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...

 On the next day I arranged a meet with Tomasz, who agreed to show me a river Muszynka, a small stream which is tributary of Poprad. It joins main river in the town Muszyna. Early in the morning I came to Muszyna downtown. The town is center of tourism. The central square is very neat, and has a lot of flowers. Tomasz arrived, and we headed upstream to the river. Our first stop was a concrete weir and basin under it. There was some trout stocked in these basins.  We fished nymphs. Few small chubs were caught. Tomasz also had trout.  I saw a brown trout chasing my fly when I pulled it for the next cast. But the fish missed it.  Below the weir, there's quite big and wide pool.  But except such places, the stream is quite small and narrow. There's some wide and flat sections of water. I switch to wet fly in it, because nymph snagged the bottom very often. I've seen a lot of small chubs in such flats. Then there was another weir with pool below it.  It doesn't ...

 The heat decreased, and we got fine weather for fishing: +22 during the day, +14 in the night.   I decided to go to Raba early in the morning.  This river is in 30 min of driving from my home. The water is very low and moderately clear. 222 cm and 3,7 m3/s. At sunrise time I was on the water. Short walk to my favorite hole from 2022. There I got some nice rainbows and biggest brown trout on Raba.  The river was calm. No other fishermen spotted. I rigged the euro nymhping rod with two nymphs: small brown noname with 2,5mm bead and hook #16, and pink "parkinson" (silicone worm) on #10.   First two walks through the run from the tail to the head of the pool produced nothing.  There's snag in one place, I lost couple of flies in it. On the third approach I got a fish, and it was a big fish!  When I saw it, I decided it's not a trout. Silvery body and orange fins. Is it big chub? No, it's a nase, or pigfish. Pretty big and fat one.   Th...

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 ...

In this summer, Poland has critically low water levels everywhere, thanks to dam construction, and elimination of wetlands and marshes.  Ecologists ring the alarm, because high water temperatures in summer, and silt deposits released from dams, are harmful for ecosystem and particularly for many fish species. Some small streams almost disappeared. Poprad was 112 cm and 7,89 m3/s. Usually such level is in later October. I planned that trip due to barbel fever. I planned trip to Belgium to discover rivers in Ardennes, and fish for barbels. Unfortunately, my friend from Belgium rang me and told, that fishing is forbidden till September, due to extreme temperatures and low water levels. So, I cancelled my hotel reservation and the whole trip.   But, according to local reports, there was good barbel fishing on Poprad recently. I arrived early in the morning on the river. It was foggy and cloudy. I found long and deep pool, which looks like it may have a lot of barbels.  I...

After previous rendezvous with barbels on Poprad river, i wanted to build on that success . Weather was sunny, up to +7 during mid of the day, but early in the morning was -1 C. I dressed up in triple fleece layer under my waders. The river was low and clear, 126 cm and 12,8 m3/s at Stary Sacz, 102 cm and 8m3/s at Muszyna.  I arrived to Barcice at 9:00 and stared to the river from the bridge, trying to spot the fish. I've seen nothing, but place looks "fishy". There's deep hole below the bridge, and nice slow pockets around.  I fished the main current, and pockets around concrete bridge peers. Only one small brown trout lured by my hare's ear nymph.   I alked downstream. 200-300 m below the bridge, river became shallow, and it's easy to cross to the other side at such level.  There's nice, wide run with 1-1,5 m depth and slow pace. i think it's exactly what barbels would like to live in.  But , no contact with fish detected. I returned to my car and de...