Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 Due to prolonged heat season, we have very low water in all rivers in Poland. The flow in Poprad near the mouth is about 6m3/s. Normally the river flow in September is about 11-16 m3/s.  I came to the river near 7:00. The first stop was in Głebokie. There's fast run under the bridge, where I saw fish 2 years ago. I checked this hole, and barbels are there! There's 3 or 4 fish in very shallow, knee-deep water. I came down and tried to catch it. Unfortunately, probably fish are gone because were spooked by casts. I think I hooked one, but fish briefly flashed and immediately came off the hook. I drove about half kilometer upstream. Parked my car on the dirt road and descended to the river. The area is very shallow, only about 30 cm of water. I concentrated on deeper part of the run, near the opposite bank. I worked through the run, it looks attractive, but not very long.  Then I skipped some very shallow water, and fished the next deep run. Ok, it's not very deep, slightly...

 Lazy Saturday. I was laying in my bed until 9.30 or so.  There was idea to go to Raba and investigate it's lower section in search of barbels.  But I had low motivation.  Suddenly, after conversation wth my facebook friend Tomasz, I was invited to fish with him in the town Muszyna.  It's about 2 hours of driving for me.  I'm not a fan of early wake ups and night driving. I decided to go today to Poprad area, fish for barbels one day, stay overnight, and go with Tomasz on Sunday.  The idea turned to real deal, when I looked to booking.com and booked a room for the night stay.   I packed my fishing equipment, get in the car and headed to Stary Sącz direction, to the river Poprad.   On the way , there was a big traffic jam in Wieliczka due to accident with motorcyclist.  There were emergency vehicles at the site, and police blocked the road, and re-routed the traffic. As I read later in local news, the motorcyclist died in accide...

On the third day of my Slovak trip, I decided to fish river Poprad on the Polish side. The road goes through Slovakia about 145 km, to the town Leluchów on the border.  The highway goes much of it's way along the Poprad river, so I had a chance to investigate how the river looks on Slovak side.  My first stop was in town Svit, near Poprad headwaters. River is very small there, and looks like artifical channel. This section near hotel Koliba Svit was stocked with rainbow trout. It used to be a great fishing few years ago, even used for one one event of European fly fishing chanpionship. But I didn't see any fish there. Probably, stocking wasn't done in this year.   I drove through the country, and stopped near town Plavec. This is close to Polish border, I checked the Poprad from the bridge. River looks great, with many holes suitable for barbels and trout. But i didn't have license for this part.   I crossed Slovak-Polish border at Leluchów.  I turned ...

 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 ...

 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 ...

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...