Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 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...

Every year in the middle of May I go to the river Drwęca near the city Toruń to the festival "I love DH".  It's a meetup of Polish double hand fly rod enthusiasts. This year it was kind of special because it was not organized as a festival, more like meet of friends.  There were not so many people. I traveled alone from Kraków. Started at 1:30 AM and drove all night on empty roads. No police, no other cars. I didn't see other drivers in 40 minutes of driving, which is unusual.  At 4:20 I arrived to the city Łodż, where I picked up my friend, Tomek.  We planned to arrive early and spend some time on the river, before the meeting. First, we arrived to the site called "Plaża/Glinki" (The Beach/Clay). For me this name has a special meaning. 2 years ago I fell into the water from the cutbank while fishing, and dipped up to my chest. This time, river was very low, about 15-16 m3/s. It's possible to cross it to the other size below Glinki, it's ...

In the Friday evening, I arrived to my destination and perfectly accomodated in Tartak. The hotel located in very beautiful area, right on the bank of the river Bóbr. It has spacious rooms, common living area, big dining room, and even holders for fly rods inside. Near the house, there's steep footpath to the river, to the so-called "beach" . There's a dam on the river, with old power station building, which is a kind of tourist attraction. Many people come here to look at the dam and make photos. On the Saturday, our spey casting course officially started. Piotr Talma brought some double handed rods, lines, rod holders.  First, he told some theoretical introduction and demonstrated roll cast on the grass in front of the hotel. Then, we repeated this exercise. Later, we descended to the river, and actual training started. The program was built from simple to more complex excercises: roll cast, switch cast (no direction change), spey casts wit...

7-8 July there was fly fishing festival, organized by Polish fly fishing magazine "Sztuka łowenia na sztuczną muchę" (The art of fly fishing). Program of the festival for 7.08 included: -Introduction by Mirek Pieślak, chief editor of Sztuka Łowenia magazine. -Demonstration of fishing equipment and other goods from sponsors (Loop, Scierra, Traper, Orvis, Winston, Simms, Royal Wulff, Patagonia), by fly shops salar.pl , harius.pl , flyhouse.pl . Sorry, if I forgot to mention someone else. -Basic mechanics of fly casting, demo and detailed explanation by Igor Glinda, owner of www.tartaknadbobrem.com fly fishing center -Casting clinic , provided by certified instructor Marek Puczyński and Igor Glinda -Dry fly techniques and tactics, by fly fishing guide Mirek Wnuk -Spey casting with double handed rod, by Piotr Talma (certified THCI) -Single hand and switch rod casting demo with Skagit lines, by Robert Karlewski, organizer of "I Love DH" festivals -Fly tying m...

Day 6. I planned to wake up very early, but due to laziness and lack for motivation, I turned off the alarm and continued to sleep until 8. I almost lost a hope to get a salmon. But after conversation with friend from the camping, I convinced myself to go fishing.  It's strange phenomenon, I wanted this trip so much, and did a lot of preparation. But now I'm on the river, there's salmon in it, but I don't have a motivation.  In the morning, I continued on that pool, where I spotted fish yesterday. There's rocky island in the middle of the river. The fly I chose was small orange fly on brass tube, sort of snaelda.  I threw my line very close to this rock on the other side, and let it swing across the pool. Suddenly, in the middle of the run, line stopped, and I felt like i'm snagged. It shouldn't be snag there, it's too deep. Whaat? It is there, the fish! My heart rate bursted to 190 bpm from adrenaline, I almost felt like a had a heart attack....

I was dreaming about fishing in Norway almost a year, since I read about Mandal river in the blog of fellow German fly fisherman. I meticulously gathered all information about this river and the area: weather reports, fishing reports from previous years, river flow measurements, maps and locations of the pools and fishing beats. Everything needed I found in the Internet and from fellow fishermen, who already was of this river. Most of information was in Norwegian, Danish or German languages which I don't understand, but I used Google translator.  The most comprehensive source is afiskeri.eu , site maintained by Danish fisherman Michael Aasgard Olsen. Michael wrote almost encyclopedia about Mandal river, with maps, photos, video clips and descriptions of the beats. It's mostly in Danish, but when you read it from mobile phone, it's automatically translated to your language. To save time and get more productive, I hired a guide Ryan Marchese ( anglerpilot.no ). He tailor...