Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 Due to prolonged heat season, we have very low water in all rivers in Poland. The flow in Poprad near the mouth is about 6m3/s. Normally the river flow in September is about 11-16 m3/s.  I came to the river near 7:00. The first stop was in Głebokie. There's fast run under the bridge, where I saw fish 2 years ago. I checked this hole, and barbels are there! There's 3 or 4 fish in very shallow, knee-deep water. I came down and tried to catch it. Unfortunately, probably fish are gone because were spooked by casts. I think I hooked one, but fish briefly flashed and immediately came off the hook. I drove about half kilometer upstream. Parked my car on the dirt road and descended to the river. The area is very shallow, only about 30 cm of water. I concentrated on deeper part of the run, near the opposite bank. I worked through the run, it looks attractive, but not very long.  Then I skipped some very shallow water, and fished the next deep run. Ok, it's not very deep, slightly...

 On the next day I arranged a meet with Tomasz, who agreed to show me a river Muszynka, a small stream which is tributary of Poprad. It joins main river in the town Muszyna. Early in the morning I came to Muszyna downtown. The town is center of tourism. The central square is very neat, and has a lot of flowers. Tomasz arrived, and we headed upstream to the river. Our first stop was a concrete weir and basin under it. There was some trout stocked in these basins.  We fished nymphs. Few small chubs were caught. Tomasz also had trout.  I saw a brown trout chasing my fly when I pulled it for the next cast. But the fish missed it.  Below the weir, there's quite big and wide pool.  But except such places, the stream is quite small and narrow. There's some wide and flat sections of water. I switch to wet fly in it, because nymph snagged the bottom very often. I've seen a lot of small chubs in such flats. Then there was another weir with pool below it.  It doesn't ...

 Lazy Saturday. I was laying in my bed until 9.30 or so.  There was idea to go to Raba and investigate it's lower section in search of barbels.  But I had low motivation.  Suddenly, after conversation wth my facebook friend Tomasz, I was invited to fish with him in the town Muszyna.  It's about 2 hours of driving for me.  I'm not a fan of early wake ups and night driving. I decided to go today to Poprad area, fish for barbels one day, stay overnight, and go with Tomasz on Sunday.  The idea turned to real deal, when I looked to booking.com and booked a room for the night stay.   I packed my fishing equipment, get in the car and headed to Stary Sącz direction, to the river Poprad.   On the way , there was a big traffic jam in Wieliczka due to accident with motorcyclist.  There were emergency vehicles at the site, and police blocked the road, and re-routed the traffic. As I read later in local news, the motorcyclist died in accide...

 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...

On the third day of my Slovak trip, I decided to fish river Poprad on the Polish side. The road goes through Slovakia about 145 km, to the town Leluchów on the border.  The highway goes much of it's way along the Poprad river, so I had a chance to investigate how the river looks on Slovak side.  My first stop was in town Svit, near Poprad headwaters. River is very small there, and looks like artifical channel. This section near hotel Koliba Svit was stocked with rainbow trout. It used to be a great fishing few years ago, even used for one one event of European fly fishing chanpionship. But I didn't see any fish there. Probably, stocking wasn't done in this year.   I drove through the country, and stopped near town Plavec. This is close to Polish border, I checked the Poprad from the bridge. River looks great, with many holes suitable for barbels and trout. But i didn't have license for this part.   I crossed Slovak-Polish border at Leluchów.  I turned ...

 Today Vah river section between Ivachnova and Besenova looked better.  The water was still colored, but clarity about 1 m. River level at Besenova 37 cm, temperature 16 C.  I started fishing from the pool near white bridge in Ivachnova. It is one of the biggest pools in the C&R river section, and it is a home for many big fish. In the beginning fishing was slow. No activity in 40 minutes. Then I got a strike. Fish was strong, and probably big. I think it was a rainbow trout. After short fight, the tension released. I pulled out the rig, and found that the bottom nymph was torn out. What a disaster! First fish, and it's gone.   There were no other takes in this pool. I moved to the other side of the river. There is main current, separated from slow and shallow river part.  Current seams are one of the most trout holding water. The place was just perfect for euro nymphing. I got a strike, and it was rainbow again. Not very big, probably 40-45 cm. But it ...