Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 It became very hard to catch rainbow trout due to hot weather and warming water. They slowly moving under the surface, but refusing any offerings. I managed to catch smaller one, on small wet fly under the surface.  I also hooked big one on tenkara rod, but it snagged in the vegetation , and I lost it. It looks like I should stop fishing on Brzegi till September .

 It became very hot for beginning of May. The weather affects trout activity, it feeds very selectively, or barely feed at all. Brzegi heavily owergrown by water lilies, which cover the whole shoreline, with few exceptions.  This is bad for fishermen, because you can't pull the fish through the vegetation without snags.   I started early morning. First I tried my favorite hopper-dropper rig. The take was so powerful, so indicator fly disappeared underwater. The fish was very strong, and bigger the average. Unfortunately, I lost it when the line snagged in the vegetation. Later attempts didn't produce bites. Rainbow trout were slowly cruising under the surface.  I switched to small wet fly (soft hackle type), and I got first fish on it.   Not bad start.  I've seen fish swimming slowly near me, like in aquarium. I rigged tenkara rod for fishing up close, because it's more suitable for sight fishing in the short range. With tenkara rod, you can preci...

 Today I went to Brzegi in the evening.  I wanted to catch fish with tenkara first, because it is my new passion. But it was very windy, with small waves on the lake.  I walked along the shoreline to find a place, free of wind.   Still there was a wind, but moderate.  There were no strikes on tenkara. I had a conversation with a man, who caught 2 rainbow trout on nymph on the fly rod.  I rigged my favorite hopper-dropper setup.  The fish were jumping from time to time, but no reaction to my fly. I decided to go home, but stopped at small wooden pier near the parking spot. There is corner of the lake, always full of fish. This place is shallow, and have rich vegetation.  Previous time, I caught a few trout there. I stayed for a while on the pier, and fished with tiny nymph (hook 18) suspended under dry fly. The distance of nymph from the surface was about 50 cm.   There were bites of small fish (likely, rudd) from time to time. ...

 I visited Brzegi after my work. The fishing was slow. No bites and no fish activity for two hours. But near the sunset, trout started to feed near the surface. I re-rigged my fly rod with big dry fly as indicator, and tiny micronymph suspended 15 cm below the surface.  When I spotted fish rising near the bank, I changed my location to get close to them.  After sunset, I got first trout. The fish became more active. I got another one, but it fell off the hook. There were also more bites, but I didn't succeeded to hook them properly.  So it was only one fish scored for today.

 Today I have day off on my work. My main goal was a doctor visit in hospital in another town. After hospital, I headed to Raba river. It was very clear water, such water is only in spring. In summer, Raba runs dirty because of silt coming from the dam.   I hit couple of my favorite sports with euro nymphing, and got no bites.  Then I decided to drive home, but to stop on Brzegi quarry.   There was only one man fishing on Brzegi at a time.  The fishing was slow. I started with my Dragontail Hellbender tenkara rod, and streamer.   In the beginning  , there was nothing, But around 16:00, after one hour plus something of fishing, I got a strike.  Short but spectacular fight. It's always adrenaline fight, when using tenkara rod, because it's not forgiving mistakes. But I did it right, and nice 45cm rainbow trout landed in my net. I switched between my rods, alternating between tenkara and Vision Sisu 6wt fly rod, rigged with hopper-drop...

 When fishing on stocked stillwater, I found that small nymphs are the way to go. When rainbow trout freshly stocked, they hit almost anything bright and flashy, including spinning lures and streamers. But when the fish accommodated to the body of water, they became extremely finicky.  Olive nymph on 18 hook is deadly on those lake-dwelling trout.  Despite warm weather , fishing was slow. I caught only one rainbow trout, and lost one. Also I caught small fish called common rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) . It reacts to dry fly pretty good.  They are mostly small fish, but easy target for beginning fly fishermen, especially on stillwater. The rod I mostly use for stillwater fishing is Vision Sisu 6wt, 9'. It's a fast and lightweight rod, good for propelling casts through the wind. It's also capable to throw streamers with 4mm beadheads on sinking line. 

