Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 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 ...

Biały Dunajec is kind of "cursed" river for me.  I was 3 times on it, all in 2016. Two times I caught nothing, or only one small fish. On the 3rd visit to this river I tripped on slippery rock, and broke my rod in halves.  This time I had information from friend that there's plenty of rainbow trout in this river this year. I had a high hopes for it. Now, I fished it exclusively with tenkara rod, because this stream is ideal for it.  I woke up at 2:30, prepared coffee and sandwitches, and headed to Nowy Targ. No traffic during early hours. I reached destination earlier than planned, in 1 hour 20 min.  It was too early the sunrise is at 5:00. I spent time on gas station, drinking coffee and eating.  At 5:15 I arrived to the river. My first stop was a river section in Biały Dunajec town. It has chain of rapids and small waterfalls, with deep pools and pockets below the rapids. Apart of such places where the smooth flow is broken by rock formations, the river is ver...

 On Saturday I decided to investigate another part of the river Czarny Dunajec.  I used Google maps satellite photos, to locate where are cascades of rapids and waterfalls on the river.  I picked Witów, farther upstream from Chocholów.   I parked car on the country road, and broke through dense forest and bushes to the river.  The first place I found, was beautiful green pool with calm surface and moderate current. There must be a fish in there! I used Daiwa Expert LT36 tenkara rod, rigged with two wet flies , as usually: sakasa kebari and north country spider.  Few drifts through the pool didn't produce bites. I changed one of the flies to small brown nymph, and got a fish. That was a nice grayling. They are rare in Poland nowadays, and I'm glad to see the population survived in this stream. Everybody loves their big sail-like dorsal fin. When the green pool was exhausted and didn't produce more fish, I moved upstream.  This is the place for heav...

13-14 July we have first tenkara festival in Poland. It was long-awaited event for enthusiasts of this very niche kind of sport.   I took short vacation, to fish 4 days continiuosly from Friday to Monday.  I woke up at 3:00 and drove my car to Dunajec river. There was heavy rain recently , and Dunajec was dirty.   I drove to another river, Białka Tatrzańska, it's about 45 km from the first river.  The river looked OK, but I decided not to fish it, but headed to Czarny Dunajec.  Maybe next time? Białka Tatrzańska in Trybsz at 222 cm and 6,8 m3/s flow.  Another 40 km or so, and I arrived to Chocholów, a town in the headwaters of the river Czarny Dunajec.  This is very upper part of the river, close to the national park. The water usually clean there, even after rain. River level was 136 cm and the flow 3,1 m3/s at Koniówka. This flow is medium-low.  This river part is characterised by cascades of rapids, small plunge pools, and shallow fla...

 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...

 First time in this year I came to Dunajec river.  The river was low and clear, 191 cm and 31,1 m3/s in Krościenko nad Dunajcem. I arrived to the river at 5:00 in the morning.  The first location I tried was the end of Dunajec special C&R section in Ochotnica.  It was good in previous year during higher water level. We caught few big trout just under the bank.  But , during low water this place changed. I think fish located to the middle of the river. I had couple of small trout on streamer. Nothing special. Moved to Krościenko nad Dunajcem, to the stretch between new foot bridge and first wall. New footbridge created great opportunity to fish both sides of the river. Actually, you can cross the river in wading boots too, but it can be dangerous, because of swift current and very slippery rocks in this area. I fished the hole below the bridge with my trout spey rod multiple times. I rigged it with brown zonker on the end, and wet fly (Irish wingless style) o...