Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 This is my first proper fishing trip in 2022. It's a bit late, because March and April usually are good fishing months. But, we had snow in the beginning of April.  From few options, I chose Skawa river, because it's just 40 min of driving from my home. Dunajec is usually better in Spring, but I was too lazy to get up early and drive 1,5 hours each way.  When I arrived, Skawa was low and clear. 112 cm and 7,12 m3/s in the morning The water was so low, that everything was visible in the water. Except fish.  I started with euro nymphing setup in the deep run , which has few large boulders in it. Usually it is a good place for dry fly, when fish is rising around these boulders. But despite of mayfly hats, fish were not rising, or doing so very rarely.  After few runs, I got a fish on nymph. My first brown trout in this year. So, the trout season officially opened. It's a very beautiful fish. And it's already in well-fed shape, not like trout kelts in February, whi...

Skawa is one of the closest to my home rivers. Unfortunately, it's always dirty in October due to large quantity of sediments discharged from the dam. The water level was 109 cm and 6,31 m3/s, very low.  The thing I do love in October is the color of the surroundings. The forest is burning with orange flame.  I started with nymphing rod, Ego Competitor 11' 2/3 wt.  The weather was shiny.  There were no bites for a long time.  Then I caught and released only one brown trout.  I covered my favourite run "under the rock" with nymphs and dry fly. No reaction in two hours. It was really frustrating. Then I returned to the bridge, which is the most popular place. There was 3 men around, casting dry fly. I've seen that small mayflies started to hatch, and fish were picking it. Most of the hatch occurred in the shallow knee-deep water. Here's the most frustrating part. I didn't catch anything on dry fly :-(   Nothing. There were couple of attacks on my fl...

On Sunday, I headed to Skawa with intention to catch something on dry fly. Unfortunately, water condition was not promising. I do love cafe latte. But not fishing in the water like latte.  The level was 143 cm, flow 19,3 m3/s. Quite a lot for September, such flow is usually in Spring, when snow is melting in the mountains. With river flow altered by dam, you never know what fishing will be . Once I arrived to the river, I checked other fishermen, what they doing. One was playing a nice big trout. That was a good sign. Fish is taking, despite of turbid water. Also, the weather was sunny, which means fish will se fly better in the water column. I assembled my euro nymphing rig, and started fishing. Soon, I got my first fish - average brown trout. That was a good start. I caught it on my new fancy nymph - red tag, with grey body and burgundy metallic bead on the hol Dohiku HDJ No. 10. I made that nymphs just yesterday.  Then, 2 hours passed. Nothing. No takes. I tried different l...

Last reports from Skawa river were good. Recently there were major mayfly hatches, and many trout were caught on dry fly.  I headed to Skawa on Sunday, expecting mayfly madness.   But something was wrong.  Fish didn't bite since early morning on anything. I I started with streamer. Fished deep and fast channel couple of times. No luck. Then I noticed insects started to hatch. I switched to wet fly imitating emerger.  Also, no bites. I didn't see any fish rolling under the surface and eating these insects.  Something broken int he nature. So many food, but fish don't want to eat it.   I checked river monitoring station.  It happened that river level raised from 112cm to 132 cm in a day, and flow increased more than twice ( 6,60m3/s vs 14,4 m3/s). Water was very clear. But, the dam discharged some water day before. Maybe that water from reservoir is colder, and temperature in the river dropped, what else? Somehow it spoiled fish feeding mood....

Recently, my lovely Winston Microspey rod was repaired in Twin Bridges, MT. The whole roundtrip from Poland to USA and back took 2 weeks, which is surprisingly good. Today I decided to visit river Skawa, the section below dam at Świnna Poręba.  The river recently dropped from 176cm and 44 m3/s to 135cm and 15,2m3/s.   At 44 m3/s it is probably unfishable, but now the level was quite comfortable, and water was very clear.  500-700 m below the bridge, there's awesome deep run suitable for the spey rod technique. I started with SA Ultralite Skagit intermed head and 8' tips, which is perfect for such water level. I fished this run couple of times, with black wooly bugger and white zonker. No reaction. Water is very cold, like in winter. I think it's temperature 4 C or so.  No luck in this stretch.  I took all my belongings, and moved to another location, few kilometers downstream.   There's one very deep hole, probably deepest on the whole river....

 Hey, this is my first fishing trip in 2021.  I chose the river Skawa in Wadowice,  because I arranged a meet with old friend there. The river was very clear, but a big high. Level at Wadowice 133 cm, flow 14,3 m3/s.  I used only Euro nymphing rod.  Spent 4 hours in search of fish in "no kill" section.  Unfortunately, no takes were registered.  The water is very cold.   My friend also didn't catch anything.  But, I saw first mayflies hatching. I have a hope for dry fly action in two weeks. It usually starts around 1st of April. Let's see then. 

Today was very warm and sunny. Air temperature +16 C.  Due to lack of snow this winter, most rivers running low, which is unusual for March/April.  Skawa river was very low and clear, 105 cm and flow 5,5 m3/s.   Year ago it was 160 and 28 m3/s at the same time. Water temperature was nearly +7,5 C. Good prognosis for trout fishing.  First, I climbed to the bridge and checked, where the fish can be.  You can see fish perfectly at such a water level. I spotted a couple of decent size trout grabbing mayflies.  Dry fly is an obvious choice! I assembled my Epic 580 glass rod, long 12' leader, and tied in CDC mayfly imitation. Fish were rising here and there.  My fly slowly drifted through the pool. Fish on!  After a short fight, I brought my first brown trout in the season to the net. I first time used my new Huawei P30 Pro phone as a camera in fishing trip. It's quite decent camera on it's own with 3 lenses and 5x physical zoom, ...

We have unusually warm weather in Poland in the end of October. Daytime temperature is about +18 C +20 C.  It's a great conditions for insect hatches. I arrived to the river , with hope of good hatch. Water level was 106 cm, flow 5,6 m3/s. Unfortunately, water was dirty, and there was a lot of algae carried by the current. I spotted some decent fish from the bridge, in 40-50 cm range. Probably they were rainbows. I tried to seduce them with tiny emerger, with no success. Then I decided to take break of fishing, and have some running exercise.   Sport and fitness is another my passion.  I ran 5 km along the river, then returned to the spot. Then I changed dress and continued fishing. Surprisingly, there was only two fishermen apart me, on the whole river stretch. Quite rare thing, there's usually crowded spot.  I started with nymph in the rapids. Soon I got two fish strike, but both are lost.  They were average brown trout.  But I wanted...

Chubs are excellent opportunity for fly fishing in warm water rivers of Europe, where trout do not live. They are eager to take almost any fly, but the most exciting is dry fly method with big terrestrial imitations. Foam beetles and grasshoppers can be very successful in the summertime, especially in warmest days. We with friend explored lower portions of the river Skawa. This section looked awesome, with many fallen trees, riffles and pocketwater.  The river was low, 115 cm at Wadowice and flow 8 m3/s. It looks like a chub paradise. They love to hide under obstacles, and attack any insect swimming by. But, to our disappointment, there were no takes. What's happened with this river? Where is the fish? We don't know :-( No bites on foam beetle. Neither on Czech nymph in the deep holes. We drove another 20 km to Wisła.  Vistula, or Wisła, is a big river. But I found the place, where is big shallow riffle.  It looks like a good place for fly fishing.  ...