Adventures of fly angler in Poland

On 12-14 of May, I planned a holiday trip to Dunajec river. I booked a room at "Fly Fishing in Poland" hotel, and invited a friend from Warszaw, Jaroslav.   We arrived to the river at 8:00. Water was 207 cm and 50m3/s at Krościenko nad Dunajcem.  First we started to fish at Gołkowice. I and Yaroslav both caught one small trout.  But the fishing was complicated by conditions. The river carried a lot of algae pieces, and that green nasty stuff attached to the hooks on each retrieve.   We walked down the river to the next site "Bania w Mostkach", without success. No fish takes. Then we moved to the next point downstream - a rapids at Stary Sącz. Here I got another fish, also small one. We decided to change locaton and headed to the upper part of the river, another 30 km. Here I got bored quickly, because fish didn't take. Jaroslav got two fish above me.  It was very hot weather, and not easy for fishing. We both got our faces burned to red color.  We...

I rarely fish during the summer heat. First, I usually spend more with family and kids. Second, I don't like to be in waders under the hot sun. But, since trout season in Poland soon to be ended, need to use limited opportunities. Generally, there's hot weather now in Poland. But, early in the morning, there was fog in the river. The level is medium, 169 cm and flow 40,4 m3/s at Gołkowice. I started with Euro nymphing setup: big pink "parkinson" nymph, and smaller brown with chartreuse head. Soon, maybe on second cast, I got a nice brown trout. Then I got second fish, smaller one, in first 5 minutes. It took chartreuse brown nymph. So good start of the day. There were no other takes in this place. I moved down to the Mostki, the deepest pool in the river. I caught 3 trout in this pool, all on nymph. Unfortunately, there were too many pieces of grass swimming down the river. They are very annoying, you need to clean up hooks before every second cast...

Dunajec river Catch-and-Release section getting more and more popular, so it's hard to get a license on the weekend. This time, only licenses for the lower C&R section were available. They are slightly cheaper (75 PLN), vs 90 PLN for the whole C&R (upper and lower).  I arrived to the river at 6 AM and parked my car in the forest near the bank. There's a section of water with rapids, boulders and deep pockets between them. It may potentially hold many fish, but it can be fished effectively with only one method - euro nymphing (or Czech/Polish nymphing).  So I started with nymphs, although my favorite method of fly fishing is streamer. These pockets are just too short, steamer calls out for wider runs or pools. Soon, as I started, I got a fish.  But the pleasure wasn't too long, it came off the hook.  No problem, the river is big, and I can catch another one. Then I moved down below, to another rapids. In most of this river part, water is too fast,...

This trip to Dunajec was so-so in terms of fish catches. I came to the river early. Everything was perfect - a bit more water (22 m3/s), cloudy weather, and i was alone on the river despite of the holidays. But fish wasn't in bite mood. There was few takes on streamers, but not so aggressive and not reliable.  I managed to bring only one fish to the net. I put more effort into investigating new water. This particular place I found, offers some deep pockets between boulders. And there's fish for sure, I even saw one decent brown trout jumping. But it didn't bite my flies. This strimer was very successful in my previous trip, but now I had only two bites on it. Probably I would have better results on the nymph. But I'm not so fascinated with euro nymphing as I do love spey casting.  Spey casting is fun, even if you not catching fish. This was my least successful trip to Dunajec in this year.  Probably fish took holiday too.  But I know they ...

I took day off on my work in the middle of the week, to make a trip to Dunajec river. My assumption was that I'll be almost alone on the river. How wrong I was! The level of Dunajec is extremely low , 147 cm and 18,9 m3/s. This is usually level of end of August, for spring normal flow is 32-50 m3/s.  We didn't have rain for a month, and there was no snow melting. Not good for fish and river health. When I came to the place, there was already 7 fishermen in one run. I caught my first fish there, then decided to change place. I drove to more remote location, where I parked my car in the forest, and walked about 1 km to the hole. Hooray, I'm alone!  That place is really... nice! I started from rapids, where deep hole begins. Trout hiding in the rapids too, but it's hard to get them out of there. Soon, I got really nice, thick brown trout This long and deep run you can fish over and over again. I have very special line for this place - Guidel...

It was a long hiatus in fishing due to COVID-19 crap. Recreational activities were banned in Poland. The position of authorities is that there are very few excuses for going outside: going to work, shopping groceries, or walking the dog. Fishing wasn't one of the necessary activities for everyday life. But I bored so much staying at home for 3 weeks. The weather was very nice for fishing. So I decided to go to Dunajec river, a 100 km trip from Kraków. I got up at 5 AM and drove 1,5 hours on empty roads.  At 7 AM I dressed-up, assembled my fly fishing gear and arrived at the river bank. My first favorite spot is a long pool below the rapids and boulders. I know for sure it holds many trout. Dunajec was low and clear. Level at Gołkowice 158 cm, flow 28,3 m3/s. Temperature at Krościenko 6,5 C, but my termometer measured 10 C. Everything above 6 C is good.  I started, as usual, with my trout spey gear. Trusty Winston TH-MS 11' 4wt "Microspey", rigged with SA Ultra...