Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 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...

 Trout season on Vah closed in the last day of September. So I tried to catch the last train. The river level at Besenova was 53 cm and temperature 15 C. It looks like ideal water level.  I arrived at 7:00 and bought a license in the Korchma Ivachnova. In this trip, I took my new rod Ego Competitor 10'/2wt (really it is 3 wt). I assembled two my euro nymphing rods to compare them. First location is deep pool near the town hall. The main current goes along the bank, and this spot is quite long and deep. 2 years ago, I caught there 8 rainbows in one hour or so.  But this time, there were no strikes. I tried different nymphs. In 30 minutes or so, I got a nice rainbow. The fish was strong, and jumped few times. I allowed it to play a bit and calm down, then grabbed in the net.  The bite was on small "raczki" (cryfish) nymph on hook size 18 and 2,5mm bead. Raczek(Crayfish) is an original Polish style of nymphs. It does not imitate crayfish, and the size is usually small. ...

Trout season in Poland has ended. It's time to sum up the results.  I has not so much fishing in this year.  Compared to 2019, the success is modest.   Here are some biggest fish of the year, different species. Rainbow trout - 55 cm  , Vah river, dry fly (tiny CDC emerger no.20) Rainbow trout - 56 cm, Dolina Będkowska, hopper-dropper (micronymph) Brown trout -  54 cm, Dunajec river, black nymph size 14.  Brown trout -  52 cm, Raba river, nymph Nase fish, 48 cm, Dunajec river, nymph   

An Indian summer arrived to Europe. After two weeks of rain, the weather became sunny and warm, with day temperatures up to +24 C. This is usually one of the best seasons for fishing. Unfortunately, trout season in Poland has ended with last day of August. So I booked a 3-day trip to Slovakia. There you can fish for trout for the whole September, and in certain waters - even until December. Of course it means really fishing for rainbow trout and grayling, because brown trout spawning in October and November, and targeting them considered illegal or non-ethical.  At 7AM I arrived to river Vah , to the village Ivachnova. The lady in the convenience story, who also sells fishing licenses, recognised me. Maybe because im fishing in river Vah for 5 years. I got license for Jambor Weir stretch, it considered "grayling" water, but there's diversity of fish species - two types of trout, grayling, barbel, nase, perch, and rarely - Danubian salmon. The river level at Besenova was h...

 Raba is a good location to fish early in the morning, before work. I woke up at 3:25,  packed my things and departed at 3:40. At 4:20 I arrived to the parking near the river in Gdów.   While I dressed up, and prepared my fly rod, another half of hour passed. So I started fishing around 5:00 . River was very low, 227 cm and 5,74m3/s. I usually prefer Raba in between 240-260 cm. Too low water means that some nice stretches are empty, fish avoids shallows during the daylight.  I took only nymphing rod. Rigged it with 2 flies: bigger red tag on the anchor, and small "pojebus" on the dropper. Soon, I got couple of small trout.  That was a good start. Then I got a strong take, and I figured out that fish was big. Whaat, its not just big, it's very strong. It didn't want to come to the surface. I released reel to let fish go. It started to move downstream, and I followed after fish too.  Then I netted it ner the bank. Victory! 53 or 54 cm. Very nice brown tr...