Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 It's getting warmer in the end of Match, and first mayflies starting to emerge.   This my trip was fully dedicated to dry fly fishing. I started in the place, called "Second wall". Here I crossed the river to the other side.  Trout were taking dry fly very good on the whole pool near the wall. I reached the island upstream from the wall.  Here's possible to cross the river upstream and downstream from the island. There I caught few fish on streamer too. But main attraction was dry fly. I fished approximately till 15.00, then fishing gradually declined. Here is the fly I used most of the time - big CDC mayfly imitation in grey color. 

After great season start, I skipped almost a month of fishing on Dunajec. There was cold temperatures and fruitless days. My last visit was 28.02.2019, in the last official day of winter. I met with Wojtek Kudłacz, the guide from Krościenko. We were sitting on the wall and watching the river. Nobody caught nothing, no even single bite. This time, conditions were similar, but a little bit more sun. I didn't expect some great fishing, but I wanted to try.  There was almost no fishermen in the river. Only Wojtek, who probably spends 365 days on the water in any weather.  First, I started fishing near "First wall". There was nothing there. Then I moved to second wall. I attached white zonker, and fished just from the wall itself. It's tricky, because you have no space behind. I used "skagit" type of line, and roll cast diagonally, then stripped my fly along the wall. After some unsuccessful attempts, I got fish. It was quite big trout.  It was im...

Beginning of the season on Dunajec is unpredictable. It can be a good fishing, or can be zero results in the whole day. It's all depends from water temperatures. There was no snow in the mountains in Krościenko nad Dunajcem. Only patches of ice along the river edges.  I arrived early to the place, called "Second wall". This place is usually crowded. It also allows fishing from the wall, without wading in the ice-cold water, which is a benefit in the winter. But casting possibilities are limited. I preferred more traditional fly casting, from the water. I crossed the river, and fished from the opposite side from the wall. The gear I used was Hardy Marksman II 10' 7wt rod, Airflo Streamer Max line, and black woolky bugger on the end. Soon, I got brown trout.  Not big, but never the less. There were more fish takes, and more small trouts.  But one catch really surprised me. It was a big fish, silvery, with bright red fins.  Chub, ide?  I inspe...

I planned this visit to San in December, to fish for Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho). This big predator is more feeding more actively in coldest time of year, so December is the right time to catch it. We teamed up with Piotr Michna, the guide, but he wasn't guiding on this trip, just fishing. Unfortunately, the trip started with road incident.  Somewhere near Rzeszów, I had a small collision with truck. We waited for police, and lost two hours to fill all papers.  It was my fault, as police concluded, and I got in addition 500 PLN ticket for traffic violation. That sucks! So, beginning of the trip was spoiled. And when we arrived to the river, it was already crowded . Someone caught Hucho.  The fish which could be mine. I was s frustrated. In the meantime, we started fishing with nymphs. I caught one small brown trout, and one big lost.  I almost brought it to hand, but fish slipped out of landing net and released from the hook. In the meantime, the...

Unusually hot summer in 2015 caused many rivers to run low. Białka almost had no water. I wanted to repeat my previous success, which was in June. Unfortunately , river looked so different. The holes I used to catch fish in, were too small to hold something. I caught few small trouts. But I walked quite a long foot distance to find them. I walked to natural reserve area. There's a deep pool with awesome turquise colored water. Unfortunately, cannot fish there. I think , all trout now in this pool. The river was twice wider, when I met it first time in June. I tried other spots. Fishing wasn't good. When I returned to my car, I also tried spots near the road bridge. I decided to leave. But before that, I said to myself - let's try last time, only two casts into that hole. White rapid water between the boulders. I throw heavy nymph, and immediately fish grabs it. Yeees, what a trout! Big one. 40 cm or so. Never seen such big fish in Białka. I...

San is the most famous fly fishing river in Poland. It's about 260 km from me, or 5 hours of driving. So it make sense only for 2-days trip or more. I went there without prior knowledge. When I arrived to the rver, I found it's very-very shallow. The average depth was 30-50 cm. Also, it was middle of very hot summer, with temperatures up to +36 C. I got a license and went to the river. It was hard to find approach from road. I parked my car in the pocked, and descended from steep cliff. There was small river enterin San. it's called Hoczewka. The river was wide and flat. Somewhat similar to Dunajec, but much more shallower, and boring. I wasn't impressed. I fished the long riffle, down to Hoczewka mouth. I caught 3 or 4 small trouts there, one rainbow and few browns. Nothing special. Mostly I used small wooly bugger on floating line, with long mono leader. Just swinging it downstream, no stripping. Also, I tried wet fly. There's a small island, ...

Since I got familiar with Dunajec, I started to visit it quite often. Particularly, I stuck to area near adventure park in Krościenko nad Dunajcem, because it's easy to reach, and you can fish both sides of the river. There's couple of places, where oit's possible to wade across to the opposite side. First, I started with nymphs. I had some success, but fish weren't big. I explored area near the bank, just under adventure park. There's a high bank with trees and bushes. It's only possible to fish from the middle of the river. I threw heaviest nymph to the rapids, just below big boulder. Oh, fish! Nice trout, bigger than my usual catch. Now I know where to search for bigger ones. They are sitting under whitewater, below the rapids.  But it's only possible with very heavy nymph, to reach the bottom in plunge pools. Here is that nymph, on the right. I got one more fish in the rapids with similar way. Next time, I decided to switch to st...