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...

  Today I spent few hours on known trout river near my town. I took tenkara rods only, no fly rods with reels, to avoid temptation to use it when i can't catch anything. In my bag were Dragontail Hellbender, Daiwa Expert LT36, and my new all-red shiny Tenryu Furaibo TF39. The first thing I usually do on the water is "prospecting". Spotting where the fish are, insect activity, signs of fish feeding on the surface or subsurface. I spotted big brown trout from the bridge. About 55-60 cm. It was hanging in shallow water, about knee deep or less. I also spotted another 2 trout, slightly smaller, but they were hiding under sunken tree. This big one stayed in the open water. I watched this beauty for few minutes, before decided to descend to the water. Due to this trout size, I rigged my "big fish" rod - Dragontail Hellbender. First thing I started, I cast slowly sinking kebari fly subsurface, on level line and long tippet. I tried to do "fly first" prese...

 Today was a perfect winter day for spey casting training. Air temperature + 3 C, no wind. River was 145 cm and 9,90 m3/s, just perfect conditions. I came to the Raba at 11:00. The river banks were still frosted. I assembled my double handed rod CND Black Spey 13'6" 7/8/9wt, rigged it with Vision Ace 525 grain shooting head. Practiced switch cast, single spey and snake roll for some time.  On the opposite bank, I notices pieces of plastic or cloth garbage, which spoiled the view of the river. I spotted that crap in my previous visit, too, but now decided to remove it. There was deep channel between me and the opposite bank, in the deepest part it was above my waist level. There should be a fish in this hole.  But im not for fishing today.  I reached the tree on the bank and removed garbage. On the way, I collected more big pieces of trash and loaded into my car, with intention to discard it on the way home.  Now, the river without trash looks much better! Raba i...

 I opened year 2022 with spey casting session on Raba.  I took 2 rods with me: full size double hand rod CND Black Spey 13'6 7/8/9, and trout spey rod Winston Boron ii TH-MS 11' 4wt. The place I chose for casting is section of Raba river in Nieznanowice.  This part is good for spey casting for two reasons. First, river is not very narrow, and has enough space for full size spey rod. Second, there's fine gravel on the bottom, easy to wade, which allows to stand in the middle of the river, and practice left-hand and right-hand spey casts. River level was 247 cm and flow 10,5 m3/s. I started with CND. First, I rigged it with Airflo Scandi Compact 34' 540 grain (blue), and 15' tapered leader. I tried single spey, double spey and snake roll, from both sides of the river.  It seems like I lost my ability to spey cast. I struggled to make a narrow loop, and too often, my leader collapsed a the end of the cast, instead of unroll straight. Second shooting head I tried Vision...

 I didn't go fishing for the most of the summer. There were hiking trips, orienteering competitions, family holidays and other things. So this is my last fishing weekend in the summer. Also, we have trout season closure in Poland from 1st of September.  The conditions were not the best. Raba is dirty, water clarity is 40 cm or so. Level at Dobczyce 251 cm, flow 10,2 cm3/s. The water wasn't very high, actually im very comfortable with 250-260 cm. I don't like when it's below 230, because river is too skinny, and gravel starting to cover with nasty sludge in shallow places. I started in one of my favourite locations, where I got earlier biggest trout on Raba in this year.   Deep places didn't produce anything. But I got small chub and couple of brown trout near the bank, in shallow water. I was sceptical about today because of the weather and water conditions. But, already went out of zero. Both fish on small brown nymph with hot orange head. There were no bites at al...

 Last reports from Raba shown that fish actively taking dry fly. I didn't have a luck with dry fly in this year. April, the best dry fly month, was spoiled my bad weather and snow. My attempts on Dunajec in May were unsuccessful. So Im kind of "dry fly virgin" in this year.  I arrived to the parking, and met couple of fellow fishermen. River is low, 227 cm and 5,74 m3/s. We started to fish slowly moving, flat section of the river. It's often good place for dry fly. After hour or so, I had no takes or nips on my fly. I also didn't see fish rising, despite of caddis flying over the water.  I bored and started to talking over the phone, make videos of my casting, etc, Then I decided to switch gear, and assembled anther fly rod for streamers - Vision Sisu. I rigged it with freshly acquired fly line Vision Hybrid , which is integrated skagit/scandi type line. After 2 or 3rd cast, fish aggressively attacked my streamer.  It was very spirited brown trout, it made a few j...

 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...

 The last two trips to Raba were with zero results, so I decided not to write about it.  Today was quite a warm day for late November (+8 C), a good day for fishing, even if fish doesn't take. The river was low and clear, 239 cm and 8,92 m3/s.  I tried all perspective places with no results. I walked a few kilometers up and down.  In the middle of the day, I spent more time in the deep run below the rapids.  Here I got this fish. Not the biggest rainbow trout I caught, but it was an award for patience. It took big olive scud imitation. Before that, I tried almost all nymphs from my catalog, with no luck. in such cold water, fish is very lazy. I thought one fish is enough achievement and decided to go home soon. But before that, I worked through this run a few times. My heavy scud snagged something on the bottom. Oh, not snag, that's a fish! It was a strong fish. I ran a little bit downstream along the bank, for a more convenient position. Fish did a few pulls, i...

 Chubs chubs chubs. I never caught them on Raba. But this day is an exception. The river level is the same as in previous days, 240-241 cm, flow 9,20-9,53 m3/s. I started from bright pink silicone worm, and got this. Nice fat chub. Fish had some symmetric wounds on the spine, probably otter bite. Not bad start. Unfortunately, other fish were not cooperative. No graylings, no trout. I've seen couple of graylings rising on a caddis hatch. But not too many. Despite of nice weather conditions, I didn't catch anything else.   On the way back, I caught another chub. On small black nymph with hot orange head. I fished until the darkness came.   Fish, where you are?  I don't know.  Raba is not a fishless river. It is stocked regularly with brown trout, also there are rainbows, graylings, chubs, and barbels.  But today only 2 chubs paid attention to my nymphs.