Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 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...

 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...

It was 3rd of June, Corpus Christi holiday.  I woke up at 3:00, loaded into the car at 3:10 and arrived to Tylmanowa at 4:15. This is my personal speed record , 93 km for 1 h 10 min with average speed 89km/h.   The river dropped to 204 cm, with flow 45m3/s and temperature +10 C.   I started at the same place, where I got big trout in my previous visit. The story about it is here: https://polishflyangler.blogspot.com/2021/05/pb-brown-trout-of-this-year.html But, due to low water, there were less fish in this place.  I caught 2-3 small trout, nothing really exiting.  Moved to other place, near sawmill. It's the same place, where we had guiding trip with Wojtek and Jaroslav two weeks ago.  I fished the place, where I hooked and lost nase (świnka or pigfish in Polish). It's a waist-deep run with moderate speed, and a lot of rocks on the bottom. I'd call that "boulder garden". It's tricky to fish because of many potential snags.  Soon, I got a big...

This season has not pleased me with big fish yet. In my previous trip, I lost 3 big fish due to negligent handling.  Weather report promised mix of sun and clouds in the morning, and rain in the second half of day. I woke up at 3:15,  loaded my stuff into the car, and headed to Tylmanowa village on the Dunajec river.  At 5:20 I dressed up in waders and started to fish. The river was a bit high , 216 cm and 63m3/s. The small trail between concrete wall and the river was under the water. Water was turbid, but not opaque, with 70-80 cm clarity.  High water means that fish can move from main current to the areas close to the bank, which often has quieter water.  I started with euro nymphing rig, pink silicone worm nymph on the bottom, and small brown one with orange head on the dropper.  Fish were very active. Immediately I caught 3 or 4 small brown trout.  It is good start, but I had a hope for something bigger.  And it's happened.   Immedi...

Last reports from Skawa river were good. Recently there were major mayfly hatches, and many trout were caught on dry fly.  I headed to Skawa on Sunday, expecting mayfly madness.   But something was wrong.  Fish didn't bite since early morning on anything. I I started with streamer. Fished deep and fast channel couple of times. No luck. Then I noticed insects started to hatch. I switched to wet fly imitating emerger.  Also, no bites. I didn't see any fish rolling under the surface and eating these insects.  Something broken int he nature. So many food, but fish don't want to eat it.   I checked river monitoring station.  It happened that river level raised from 112cm to 132 cm in a day, and flow increased more than twice ( 6,60m3/s vs 14,4 m3/s). Water was very clear. But, the dam discharged some water day before. Maybe that water from reservoir is colder, and temperature in the river dropped, what else? Somehow it spoiled fish feeding mood....

Warm days offer great possibilities for fly fishing. I checked weather forecast, and took day off in the middle of the week to go to Dunajec river.  Air temperature was +15 C, sunny. Dunajec level at Krościenko 197 cm, 36,9 m3/s and temperature + 6 C. At Gołkowice 175 cm and 42,8 m3/s respectively. When I arrived to the river, I noticed that I forgot fly box with streamers at home. I had two rods with me: T&T Contact II for Euro nymphing and Winston Biii TH-MS for trout spey. But I didn't have proper flies for it. I called to Wojtek, local guide in Krościenko, who runs a fly shop near the river.  I bought assorted streamers: natural brown zonkers, black and white woolybuggers.   First spot I tried was Park Linowy. There's new footbridge erected, but still not finished.  I attached natural brown zonker and started to swing it down and across. It was attacked by fish on every cast!  Fish were small brown trout, 22-25 cm. Probabyl stocked recently in big q...