Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Wisła is biggest Polish river, but now it is in very low level. The level at Czernichów is 129 cm, flow 11 m3/s.  At this stretch, Wisła carries only half of water, because part of the river diverted to artifical channel Lączany for powerplant cooling and other technical needs. It sounds like blasphemy in the fly fishing blog, but I took only ultralight spinning gear with me. I didn't use spinning for a long time, being so excited with fly fishing.  But, trout streams are out of rich till 31th of January due to spawning protection. And on lowland rivers, fly fishing is not so good in winter. So I packed a box with new shiny wobblers and small jig heads. I came to the area, where island divides river to left and right arm. Left side is deeper and carries more water. The water in the right arm was so low, so I easily crossed it to the island. Left arm has some deepest pools in this area. Good for jigging. Don't know what fish can be there, possibly zander, perch, chu...

Chubs are excellent opportunity for fly fishing in warm water rivers of Europe, where trout do not live. They are eager to take almost any fly, but the most exciting is dry fly method with big terrestrial imitations. Foam beetles and grasshoppers can be very successful in the summertime, especially in warmest days. We with friend explored lower portions of the river Skawa. This section looked awesome, with many fallen trees, riffles and pocketwater.  The river was low, 115 cm at Wadowice and flow 8 m3/s. It looks like a chub paradise. They love to hide under obstacles, and attack any insect swimming by. But, to our disappointment, there were no takes. What's happened with this river? Where is the fish? We don't know :-( No bites on foam beetle. Neither on Czech nymph in the deep holes. We drove another 20 km to Wisła.  Vistula, or Wisła, is a big river. But I found the place, where is big shallow riffle.  It looks like a good place for fly fishing.  ...

Wisła is the biggest and longest Polish river. With it's wideness, depth and slow flow it's considered not fly fishing friendly. But, there are interesting spots near Kraków, where's river is shallow enough for wading, and there are some riffles and fast runs too. My goal was to find a place for practicing double hand rod. If there's fish , it would be nice to catch something too. In this particular place, there's island in the middle. During low water (181 cm , 32 m3/s) it's possible to cross from right bank to the island. Good access for fishing left side channel is from the island. There's fast water near the left bank (cliff), and deeper and slow hole near the island. I tried my freshly tied streamers without success. There's a fish called Asp (Aspius aspius), predatory fish of carp family. It's unofficially called "Polish tarpon". This is an active predator, which feeds on small fish in the topwater, chasing it ...