Barbel virgin no more

 Barbel is a hard to reach fish for me, almost mystical. I caught a few small ones , by accident when fishing for trout. But when I tried to catch barbel on purpose, I had zero results. 

According to recent reports from Poprad river, there's were decent numbers of barbels caught in September. Autumn is probably the best time for that fish. Rivers get low and clear, and they are easier to reach for fly fishermen.Barbels are bottom feeders. They eat various organisms living on the river bottom - insect larva (especially caddis and mayfly larva), mollusks, worms, occasionally fish fry.

Giving the nature of barbel, the most reliable way to catch it on artifical fly is Czech nymphing method with heavy nymph rolling on the bottom. Due to technical limitations, depths more than 1x rod length are out of reach for fly fisherman. So, the best time for barbels is early autumn, when rivers are at lowest level, and barbels feeding in runs of moderate depth 1-1,5 m.

I arrived to the river at 8.30. Level was 129 cm, flow 14,7m3/s at Stary Sącz, 103 cm and 10,8 m3/s at Muszyna Milik.

First location I tried was railway bridge in Piwniczna Zdrój. The morning was very cold, -2 C. I regret that I forgot neoprene gloves. Grass was covered by white frost everywhere. 

I drove the dirt road, which brought me to the long gravel bar. There's very nice deep run. I fished it bottom to top, nothing happened. The water looked so perfect, but there's no fish, or in such cold morning they do not feed.

I prepared for such conditions and put 3 layers of fleece under my waders: a jumpsuit and pair of pants, fleece jacket and fishing rain jacket as outer layer. It was fine, but my fingers were freezing because I forgot gloves. 

I'm not familiar with Poprad river at all. So, I marked some locations on the map in advance. Some I found randomly on Google maps, because it looks good on the map. Next location was prompted by friend, who was fished there once with the guide, and had success.  I drove few kilometres up the river, to the railway station Wierchomla.

The railway line goes along the river in many kilometres. 

There's a convenient parking spot near the bus stop. I left my car, and walked upstream. When I found the place, which friend pinned on the map, it was already occupied. There were 2 fly fishermen fishing the run, so I decided to try another place.  

The river depth is maximum waist-deep in this place, so i decided to cross it to the other side.  There is a bike trail along the river on the other side.  I crawled through vegetation, and spotted many fish near the bank. They were chubs. A lot of them, all sizes. Small, medium, and couple of big ones. 

The water was so clear, and chubs were very spooky. They scared off by any movement in the air, so it was really hard to cast. I caught only one small fish. 

I walked upstream, and reached the hole, which 2 fishermen were fishing in.

I fished this run from the other side. It's a deep run with many boulders on the bottom, very snaggy. I had no fish takes, only snags and couple of nymphs lost. But the man on the other side had one barbel take. Fish self-released during the fight. 

I returned back, crossed the river, and fished the pool near Wierchomla. It's probably one of the deepest pools in the whole river. it's deeper than my rod length (3,3 m). I feel no comfortable to fish such depth, because of poor contact with my nymphs and bottom. I had only one fish there, small chub.

I think, it's better to fish that pool from the other side. But, there's no bridges nearby. I decided to skip this place, or maybe try it on the way back.

Next part of the river I decided to investigate is so-called "Lopata" (The Shovel") in Żegiestów. It's called like that, because the river has two sharp turns, changing direction to 180 degrees twice (north to south, and south to north). These bends on the map look like a shovel blade shape.  

This area is wild, covered with forest. There's private property near the river. Unfortunately , property owner blocked access by cars to the river bank, because the forest road goes through his estate. I left my car in the forest, and walked to the river by trail.

This area looks very beautiful. But character of the runs is more like "trout water", rather than barbel water. There's no or very small quantity of trout in Poprad. Don't know why, but dominated fish species in this part of the river are cyprinids, or "white fish": chub, barbel, nase. Also, there's Hucho Hucho (Danubian salmon) in Poprad. 

I walked upstream, and found what I was looking for: deep, long, slow moving pool. That's type of water where barbels usually live in. The pool is quite long, and worth to visit. 

When I reached head of the pool, I met another fly fisherman. He didn't catch anything (same as me). We had a nice talk. He recommended me to visit this place in the search of Hucho hucho. Particularly, this pool looks like proper water for Danubian salmon. Deep water, string current, and many boulders on the bottom.

I returned to my car, and continued my journey up the river. The farthest point I reached ,was Leluchów. I was there once during kayaking trip. The river bank there lined with dense bushes, and the river bottom composed from mix of sand and clay. Make a step, and you are knee-deep in mud. I regretted that I only lost time there.

On the way back, I stopped in Muszyna, near railway bridge. There's convenient parking on both sides of the river. The place looks popular, one side of the river was occupied by bottom fishermen.

I descended to the water from the other side. After few attempts, I snagged and lost my rig. It was almost the evening, but I got nothing except two small chubs.  I was disappointed, and decided to drive home,with possibility to fish couple of more places along the way. But before to leave, I decided to walk through the railway bridge, and look to the water from top.

I put on polarized glasses , and observed the middle of the run. There's fish! 3 or 4 of them, quickly moving along the bottom. They are barbels! i know that , because of triangle-shaped head and very big pectoral fins. From the top, barbel silhouette looks like small shark. 

I looked down from the other side of the bridge. Shit, there's so many barbels. 50-100, who knows. I never seen such fish quantity in one place.  

I re-rigged my rod again. The fish is in the middle of the river. It's too deep to get there by wading. I found a boulder, in which I can stand on, and cast.  The place proven to be successful. I got 3 fish in a row on the hook, but all 3 unhooked before I managed to bring them to hand. 

Next one, landed in my net. My first  proper barbel on the fly rod!

Not a big fish, but how strong they are! 40 cm barbel pools like tractor! That's why Polish anglers called them "locomotive".  When big barbel is hooked, you feel like you trying to stop departing train. 

The place I found, was very successful. Another one came to my net.

Next one was bigger than first two. This fish feels like a monster. Even such barbel makes you sweat, and your rod bend to the circle shape.  

I used 0,185mm fluorocarbon for the tippet. Barbels are not very much leader-shy. Also, when you fishing for barbels, nymph must tick the bottom all the time, to be in the fish feeding zone. This means a lot of potential snags and lost flies.  Thick enough tippet allows to recover flies after some snags, for example when snagged sunken tree branches.  I pulled a couple of branches from the bottom... in addition to fish, of course!

Barbels are so cute, with their whiskers, and fleshy funnel-like mouth.

This was probably the biggest specimen I caught today. Also, it was strongest fighter from them all. 

For 1 hour and half, I pulled out 7 or 8 barbels. and the same number self-released soon after being hooked. That's a success for "barbel virgin" like me. All fish were caught in the same pool. I wish I would discover it earlier. But from other side, river exploration is also part of the fishing experience. I found many new places today. Some I marked on the map, to return there in the future.

Couple of the released fush, captured on video.  

Go back, grow up and see you in next year!

Please, catch and release these magnificent fish!

My impressions are very positive. Hope to see Poprad again.