Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 I was planning 3-day trip to Slovakia for fishing tenkara on small streams. But, for financial reasons the plans changed.  The potential expenses exceeded my budget for fishing trip.  I decided to go to Polish rivers in Podhale region, because fishing in it is "for free" to me.   Well, not really for free, but I have yearly license for Nowy Sącz angling association waters, paid for the whole 2024.  First I came to Dunajec river. It's a big river with wide open space. I didn't catch anything in couple of early hours. Also the wind became stronger, and I was struggling with the casts. Tenkara and wind don't go well together.   Why continue to suffer, if I can go to another stream? They are on the same license, and in the vicinity of 30-40 km.   I jumped in the car and headed to Biały Dunajec. In 50 min I reached my destination.  The river was at low level, 100 cm and 4,1 m3/s flow. The first spot I've chosen is a deep long pool under...

Biały Dunajec is kind of "cursed" river for me.  I was 3 times on it, all in 2016. Two times I caught nothing, or only one small fish. On the 3rd visit to this river I tripped on slippery rock, and broke my rod in halves.  This time I had information from friend that there's plenty of rainbow trout in this river this year. I had a high hopes for it. Now, I fished it exclusively with tenkara rod, because this stream is ideal for it.  I woke up at 2:30, prepared coffee and sandwitches, and headed to Nowy Targ. No traffic during early hours. I reached destination earlier than planned, in 1 hour 20 min.  It was too early the sunrise is at 5:00. I spent time on gas station, drinking coffee and eating.  At 5:15 I arrived to the river. My first stop was a river section in Biały Dunajec town. It has chain of rapids and small waterfalls, with deep pools and pockets below the rapids. Apart of such places where the smooth flow is broken by rock formations, the river is ver...

 On the way back I decided to stop at Dunajec special Catch and Release section, known as "OS Dunajec" in Poland. I woke up at 3:15, packed my stuff in the car , and drove to Krościenko nad Dunajcem. It was cloudy, and the river was of medium clarity, like 60-70 cm. The river was at medium-low level, 177 cm and 19'3 m3/s.  First I tried the place near adventure park and auto camping.  I spend 45 min, maybe a hour. No fish.  Strange, because this place was always productive to me.  I sat in the car and wanted to fish in Księdzowe Pole.  Unfortunately , there is only one parking nearby, and it is marked as private - violators will be towed at their own expense.   I skipped that place.  On the "Second Wall" also no parking now. It is changed to the bicycle lane.  Looks like provincial government likes cyclists, but hates fishermen.  11 km part of the river, uber-popular among fly fishermen from the whole Poland. The license is not chea...

 On Sunday there was fly fishing competition Janosik Cup, also the championship of the Nowy Sącz angling club, and young anglers championship. The competition was in different categories: fly fishing, tenkara, youth.  There was only 6 tenkara fishermen.  The fishing organised in pairs, selected by draw. Each pair was given a measuring device and paper card to record catches.  Only trout above 25 cm (both brown and rainbow) were counted, other fish disqualified.  I was sceptical about this, because I've seen only small trout in this river. Also, there was heavy rain in the night, and the river was dirty, with brown water color and clarity about 30 cm.  I was in the team with young fishermen pair: Kristian and Angelina.  They came from the city Torun to this event. We loaded into my car and headed upstream to Koniówka. We fished for hour and half without a single strike. Later we moved to Chocholów. We fished the river section between two bridges in town...