Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 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...

 It became very hot for beginning of May. The weather affects trout activity, it feeds very selectively, or barely feed at all. Brzegi heavily owergrown by water lilies, which cover the whole shoreline, with few exceptions.  This is bad for fishermen, because you can't pull the fish through the vegetation without snags.   I started early morning. First I tried my favorite hopper-dropper rig. The take was so powerful, so indicator fly disappeared underwater. The fish was very strong, and bigger the average. Unfortunately, I lost it when the line snagged in the vegetation. Later attempts didn't produce bites. Rainbow trout were slowly cruising under the surface.  I switched to small wet fly (soft hackle type), and I got first fish on it.   Not bad start.  I've seen fish swimming slowly near me, like in aquarium. I rigged tenkara rod for fishing up close, because it's more suitable for sight fishing in the short range. With tenkara rod, you can preci...

 Today I have day off on my work. My main goal was a doctor visit in hospital in another town. After hospital, I headed to Raba river. It was very clear water, such water is only in spring. In summer, Raba runs dirty because of silt coming from the dam.   I hit couple of my favorite sports with euro nymphing, and got no bites.  Then I decided to drive home, but to stop on Brzegi quarry.   There was only one man fishing on Brzegi at a time.  The fishing was slow. I started with my Dragontail Hellbender tenkara rod, and streamer.   In the beginning  , there was nothing, But around 16:00, after one hour plus something of fishing, I got a strike.  Short but spectacular fight. It's always adrenaline fight, when using tenkara rod, because it's not forgiving mistakes. But I did it right, and nice 45cm rainbow trout landed in my net. I switched between my rods, alternating between tenkara and Vision Sisu 6wt fly rod, rigged with hopper-drop...

 My Dragontail Hellbender tenkara rod was broken recently. It is broke in my hands, not during fish fight, neither I hit the rod against hard subject.   The manufacturer decided this is manufacturing defect, and offered me to send a replacement part for free.  I decided to try my fixed rod on Brzegi quarry. I came to the site n the evening, as usually. There were no other fishermen, which was suspicious. Usually, my favorite spot is often occupied.   I started with my dry fly rod, then switched to tenkara.  I attached nymph imitating red worm, and slowly worked through the water, letting nymph sink, and pulling it up. Fishing nymph on stillwater more resembles streamer fishing, because you need to animate it.   Suddenly, fish grabbed my nymph. Fish on! The rod bent, and the fight started.   It is a challenge to fight a big fish on tenkara rod.   I held rod low and parallel to the ground (so it bends in the horizontal ...

 Yesterday I got new Tenkara rod from Amazon - DragonTail Hellbender. This rod is positioned as "big fish" tenkara rod, capable to handle 45-55 cm trout.  The tippet recommended is 3x. I decided to try it on Brzegi first.  I attached silicon worm nymph size 12 and started to twitch it near the bank.  Suprisingly, I got a fish. It was quite big rainbow trout, 50 cm or so. I remembered from Youtube clips, how to fight fish on tenkara rod. I used side pressure to maintain angle between rod and line. Unfortunately I let the fish move into position when angle became nearly 180 degrees, and fish broke off the tippet with the fly.  It was my first experience of fighting quite big fish on tenkara. I used 5x tippet, too thin for that kind of fish. It deserves 4x or even 3x. I switched to conventional 6wt rd, Vision Sisu. The rig contains big dry fly (hook no. 10), and tiny nymph suspended under it (hook 18 or 20). When the fish bites, dry fly disappears. Sometimes it's a...