Adventures of fly angler in Poland

 On the second day of Ukrainian's trip, I brough them to my favorite place, pool near Park Linovy. I fished in the lower part of the pool , and Ivan on the upper part. We both used Czech nymph method. Soon, Ivan got his rod bent. That was a nice brown trout.  Many of them in this river. I fished double nymph setup. Nice size fish took my fly. Wow, that's a big one!   Ivan asked if I need help with landing net. No, thanks, I can do myself.  Soon, brown was landed and released. It took upper nymph, small orange scud imitation.  Look at that big head, that's a cock fish. I moved downstream, below the rapids. Anatoly was fishing there, with nymph too. I joined him and got one grayling.  After lunch me moved to the "wall" pool. And there pure dry fly action started! I pulled fish one by one, my friends too. I fished in the tailout of the pool, where it gradually changes to riffle. There's a lot of fish there, when hatch is going on. I think it was the best ...

In the beginning of April, group of Ukrainian fly fishermen arrived to Dunajec for couple of days. Igor, Anatoly and Ivan arrived by car early in the morning. We met near the river on the Second wall pool. So, the fishing party started. Below the "wall", there's wide knee-deep riffle, which is easiest place to cross the river to the other side. I started to fish with nymph, carefully inspecting pocketwater between the boulders. I caught few brown trout. The other surprise was a chub on dry fly. I very rarely catched chubs on Dunajes, at least in this section. More chubs is in lower Dunajec, 20 km downstream from here. One of my friends caught grayling.  Also nice addition to the catch card. Fishing was with moderate success. In the middle of the day, we made a lunch break. After lunch, we moved to one nice place, which Ivan recommented to try. But no fish were caught there. The guys were tired, so we ended fishing early and went to hotel.  

 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...