Adventures of fly angler in Poland

After night spent at "U Mirka i Dorotki", I headed to the Huchen pool with renewed vigor. It was cold and wet, +4 C and rain.  I arrived to the pool before sunrise, and started fishing. This time, I rigged my rod with Rio Outbound Short Sink3. If fish is not willing to rise after the fly, let's try to deliver fly closer to the bottom.  I saw fish splashed in the middle of the pool. I thoroughly fished it from top to the bottom and back. At one point, I snagged my streamer on the bottom in the middle of the pool.  I decided to tear it off and lose. Pulled my fly line with two hands, using a lot of force. Surprisingly, the leader didnt break off, but there's something dragged with my streamer. Looks like big piece of grass. I pulled my fly line with two hands. There was 30cm piece of grass attached to the hook. Suddenly, big fish chased the whole thing (streamer with patch of grass), tried to bite it, but missed and returned to the hole. It was a Hucho hucho. The River ...

 River San was once a top Polish fly fishing destination. River is rich on grayling particularly, also it has decent population of brown trout and huchen. The main goal of my trip was huchen , or Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho). The huchen is large freshwater salmonid, related to taimen. The native habitat range of this fish is Danube river basin in Europe. But, it successfully planted in few rivers which do not belong to Danube drainage, including Polish rivers San and Dunajec.  What is known about river San' huchen. Unlike rivers in Austria or Slovenia, where these fish live in deepest pools, which require heaviest lures and flies to reach them, San is a shallow river. It's depth is average 30 cm - 1 m, with rare holes more than 1,5 m deep.  Which means, in San, huchen can be effectively fished with intermediate , or even floating line. Especially now, when river level is 165 cm and 9,43 m3/s at Lesko. Early in the morning, I started to fish famous Huchen hole #1.  T...

 2 weeks ago I planned 3-day fishing trip to river San in Southeast Poland. But on the way, I decided to visit Poprad river and catch some barbels.  On the way I stopped at Stary Sącz in McDonalds. About 8:30 I arrived at the fishing spot. I parked my car near the railway tracks. The river looked calm and cold. The river level was 118 cm and flow 9,29 m3/s at Stary Sącz, or 97 cm and 6,27 m3/s at Muszyna. Which means, river is very low and easy to cross to the other side in many places. The place where I started fishing was knee-deep in most of the width of the river. Only along the far bank, there was a long deep hole. I crossed this hole in shallowest lower part (it's up to my waist level), and started to fish slowly upstream with nymph.  Very soon, I got a fish strike. After short fight, fish came off the hook. But that's a good sign! It means I found a place with barbels! Another take, and I scored my first barbel. Very beautiful bronze sleek fish. Isn't it a perfect ...

 I used to fly fish for pike in Ukraine, but never tried in Poland. I don't have appropriate gear. In this year im trying to join the pike fly fishers team. If all our other fish like trout, grayling, chub, nase, barbel, ide, perch can be caught by using the same fly rod in range 4-6 wt, pike demands for very specific dedicated set.  So, I eventually acquired all necessary components.  Fly Rod - Traper Silence SW 9' 9wt.   Reel - Vision Kust(XLV), size 7-8 , with spare spool Fly lines:   Rio Outbound Short intermediate Rio Outbound Short Intermed/Sink 3 Vision Grand Daddy Intermed/Sink4 Leaders:  Vision Ace 9' 18lb tapered leader Vision Wireline 15lb wire tippet material Vision stripping basket. I never used stripping basket before, but it's very useful for pike or saltwater fishing with streamers and shooting heads, especially if you wading, and use intermediate or sinking running line. Without basket, the fly line falls in the water and sinks, w...

Today we have a holiday in Poland - Independence Day. I planned a trip to Dunajec river, in attempt to catch Danubian salmon on streamers. When I arrived to known spot early in the morning, I found there's already someone fishing the run. River was very low. Dunajec Gołkowice 137 cm and 14,1 m3/s. I fished this run with streamers when it was 50 m3/s and it was awesome. Many big trout on streamers. But now, it looked too skinny and not attractive.  I drove to the Mostki, to the deepest hole in this part of Dunajec. I spent couple of cours, casting heavy streamer on intermediate line with 9wt rod. No luck.  Since it's a holiday, I wanted to celebrate it with some real fish, not just grass and sticks caught in the water.  Luckily, I had my car packed with various fly rods for different conditions and methods. I headed to the Poprad river , which is close to Gołkowice.  Poprad also was low. Measurement  20 cm, 9,85 m3/s at Stary Sącz, and 98 cm, 6,58 m3/s at Muszyna...

 Tadaaam! Another trip to Poprad. Water is low, 120 cm and 9,85 m3/s at Stary Sąсz 97 cm and 6,27 m3/s at Muszyna. This time, I took big streamers with me, in attempt to try to tease mighty Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho). I arrived early in the river, and started to warm-up with nymphing and barbels.  The place is good for barbels, but they didn't take.   Strong wind started to blow from south side, which made my fishing uncomfortable. I couldn't track my nymph, because the line developed a "belly" in the wind, instead of being straight and vertical.  Wind became worse and worse. Sometimes, it was almost impossible to make a cast.  I drove few kilometers upstream, to so-called "Lopata". There's quite long and deep hole, which looks like a proper place for Hucho hucho to live. Here I tried my big streamers, attached to Guideline ULS 3D+ I/Sink3/Sink5 shooting head. My Winston Trout spey rod not good candidate to this job. It's impossible to use water-l...