Vah, Rainbow happiness in September
Strong arguments for Vah river - top notch trout fishery.
Main point of interest is rainbow trout, but also there's abundant brown trout and grayling. All species of fish can grow big for local conditions, so I call it "river of big fish". There's a chance to catch trout of a lifetime. Most of fish are in range 40-60 cm, but there are 70+ specimens for sure
Saturday, 8 September. Conditions were perfect. Warm day, but not too hot, +16 +20 C. Water level 48 cm, temperature + 16 C. River was low and clear.
I arrived to Krcma Rybarska in Ivachnova at 7.00 and bought a license for Vah C&R section in Besenova. There was nobody at the river this time.
I started with two nymphs on Czech nymph rig. Anchor fly was heavy scud imitation, and top fly was small olive fly on hook nr 16 and 2,5 mm head. I don't have name for it, that's my own recipe.
Soon after 3rd or 4th cast, I got a fish! Strong rainbow trout. I netted it carefully and released.
Soon after, I got second one. Almost immediately. This rainbow was brighter, with red cheeks and golden body.
There's deep hole near the bridge. Previously I didnt have any bites here. But now, I was lucky.
Also, there is possible to catch Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho) in this hole. This summer there was an account of one Hucho caught on streamer. But that's rare luck.
There was more and more trout. All were biting on small fly on the dropper.
I lost few flies , when snagged on the bottom. There's kind of "rock garden" in this pool, and if I let the fly sink deep, it snags. So, safe technique here is to swing nymphs in suspended state, without touching the bottom.
After another snag, I tied in new anchor fly, olive scud with orange accent. Now it was a bigger fish. It was so strong, so I ran downstream to pick up spooled out fly line.
I netted it almost near the bridge. What a beautiful creature!
I caught 6 or 7 fish in a row in this place. Looks like hole was exhausted. In the meantime, a group of Czech fishermen arrived. I decided to leave this hole for them, and went to other place.
My next place was "Lekaren" (so-called drugstore pool). That's very deep pool with slower current in the bottom part. It was top producer in previous year. But now, I spent a hour without any bites.
Only when I changed anchor fly to "Parkinson" nymph, I got average brown trout. It fought hard, and jumped few times.
There was another fisherman upstream from me, and he had long fight with some tough fish. Once he moved downstream, I changed places with him. I reached the deepest part of the pool, after the rapids, where river makes turn.
This place was also good last year. I got my biggest grayling , 45 cm, in one of my previous trips.
Now, in the middle of the day, fish wasn't so active. Suddenly, I got a strike, so hard, almost rod pulled out of my hand. Fish made few jumps. I thought it was a brown trout. Whaaat? That's grayling, 40 cm grayling. I didn't expect such behavior from them. Graylings often have soft and subtle take. But this one pulled as trout.
I love graylings too, so good to have diversity during fishing session.
Another fish, another fight. Now, very nice rainbow with golden body.
Fishing was slow , compared to early morning. I returned to the first hole, near the white bridge. But now, I decided to swing my fly from the other side. It required some waist-deep wading.
Here, I got two fish in short period.
In the meantime, it was 14:00. Time for late lunch, or early dinner. I drove to Koliba Besenovka, a popular restaurant near the river. There was many people, but I was served quickly.
A small rain passed, while I was eating.
After break, I tried to fish with streamer under the bridge near hotel Summit. There's very deep hole , and it holds many big fish for sure. But it's very hard place to cast. I got no reaction here.
I walked down to the island. which is 800 m below the restaurant. This part of the river has nice pools and runs, separated by shallow riffles.
Right side from the bridge is very deep, and hard to fish in, because it requires waist-deep wading or even higher. But left side is more easy.
There were few fishermen around. Presumably, fishing wet flies.
Upstream from the bridge, there's couple of nice pools with fast currents.
I started in the head of the pool, and fish immediately grabbed the fly. It was a big fish, and it spooled out my line in a seconds. I ran along the bank, in knee-deep water, to stop it. Only 50 meters below, after hard and long fight, I netted this big trout. 56 cm or so. Very beautiful fish.
The fish was also exhausted, and swam away slowly.
There was other fishermen too, but I wouldn't say it was too crowded. There was place for everybody.
Another run, and I got once more. This was smaller rainbow, but also very strong.
I got 14 or 15 fish for the whole day. It was the best result from all my trips to Vah. I'm so excited about quality of the fishing there, so planning more trips to Slovakia soon. Besenova section open for fishing till the end of September. Another couple of trips, and it's over.
