Adventures of fly angler in Poland

Dunajec river is familiar to everybody who ever heard of fly fishing in Poland. Special part "OS Dunajec" near the city Krościenko nad Dunajcem is one of the top destinations, known outside of Poland. Recently, second catch and release part opened. This is 5 km long section from bridge in town Gołkowice to the weir near Stary Sącz. Unlike first "OS Dunajec", which is fly fishing only, this section also allows spin fishing. Same regulations as for fly fishermen - artifical lures must have single barbless hooks, or hooks with crushed barbs. PZW (Polish Angling Association ) in Nowy Sącz launched electronic shop for fishing licenses , where it's possible to buy day card, multi-day or other types of licenses. Also, service available in English, which is a big step forward. Previously, it was almost impossible for foreigner to get fishing license in Poland, without assistance of Polish-speaking person. http://zezwolenia.pzwns.info.pl/index.php?krok=zezwoleni...

Surprisingly very warm weather in the end of March. +15 C , plenty of sun. When it concerns fishing, sun isn't best fisherman friend. Fish became spooky, and hides in the shadows, under cutbanks and obstacles. This time I discovered different part of Warta, from the bridge in town Jastrząb. Convenient access road starts from the bridge, and goes along right side of the river. There are few curves with steep cutbanks. The places look "fishy" , but there was no contact. 400 meters from the bridge there is S-shaped curve and two good pools in the corners. First is tricky, because of many snags. Second very suited for fly fishing. But it requires wading in shallow part of the river to make a cast. After S-curve. there's very shallow part of the river, mostly knee-deep and you can see waves of sand on the bottom. Another interesting pool, hidden between trees.  It requires wading to make a cast, but there's shallow water near right bank. There...

There's a geological formation in Poland, called Kraków-Częstochowa Upland , also known as the Polish Jurassic Highland or simply Jura . The term related to Jurassic geologic period. There are a number of rivers that originate from the Jura, among them the Warta, Biała Przemsza, Pilica, Dłubnia, Szreniawa, Prądnik, Wiercica . Jurassic rivers have something in common. In their upper part, they are mostly small streams, 3-15 m in width. Bottom is sandy with patches of gravel.  Access to the water is challenging for fly fisherman. Banks are covered by dense bushes, or forest, and there's a lot of logjams in the stream flow. Warta is one of the longest Polish rivers. It's length is 808 km. But in the upper part it is a typical small trout stream. Before this trip, I investigated access points to the Warta in Google maps. It is not easy task. River is surrounded by dense bushes , and there's a lot of private property around, and no paved roads going to the river, wit...

The goal of this trip was to test my new "micro skagit" setup for small streams. I got an Ego LW4 Glass rod 7'8" 4wt, OPST commando 175 grain, and 4' sink tips (S2 and S3). To the end I attached 6' leader , and tungsten bead streamer. Rudawa is a small river near Kraków, Wisła tributary. There is some brown trout and graylings in it, but river is not very productive.  Bottom is sandy with gravel in some places, and river banks are very steep, so water access isn't very easy. Water was very clear, level at Balice 243 cm, flow 1,8 m3, water temperature 5 C. Quite enough for trout to be active in spring. Beside of the size of the river, there's a lot of deep spots, and good trout holding water. But there was no bites. The setup was quite comfortable on 4wt rod, and I was able to use it for roll cast, single spey, waterborne casts, and occasionally overhead. It looks like a winner for fishing in small (but deep) rivers, where it's requir...

Recently I received my new single hand streamer setup. I ordered OPST Commando 175 grain skagit head, and two sinking tips (S2 and S4). It perfectly matched my Hardy classic lightweight 4wt 8'6" rod. The reel I took Loop Classic 5-8, a bit heavyweight for such rod. But it was the only one reel with running (OPST Lazar 25lb), so I rigged it all together, and tested for streamer fishing on Raba. Raba was very low, 232 cm and flow 6,1 m3/s. Water temperature near +3 C, air temperature was +8 early in the morning, +15 C in the middle of the day. I assembled my tackle - OPST 175 gr head,  S4 sink tip, and 5' fluorocarbon leader.  First fly I used, was black zonker, without success. Despite nice weather, fish didn't bite. I met few other fishermen , but they also had nothing. Later, near 10:30, I got one bite on black wooly bugger with orange head. Fish took the streamer very aggressively, jumped in the air, and self-released from the hook. T...

Today is Epiphany - Christian holiday, known as Święto Trzech Króli (Holiday of Three Kings) in Poland. So why not celebrate it on the water, and catch something?  Weather was warm, cloudy sky, air temperature +8 +10 C.  Water level 246 cm, flow 9,8 m3/s. Water temperature +4 C. Fishing usually very slow in January, I didn't expect that I will catch something decent. But Gods of nature made me a present. First fish was this nice brown trout, which jumped two times, and landed in my big net. I measured it as 45 cm, that's quite a success! It took "parkinson" nymph. I tried red tag and freshly tied wet fly, with no success. Shortly after , I got second fish. It was smaller, but even more active. It jumped 4 or 5 times, before I netted that wild beauty. 34 cm, which also not bad. Same pink parkinson nymph. I tried wet fly on floating/sinking shoorint head (Zpey FSS), without success.  But, casting small spey rod for trout is a pleasu...

Nice weather called me for fishing on Raba again. Air temperature was +8 C in the middle of the way, water temp. +4 C, level 246 cm, flow 9,8 m3/sec. Very good conditions for winter fishing, plenty of sun and very clear water. Shortly once I started with nymphing, I got a fish on. It was a strong fish, probably rainbow trout. I played it with caution, but it came off after 1 minute of fight. What a disaster! I probed all deep spots, changing flies, there were no other bites. I moved upstream to fast, waist-deep run with few large stones, breaking the current. Far side of the river has softer water. I worked through current seam, without any success. Then I changed tactics. I cast 45 degrees downstream, and let it swing on the tight line, as people do with wet flies and streamers. Cast - two steps down - cast. Whoooa!!!! I got a fish! Nice , silvery trout, strong fish. It was hard to pull the fish against the current, so I decided to run downstream, outrun the fis...