Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 Dolina Będkowska is family-oriented commercial fishery near Kraków.  It was recently stocked with big rainbow trout, 60-70 cm, before spinning competitions. According to recent reports, there was excellent spin fishing for trout few days ago.  But, something changed. I started with spinning gear, trying various crankbaits and silicone worms. No response from fish. I saw many trout slowly swimming along the bank. They refused most of the lures offered. I noticed that there's a lot of fish cruising along the banks, just under the surface. Maybe they are feeding on insects?  It's time to change tactics. I rigged Vision Sisu 6wt fly rod with 2 flies. Big dry fly on top, which serves as strike indicator. Under dry fly I attached 50 cm leader with small nymph on 18 size hook.  I started throwing my flies where I could see the fish moving under the surface. A few careful pulls, a pause. Fish on!   After short fight, I brought it into the net. The tactics pro...

I rarely fish during the summer heat. First, I usually spend more with family and kids. Second, I don't like to be in waders under the hot sun. But, since trout season in Poland soon to be ended, need to use limited opportunities. Generally, there's hot weather now in Poland. But, early in the morning, there was fog in the river. The level is medium, 169 cm and flow 40,4 m3/s at Gołkowice. I started with Euro nymphing setup: big pink "parkinson" nymph, and smaller brown with chartreuse head. Soon, maybe on second cast, I got a nice brown trout. Then I got second fish, smaller one, in first 5 minutes. It took chartreuse brown nymph. So good start of the day. There were no other takes in this place. I moved down to the Mostki, the deepest pool in the river. I caught 3 trout in this pool, all on nymph. Unfortunately, there were too many pieces of grass swimming down the river. They are very annoying, you need to clean up hooks before every second cast...

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...

During my next visit to Moszczanica, weather was better for fishing. No sun, cloudy sky and light wind. Bright sun is good for beaching, but always an enemy for fisherman. I started with spinning rod, and wobbler (jerkbait), the Salmo Minnow 'Hot Perch'. The first fish I caught, was ironically an yellow perch.  Perch on perch imitation! I love that cute fish, I wish they grow bigger. But, fishing with spinning gear didn't give me more results. I switched to my Vision Sisu fly rod. I love this rod more and more. The fish were rising here and there.  I attached big mayfly imitation and soon was rewarded. The problem with that kind of fishing it, that fish can be anywhere. You can throw your fly to the particular place, and wait. Nobody knows how long.  This is a passive approach. But I prefer to search for fish. Instead of passive waiting, I walked around, watched for circles on the water, and vortices from swimming fish fins. Trout feeding on insects...

11th of June was a holiday in Poland - Corpus Christi.  I organized a trip to the fishing lake Moszczanica, with two friends Mark and Oleg. They are skilled spinningists. We decided to make it a friendly competition, what method will take more fish - spinning or fly. Despite the weather forecast, which promised a cloudy day, it was bright sun and quite hot. My interest to spinning recently renewed. Thanks to freshly acquired set: Team Dragon HM-X rod (2,45m length, 2-14 g lure weight) , and Shimano Stradic Ci4 2000S reel. I also fascinated with wobblers (crankbaits, jerkbaits), and started to collect them. In the morning fishing was very slow. We started at 7 AM. Trout were jumping here and there, teasing us. But our lures didn't give much attention.  I had no bites during the first 2 hours. My friends too. I noticed, that there's quite a lot of fish hiding just near the grassy bank of the lake.  I started to pull small Rapala jerkbait along the shoreline, as cl...

Another visit to Brzegi early in the morning.  I took with me my new spinning rod (Team Dragon HM-X Trout 2,45m 2-14 g). My main target was rainbow trout, so I used small crankbaits and silicone "twisters" on the light jig head. There was a lot of trout jumping.  I approached it with the fly rod and dry fly. No reaction from fish. Then I switched to spinning. I attached a hot pink twister, which barely resembles an earthworm. Another cast, and twister landed somewhere in the deep water.  The line landed on the water in the arc shape. I didn't feel the fish, because of this line arc. But I noticed that line started to move to the side, without my intervention.  I started to crank the reel. Fish!   It wasn't heavy in the beginning. But soon, I figured out that fish is big and too heavy for my tackle. It made few powerful runs to the nearest water lily thickets. I was afraid that fish will snag on the grass.  Then I saw big, fat body. This is pike, ...