Adventures of fly angler in Poland

The next day I dedicated to Parsęta river exploration. Parsęta is a famous sea trout river in Pomerania. It has a windy course and takes many smaller tributaries along the way. Fishing for Baltic sea trout is the main attraction there, but upper parts of the river also hold a population of native brown trout and grayling. The first location I chose was the Rościno hydropower plant. The dam blocks passage for anadromous trout further upstream. So, theoretically, there's a concentration of fresh sea-run fish in this area. After 40 minutes of driving, I arrived to the power plant area. The river was very shallow at this time. The level 202 cm (Bardy), flow 17,4 m3/s, temperature 18,8 C. At Rościno 84 cm and 6,9 m3/s. It was a surprise that I can wade and cross river from side to side in this place. I assembled Vision Sisu 6wt 9' fly rod with OPST Smooth integrated skagit line.  Water was turbid, so I attached hot pink streamer, for better visibility. Then I stepped in th...

Most rivers in Southern Poland were blown up after prolonged rain. But Dunajec started to drop 3 days ago. It was promising. When I arrived to Gołkowice, water level was a bit high. Level 170 cm and 50m3/s . I never fished it above 43 m3/s. But, my favourite stretch looked quite OK. Once I arrived, I started to fish with my Skagit setup and streamer.  First, I attached black wooly bugger with orange head. It was top producer in previous trip. Soon, I got first fish, which was pretty nice brown trout. Thanks to fellow angler Michał, he made this photo. First trout was quite decent size. There were also many small fish, I didn't make pictures of them, and released immediately. The weather was excellent, a mix of sun and clouds. Fish were biting from time to time, but not very often. Fishing improved, when I replaced my streamer with white zonker.  That was a catcher! I caught 10 fish or so on that white zonker. This was probably the biggest trout....

I planned a 3-day trip to the north of Poland. On the way stopped near Toruń, on the river Drwęca. This is quite famous sea trout river in Poland. Level was 62 cm at Elgiszewo, flow 16 m3/s. Fishing is not easy, because wading is limited due to immediate depth. River is waist deep already 1-2 meters from the bank. Unfortunately water was dirty, turbid and brown color after recent rain. I wasn't able to see my boots, when standing in knee-deep water. There was no signs of fish in this location. I moved to another stretch, in Nowa Wieś. River makes a turn there, and there's a cliff on the left side. A lot of wood in the water. That's probably how river got his name Drwęca - "woody", or "made of wood". After woody section, there is nice fast water riffle, and deep hole in the end. This place is more appropriate for trout. So I stayed longer there. I didn't expect any catch, because there's very minor chance that sea tro...

Fresh reports from Dunajec river were promising. Many brown trout recently caught on nymph and streamer.  I decided to go to lower Dunajec special C&R section , which is less popular than famous upper section. The river is much bigger there, very fast and powerful. Level at Gołkowice was 165 cm, flow 43,5 m3/s. That's a lot.  Most rivers I fish, have less than 30 m3/s.  My thermometer measured water at 5,5-6 C. Dunajec at Gołkowice looks like a Scandinavian salmon river. With abundant rock ridges, boulders, rapids, and very deep holes. The river of that kind is a good choice for trout spey gear. With double handed rod it's easier to cover wide runs and pools. I parket my car near the bridge in Gołkowice, and descended to the river. There's powerful rapids. There are a lot of deep pockets and holes between rocks, but no sense to fish it in such high flow. It's very hard to approach, and dangerous.  But, during low water, there's probably trout sitting i...