Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Biały Dunajec is kind of "cursed" river for me.  I was 3 times on it, all in 2016. Two times I caught nothing, or only one small fish. On the 3rd visit to this river I tripped on slippery rock, and broke my rod in halves.  This time I had information from friend that there's plenty of rainbow trout in this river this year. I had a high hopes for it. Now, I fished it exclusively with tenkara rod, because this stream is ideal for it.  I woke up at 2:30, prepared coffee and sandwitches, and headed to Nowy Targ. No traffic during early hours. I reached destination earlier than planned, in 1 hour 20 min.  It was too early the sunrise is at 5:00. I spent time on gas station, drinking coffee and eating.  At 5:15 I arrived to the river. My first stop was a river section in Biały Dunajec town. It has chain of rapids and small waterfalls, with deep pools and pockets below the rapids. Apart of such places where the smooth flow is broken by rock formations, the river is ver...

 On the way back I decided to stop at Dunajec special Catch and Release section, known as "OS Dunajec" in Poland. I woke up at 3:15, packed my stuff in the car , and drove to Krościenko nad Dunajcem. It was cloudy, and the river was of medium clarity, like 60-70 cm. The river was at medium-low level, 177 cm and 19'3 m3/s.  First I tried the place near adventure park and auto camping.  I spend 45 min, maybe a hour. No fish.  Strange, because this place was always productive to me.  I sat in the car and wanted to fish in Księdzowe Pole.  Unfortunately , there is only one parking nearby, and it is marked as private - violators will be towed at their own expense.   I skipped that place.  On the "Second Wall" also no parking now. It is changed to the bicycle lane.  Looks like provincial government likes cyclists, but hates fishermen.  11 km part of the river, uber-popular among fly fishermen from the whole Poland. The license is not chea...

 On Sunday there was fly fishing competition Janosik Cup, also the championship of the Nowy Sącz angling club, and young anglers championship. The competition was in different categories: fly fishing, tenkara, youth.  There was only 6 tenkara fishermen.  The fishing organised in pairs, selected by draw. Each pair was given a measuring device and paper card to record catches.  Only trout above 25 cm (both brown and rainbow) were counted, other fish disqualified.  I was sceptical about this, because I've seen only small trout in this river. Also, there was heavy rain in the night, and the river was dirty, with brown water color and clarity about 30 cm.  I was in the team with young fishermen pair: Kristian and Angelina.  They came from the city Torun to this event. We loaded into my car and headed upstream to Koniówka. We fished for hour and half without a single strike. Later we moved to Chocholów. We fished the river section between two bridges in town...

 On Saturday I decided to investigate another part of the river Czarny Dunajec.  I used Google maps satellite photos, to locate where are cascades of rapids and waterfalls on the river.  I picked Witów, farther upstream from Chocholów.   I parked car on the country road, and broke through dense forest and bushes to the river.  The first place I found, was beautiful green pool with calm surface and moderate current. There must be a fish in there! I used Daiwa Expert LT36 tenkara rod, rigged with two wet flies , as usually: sakasa kebari and north country spider.  Few drifts through the pool didn't produce bites. I changed one of the flies to small brown nymph, and got a fish. That was a nice grayling. They are rare in Poland nowadays, and I'm glad to see the population survived in this stream. Everybody loves their big sail-like dorsal fin. When the green pool was exhausted and didn't produce more fish, I moved upstream.  This is the place for heav...

13-14 July we have first tenkara festival in Poland. It was long-awaited event for enthusiasts of this very niche kind of sport.   I took short vacation, to fish 4 days continiuosly from Friday to Monday.  I woke up at 3:00 and drove my car to Dunajec river. There was heavy rain recently , and Dunajec was dirty.   I drove to another river, Białka Tatrzańska, it's about 45 km from the first river.  The river looked OK, but I decided not to fish it, but headed to Czarny Dunajec.  Maybe next time? Białka Tatrzańska in Trybsz at 222 cm and 6,8 m3/s flow.  Another 40 km or so, and I arrived to Chocholów, a town in the headwaters of the river Czarny Dunajec.  This is very upper part of the river, close to the national park. The water usually clean there, even after rain. River level was 136 cm and the flow 3,1 m3/s at Koniówka. This flow is medium-low.  This river part is characterised by cascades of rapids, small plunge pools, and shallow fla...