Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Last few days I'm participating in international orienteering competition Wawel Cup. Competitions are held around city Olkusz. There is river Biała Przemsza nearby, which I wanted to visit. The river is surrounded by dense forest in most of it's length, and access is challenged. First time there, I lost lots of flies on the trees, but got only one fish bite. For now, I visited another place, near the bridge. There is convenient parking spot, where I left my car. River bottom is mostly composed from sand, sometimes mixed with clay. Water is quite clear, but it's easily become turbid, if sand bottom is disturbed by walking. I started with Czech nymphing, snagged few times and lost couple of flies.  Some older man with spinning gear appeared on the bank. He said greetings and moved upstream from me. I saw fish rise couple of times, and decided to try with dry fly. There was no hatch, but in such small rivers, fish usually see everything on the surface, an...

On the next day, 16.06, we planned to visit river Vah above Bela junction. But, our guide Michal checked the last fishing reports and concluded that there are low numbers of fish in upper Vah, and suggested to change plan. So we went to Bela again, but to explore different part of it, above Chateau GrandCastle historical castle and restaurant in Liptovski Hradok. This river section is different in character. It is very fast, with lots of rapids, and not so many fishable water. So it's supposed to be more walking and searching for spots. But, walking also part of the fishing. We started just near the castle, above the highway bridge. There are lot of rapids, and between them, nice stretch of shallow and more calm flow. Typical grayling water. Igor caught the first fish, again. Nice size grayling! I and Michal had no strikes. We decided to go further upstream, and walked almost 1,5 km via old forest road, to the village Dovalovo. River is even more wild and hard to wad...

On Friday 16.05 I left hotel on Dunajec river, and set the course to the city Liptovský Mikuláš in Slovakia. It was 124 km and 1 hour 45 min to drive on twisty Slovakian roads. I passed cities Slovenska Wies, Spisska Bela, Kezmarok and Poprad. Shortly before Poprad, I stopped at the gas station to buy toll vignette - right to use Slovakian toll express roads. It costs 10 Euro for 10 days (minimal price). From Poprad to Liptovsky Mikulas there is excellent motorway(freeway) E50 with speed limit 130km/h, so the final leg of the route I passed in 30 minutes. In Liptovsky Mikulas we met with Igor, my old friend from Ukraine, and Michal, Slovakian guide who arranged for us program of the fishing.  First, we need to get the license. To fish in Slovakian waters , you need statewide license (Rybársky lístok) , and license for particular body of water (Rybárske povolenie). I already have state license for one year, it cost 7 euro for year. Daily license for foreigners or non-mem...

We had a 4 days long holidays, because 15 of June is Corpus Christi, state holiday in Poland (Bożego Ciała) . Since it is Thursday, I took Friday as additional day off, and planned a fishing trip to Slovakia, with stops in Poland. Nearly before this trip, I got my new wading boots, Simms G3 Guide with rubber. So, this trip also served as field test for them. My first stop was Dunajec river in Tyłmanowa. Early in the morning I fished spot near Maria Ligas hotel. This is a very prospective place for streamer and nymph. Water was a bit colored after rain. Water level 196 cm, temperature 11.4 C. First I started with two Czech nymph rig, and got nice trout. Not big, average size for Dunajec. Later I switched to my streamer rod, Winston THiii-MS, loaded with Airflo Streamer Switch 300 grain line. I attached black wooly bugger. I started from the head of the pool, and immediately got nice brown trout. Trout on a spey rod is always a greatest pleasure for me. So ...