 cm. Temperature +15 C. That's not good prognosis for fishing. Not exactly the level is bad for fishing, but river access is limited, due to dangerous wading, and some nice spots are out of reach.   

I arrived to the weir. Water level confirmed my fear - too swift current, too high, very slippery bottom. I only can move few steps, using wading staff. Dangerous and counterproductive.  

So I tried to avoid wading as much as possible, and started fishing with nymphs from concrete wall over the plunge pool. From time to time i've seen fish movement in the water.  Then I got a strike. It was a small barbel.  It took "green butt" nymph with brown body. 

Next fish was bigger. I thought it was something big, but it was two fish at the same time. Two perches, like a twins. They pulled to the opposite side, so it was illusion of some big fish underwater. 

Sweet twins. Let them go.

Fishing from the wall was slow. I changed my rods with dry fly setup, and with nymphs. After another exchange, I tied in red Parkinson nymph, and got nice sized brown trout. Legal brown trout (in Slovakia it is legal :-) ). In autumn, closer to their spawning season, brown trout acquire bright creamy-yellow color. 

Fish was quite strong, I descended from the wall and netted it near the bank. Good bye, come again next year!

During the mid-day, I noticed that water dropped. I checked level on the internet, and it is lowered to 50 cm. That's great, more wading possibilities. I descended down, and switched solely to dry fly. There was another fisherman, who got two rainbows on dry fly. Second one was very big, he fought it about 5 minutes, fish ran from side to side and jumped many times. These rainbows are super-strong! 

I had no takes on dry fly. Then I decided to use combination, known as dry-dropper. Big dry fly (CDC mayfly imitation on size 10) and small nymph suspended 30-40 cm under the surface. Immediately as I tried that setup, trout hit my fly fiercely. It hooked on the top fly (CDC dry). After some acrobatics, I landed it in the net. Great fighter!

There was another couple of rainbow trout, and one smaller brown. Average size.  Fishing became slow ,when sun got high. I walked to the footbridge and back. Tried typical grayling water, riffles and pockets near the banks. No reaction.  

The river landscape is a bit ugly. It surrounded with industries. But despite of the look, this stretch holds a lot of fish, and water in the river is clear.

I fished almost 7 hours continuously, got tired and hungry. I drove to the local restaurant, and ordered soup, chicken salad and Cofola - Slovak soft drink, very popular here. After dinner, I drove to my apartment , took some rest. 

When I returned to the river around 18:00, it was busy. It was a mayfly hatch, a time for dry fly. There was 5 fishermen in the pool, casting to rainbow trouts. One man left, and I occupied the place. 

Guys next to me pulled few fish, but I has only one small brown trout. Small fish were a nuisance, sinking the fly, and decreasing chance for proper size fish to take it. 

I decided to tie in very small CDC emerger, on hook size 20. It so tiny, so I'm not able t see it on the water. After few casts , i got a strike, and it was something big. Fish spooled out my reel few times, and didnt want to come to the surface. It took 5 minutes, when it tired and came to the net. Whooa, that's a surprise! That fish made my day!  The reason I come to Vah is to catch big rainbow trout on dry fly. Now it's happened, im happy! 

Look at this big jaws, imagine tiny hook in it. I was afraid that hook will unbend under such power. But fortunately, fish didn't damage the hook.

Thanks for the great fight, let it go

The last fish of today was small barbel. Surprisingly, it took the same dry fly (emerger) , but sunken under the surface. That was enough fishing for today.   I was tired, and drove to the apartments to have deserved rest and sleep. Surprisingly, I caught almost all other fish species except grayling, in so-called "grayling" stretch of Vah.