Vah , Urban fishing in Ružomberok
Last Saturday I visited Catch-and-release fishery on river Vah in the city Ružomberok, Slovakia
This part of the river located in city limits. It starts from Jambor weir, and ends in the city center near railway and bus station. Water level was 53 cm , pretty low and easy for wading. Water temperature +13 C, air +17 C. Unusually warm day for middle of October.
Fish species living there are grayling, rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, common barbel (Barbus barbus), common nase (Chondrostoma nasus) and perch. So much of diversity, huh?
My biggest wish was to catch rainbow trout on streamer. I started from the weir, and moved downstream, covering water as much as possible.
I stopped near rapids, to fish it more thoroughly, as I supposed there should be a decent fish hiding under that broken surface.
I tied pretty nice zonkers. But, trout was not cooperative.
Near the bank, there were many perches. They attacked my streamers on every cast.
Not really a fish I wanted to catch, but better than nothing.
Below rapids, river gets more shallow and offers plenty of fast riffles.
I fed my streamer through riffle, and got fish. Finally, trout? No, grayling! What a surprise, grayling on streamer.
Fish took purple woolybugger with pink head.
I walked to the bridge. There were more nice places, but I got no fish. So, I returned back to the weir.
On the way back, I noticed figure of man. Looks like fishing inspector (game warden) watching for anglers. Whaat, that's a scarecrow!
I also saw a police arrived tot he fishing spot. They charged anglers, who were fishing in forbidden water. Currently, fishing is allowed only downstream from the weir, not upstream. They didn't know or they were cheating.
In the meantime, river gets more and more crowded with anglers.
I changed gear to my Czech nymphing rod 11' 3wt.
First I probed deep hole under the weir. There is a lot of fish near concrete wall. Many of them are quite big nases (40-50 cm) , they are feeding on detritus covering the stones and walls.
I tried to seduce them with San Juan warm, but they ignored the offering.
Instead, I got small barbel on micronymph. Big barbels are prize fish for fly angler. But this one wasn't a trophy.
Notice long snout and 2 pairs of thick barbels around the mouth
I never caught such fish before. Looks very funny with such a long nose.
Then I got rainbow on the San Juan worm
But it's all was not what I really wanted.
I attached small brown micronymph to the dropper, and olive scud imitation as anchor fly. I made a cast to the turbulent rapids . On second cast, I got a fish. Nice fish, rainbow for sure.
After some fight, I brought fish to the shallow water and prepared my net. Unfortunately, I missed to grab the fish, second fly snagged the mesh on the net, and fish gone.... with my fly. Fuuu...ck!!!!
That rainbow took micronymph.
I attached another micro, and made another cast to the same spot. Woooaah, what a fish! Big one!
Another fight, screaming reel... and silence! Oh kurwa! I lost it. No fly :-(
Now it took scud nymph. I had only one fly of that kind in my box. I tried with another scud nymph,
and I got another powerful take. that fish was hotter and stronger, and when it jumped, I saw bright pink stripe. Rainbow! Big, badass rainbow, almost like a steelhead!
I prepared for longer fight, released reel brake, fish ran downstream and.... fuck, tension released.
I was shocked ... three fish, good rainbows, in the same spot. I blamed on too thin leader, it was made from 0,14 mm fluorocarbon.
I changed it to 0,18 mm. There were no more scuds in my fly box. These flies were experimental, so I made only two. I wasn't sure fish will like it, so they were never used before. Should I know this fly will be a winner, I'd make more.
I attached another nymphs, but fish didn't bite.
Also, I noticed some big caddis hatched. Maybe fish will take dry fly. But I was so tired, so I ended my fishing and drove to home.
Beside of triple disaster, it was a great fight, and I have a wish to return to that river, and catch fish of my dreams - biggest ever rainbow trout.
This part of the river located in city limits. It starts from Jambor weir, and ends in the city center near railway and bus station. Water level was 53 cm , pretty low and easy for wading. Water temperature +13 C, air +17 C. Unusually warm day for middle of October.
Fish species living there are grayling, rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, common barbel (Barbus barbus), common nase (Chondrostoma nasus) and perch. So much of diversity, huh?
My biggest wish was to catch rainbow trout on streamer. I started from the weir, and moved downstream, covering water as much as possible.
I stopped near rapids, to fish it more thoroughly, as I supposed there should be a decent fish hiding under that broken surface.
I tied pretty nice zonkers. But, trout was not cooperative.
Near the bank, there were many perches. They attacked my streamers on every cast.
Not really a fish I wanted to catch, but better than nothing.
Below rapids, river gets more shallow and offers plenty of fast riffles.
I fed my streamer through riffle, and got fish. Finally, trout? No, grayling! What a surprise, grayling on streamer.
Fish took purple woolybugger with pink head.
I walked to the bridge. There were more nice places, but I got no fish. So, I returned back to the weir.
On the way back, I noticed figure of man. Looks like fishing inspector (game warden) watching for anglers. Whaat, that's a scarecrow!
I also saw a police arrived tot he fishing spot. They charged anglers, who were fishing in forbidden water. Currently, fishing is allowed only downstream from the weir, not upstream. They didn't know or they were cheating.
In the meantime, river gets more and more crowded with anglers.
I changed gear to my Czech nymphing rod 11' 3wt.
First I probed deep hole under the weir. There is a lot of fish near concrete wall. Many of them are quite big nases (40-50 cm) , they are feeding on detritus covering the stones and walls.
I tried to seduce them with San Juan warm, but they ignored the offering.
Instead, I got small barbel on micronymph. Big barbels are prize fish for fly angler. But this one wasn't a trophy.
Notice long snout and 2 pairs of thick barbels around the mouth
I never caught such fish before. Looks very funny with such a long nose.
Then I got rainbow on the San Juan worm
But it's all was not what I really wanted.
I attached small brown micronymph to the dropper, and olive scud imitation as anchor fly. I made a cast to the turbulent rapids . On second cast, I got a fish. Nice fish, rainbow for sure.
After some fight, I brought fish to the shallow water and prepared my net. Unfortunately, I missed to grab the fish, second fly snagged the mesh on the net, and fish gone.... with my fly. Fuuu...ck!!!!
That rainbow took micronymph.
I attached another micro, and made another cast to the same spot. Woooaah, what a fish! Big one!
Another fight, screaming reel... and silence! Oh kurwa! I lost it. No fly :-(
Now it took scud nymph. I had only one fly of that kind in my box. I tried with another scud nymph,
and I got another powerful take. that fish was hotter and stronger, and when it jumped, I saw bright pink stripe. Rainbow! Big, badass rainbow, almost like a steelhead!
I prepared for longer fight, released reel brake, fish ran downstream and.... fuck, tension released.
I was shocked ... three fish, good rainbows, in the same spot. I blamed on too thin leader, it was made from 0,14 mm fluorocarbon.
I changed it to 0,18 mm. There were no more scuds in my fly box. These flies were experimental, so I made only two. I wasn't sure fish will like it, so they were never used before. Should I know this fly will be a winner, I'd make more.
I attached another nymphs, but fish didn't bite.
Also, I noticed some big caddis hatched. Maybe fish will take dry fly. But I was so tired, so I ended my fishing and drove to home.
Beside of triple disaster, it was a great fight, and I have a wish to return to that river, and catch fish of my dreams - biggest ever rainbow trout.
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