 Yesterday I got new Tenkara rod from Amazon - DragonTail Hellbender. This rod is positioned as "big fish" tenkara rod, capable to handle 45-55 cm trout.  The tippet recommended is 3x. I decided to try it on Brzegi first.  I attached silicon worm nymph size 12 and started to twitch it near the bank.  Suprisingly, I got a fish. It was quite big rainbow trout, 50 cm or so. I remembered from Youtube clips, how to fight fish on tenkara rod. I used side pressure to maintain angle between rod and line. Unfortunately I let the fish move into position when angle became nearly 180 degrees, and fish broke off the tippet with the fly.  It was my first experience of fighting quite big fish on tenkara. I used 5x tippet, too thin for that kind of fish. It deserves 4x or even 3x. I switched to conventional 6wt rd, Vision Sisu. The rig contains big dry fly (hook no. 10), and tiny nymph suspended under it (hook 18 or 20). When the fish bites, dry fly disappears. Sometimes it's a...

 After 1 year break, i'm returning to fishing. I moved to new location, which is very close to Brzegi nr.2 . Brzegi is artificial small lake, a former quarry. It's popular recreational fishery, stocked with rainbow trout . Also other fish present in it: pike, perch, tench and probably something else. But rainbow trout is top of interest for fly fishermen. The lake was recently stocked with trout, but due to very intensive pressure on first week, the fish is very wary and spoiled. They often swim near the banks, but ignore most of the offers, like big nymphs, streamers, on spinning lures.  I found that there's small insects hatching. But they fish do not feed on the surface. They cruising on shallow depth, 10-30 cm from the surface.  I've seen couple of fishermen playing a fish from time to time.  I asked what flies do they use. They responded "dry fly", without specifics.  But I spent two visits without any results, trying to seduce these fish with dry fly....

 Brzegi is artifical lake in the city limits of Kraków, actually a sand quarry converted to fishery. It is regularly stocked with rainbow trout as sports fishery. Recently there was stocking 2 days before, a good sign that trout will be very active. I arrived to the water at 15:00. There were splashes of trout in the middle, far from the bank. First I tried to cast a streamer on sinking line, without ay effects. Then I noticed that trout eating small mayflies. I switched to dry fly line, and attached medium-size CDC mayfly imitation, to match the hatch. After few hits, I hooked first rainbow trout. Not bad start. Fish were actively feeding on mayflies. I had few takes, but fish wasnt hooked reliably. Second one was slightly bigger and nicer.  Stocked fish are all of merely the same size, 35-40 cm. There were also big ones, but they were jumping in the middle of the lake, out of reach of my casting ability. After 16:00 sun started to go dogn. Too early, it looks like today ther...

An Indian summer arrived to Europe. After two weeks of rain, the weather became sunny and warm, with day temperatures up to +24 C. This is usually one of the best seasons for fishing. Unfortunately, trout season in Poland has ended with last day of August. So I booked a 3-day trip to Slovakia. There you can fish for trout for the whole September, and in certain waters - even until December. Of course it means really fishing for rainbow trout and grayling, because brown trout spawning in October and November, and targeting them considered illegal or non-ethical.  At 7AM I arrived to river Vah , to the village Ivachnova. The lady in the convenience story, who also sells fishing licenses, recognised me. Maybe because im fishing in river Vah for 5 years. I got license for Jambor Weir stretch, it considered "grayling" water, but there's diversity of fish species - two types of trout, grayling, barbel, nase, perch, and rarely - Danubian salmon. The river level at Besenova was h...

 Last reports from Raba shown that fish actively taking dry fly. I didn't have a luck with dry fly in this year. April, the best dry fly month, was spoiled my bad weather and snow. My attempts on Dunajec in May were unsuccessful. So Im kind of "dry fly virgin" in this year.  I arrived to the parking, and met couple of fellow fishermen. River is low, 227 cm and 5,74 m3/s. We started to fish slowly moving, flat section of the river. It's often good place for dry fly. After hour or so, I had no takes or nips on my fly. I also didn't see fish rising, despite of caddis flying over the water.  I bored and started to talking over the phone, make videos of my casting, etc, Then I decided to switch gear, and assembled anther fly rod for streamers - Vision Sisu. I rigged it with freshly acquired fly line Vision Hybrid , which is integrated skagit/scandi type line. After 2 or 3rd cast, fish aggressively attacked my streamer.  It was very spirited brown trout, it made a few j...

 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...