Vah in Jambor. Coarse fish day

 This summer I planned a trip to Belgium, to fish for barbels in Ardennes region. But, most rivers in Ardennes closed for fishing until September, due to low water conditions and high temperatures.

So, I spent my vacation mostly without fishing, engaging in other sports: running, hiking, orienteering.

On my last week, I decided to visit Slovakia for 3 days. I started from river Vah near Ruzomberok.

When I arrived in Ivachnova early in the morning, I noticed that water was dirty and colored after recent rain. Clarity about 50 cm near Besenova hotel. Level 35 cm. This river part didn't look attractive. I decided to fish lower C&R section in Ruzomberok, because the river is more shallow in this part, and water clears itself a bit after few kilometers downstream.

I started to fish deep and fast riffle section below the weir.  Soon, I got some decent fish. It was a great fighter. Due to heavy current , it was hard to pull fish against it, so I ran downstream and netted it 20 m below the rapids.  It's a nase, or pigfish (Chondrostoma nasus). Very nice sleek fish of carp family.

Go, pigfish, go! Thanks for entertainment.

I also hooked another fish, presumably nase, in the same place. But it come off the hook. Also, I hooked a barbel (I believe it was a barbel). It fought very hard in fast water, and I lost that fish. 

I switched from nymph to dry fly and back few times, in attempt to catch rainbows. No luck. 

I moved downstream to the calm waist-deep run. It is classic euro nymphing run, very pleasant to fish, because there's no snags.

There was many graylings in it, I caught a few.

Down below, there's good river section for dry fly too.  But, there was no surface activity. 

I returned to the weir and rapids section. It was the place where I hooked nase, and lost one barbel. To my surprise, barbels started to take again in this water. 

They were rather small, compared to average on Poprad river.  I never caught barbels on Vah in significant numbers, but it looks like I found place where they live. 

It wasn't very productive day for me. Interesting fact, is I didn't catch any trout today. Neither rainbow nor brown trout, although this part of Vah river called "trout and grayling water". 

Let's see how it's going tomorrow.