Main point of interest is rainbow trout, but also there's abundant brown trout and grayling. All species of fish can grow big for local conditions, so I call it "river of big fish". There's a chance to catch trout of a lifetime. Most of fish are in range 40-60 cm, but there are 70+ specimens for sure
Saturday, 8 September. Conditions were perfect. Warm day, but not too hot, +16 +20 C. Water level 48 cm, temperature + 16 C. River was low and clear.
I arrived to Krcma Rybarska in Ivachnova at 7.00 and bought a license for Vah C&R section in Besenova. There was nobody at the river this time.
I started with two nymphs on Czech nymph rig. Anchor fly was heavy scud imitation, and top fly was small olive fly on hook nr 16 and 2,5 mm head. I don't have name for it, that's my own recipe.
Soon after 3rd or 4th cast, I got a fish! Strong rainbow trout. I netted it carefully and released.
Soon after, I got second one. Almost immediately. This rainbow was brighter, with red cheeks and golden body.
There's deep hole near the bridge. Previously I didnt have any bites here. But now, I was lucky.
Also, there is possible to catch Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho) in this hole. This summer there was an account of one Hucho caught on streamer. But that's rare luck.
There was more and more trout. All were biting on small fly on the dropper.
I lost few flies , when snagged on the bottom. There's kind of "rock garden" in this pool, and if I let the fly sink deep, it snags. So, safe technique here is to swing nymphs in suspended state, without touching the bottom.
After another snag, I tied in new anchor fly, olive scud with orange accent. Now it was a bigger fish. It was so strong, so I ran downstream to pick up spooled out fly line.
I netted it almost near the bridge. What a beautiful creature!
I caught 6 or 7 fish in a row in this place. Looks like hole was exhausted. In the meantime, a group of Czech fishermen arrived. I decided to leave this hole for them, and went to other place.
My next place was "Lekaren" (so-called drugstore pool). That's very deep pool with slower current in the bottom part. It was top producer in previous year. But now, I spent a hour without any bites.
Only when I changed anchor fly to "Parkinson" nymph, I got average brown trout. It fought hard, and jumped few times.
There was another fisherman upstream from me, and he had long fight with some tough fish. Once he moved downstream, I changed places with him. I reached the deepest part of the pool, after the rapids, where river makes turn.
This place was also good last year. I got my biggest grayling , 45 cm, in one of my previous trips.
Now, in the middle of the day, fish wasn't so active. Suddenly, I got a strike, so hard, almost rod pulled out of my hand. Fish made few jumps. I thought it was a brown trout. Whaaat? That's grayling, 40 cm grayling. I didn't expect such behavior from them. Graylings often have soft and subtle take. But this one pulled as trout.
I love graylings too, so good to have diversity during fishing session.
Another fish, another fight. Now, very nice rainbow with golden body.
Fishing was slow , compared to early morning. I returned to the first hole, near the white bridge. But now, I decided to swing my fly from the other side. It required some waist-deep wading.
Here, I got two fish in short period.
In the meantime, it was 14:00. Time for late lunch, or early dinner. I drove to Koliba Besenovka, a popular restaurant near the river. There was many people, but I was served quickly.
A small rain passed, while I was eating.
After break, I tried to fish with streamer under the bridge near hotel Summit. There's very deep hole , and it holds many big fish for sure. But it's very hard place to cast. I got no reaction here.
I walked down to the island. which is 800 m below the restaurant. This part of the river has nice pools and runs, separated by shallow riffles.
Right side from the bridge is very deep, and hard to fish in, because it requires waist-deep wading or even higher. But left side is more easy.
There were few fishermen around. Presumably, fishing wet flies.
Upstream from the bridge, there's couple of nice pools with fast currents.
I started in the head of the pool, and fish immediately grabbed the fly. It was a big fish, and it spooled out my line in a seconds. I ran along the bank, in knee-deep water, to stop it. Only 50 meters below, after hard and long fight, I netted this big trout. 56 cm or so. Very beautiful fish.
The fish was also exhausted, and swam away slowly.
There was other fishermen too, but I wouldn't say it was too crowded. There was place for everybody.
Another run, and I got once more. This was smaller rainbow, but also very strong.
I got 14 or 15 fish for the whole day. It was the best result from all my trips to Vah. I'm so excited about quality of the fishing there, so planning more trips to Slovakia soon. Besenova section open for fishing till the end of September. Another couple of trips, and it's over.
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