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Jan'07 Feb'07 Mar'07 Apr'07 May'07 Jun'07Jul'07 Aug'07 Sep'07 Oct'07 Nov'07 Dec'07 |
| we've moved the reports here; |
| December 31, 2007 |
Temperature falls down every hour, to achieve less than minus 20 at night. Well this year's river report is over. We started it with some cold weather and so we end it. 2007 was a good year for us - it gave us some spectacular fishing and it made us believe we do our job well. Still we didn't find the ultimate fly nor the ultimate method, but we will search and keep you informed thru 2008 san river reports.
Happy New Year!
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| December 28, 2007 |
| Nice weather, but temperature still below zero. Fishing isn't a pleasure. Incedible thing is, that you can see some flies on the surface during the day. Water is perfectly clear. |
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| December 16, 2007 |
| Tried to fish, but at minus 5 degrees the water is freezing in the guides within a minute and casting becomes impossible. Found another 10 trout spawning nests within 15 minutes. Incredible amount of these, this year! |
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| December 08, 2007 |
| Winter. Cold, black river gets alive only for an hour or so. Fishing is hard. Grayling take tiny flies - the curse - to imitate this a hook 30 would be required. |
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| November 21, 2007 |
One of the best days fishing in my life! The black, high and cold waters of the San were not troubled by the slightest breeze. That's why a 3 hour hatch of pale wateries was so successful and kept the attention of every single fish. I didn't believe what I had seen. Thousands of grayling rising, like on a June evening sedge hatch. I had about 17 fish in 2,5 hours, so not enormous quantity, but each fish was around 40 cm in perfect condition and the unique colours. All of them took one of Kuba's CDC duns dressed on hook 18 or 20. |
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| November 17, 2007 |
I've spent few days trying to picture trout spawning, but looks like I was late. Anyway, the enormous numbers of spawning nests I found is breathtakning. I found them not only on smaller streams, but mainly - in the San itself. Every place that looked suitable for spawning was indeed a spawning nest. Oh this river is rich.... |
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| November 14, 2007 |
| Quite a lot of snow has fallen and we'll rather change fly rods for ski-doos :) Hopefully the snow will stabilize the weather and we will fish again for the winter grayling in few days time. |
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| November 05, 2007 |
Water got lower, the weather doesn't invite us to fish - cold, windy, rainy. This is so during about a week - it cannot last for ever. Trout starts spawning, pity the conditions are awfull and can't get any reasonable pictures.
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| October 23, 2007 |
| Suddenly they started releasing water from the lake, which is strange because there isn't much left in it! Fish are rising all over in this high, clear and cold water, the problem is that only a few places are easily accessible. |
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| October 20, 2007 |
| Snow. Cold. Ugly. Fishing is surprisingly good and along with Jeremy we fished an incredible bit of the San, which gave us more fish than the best day on the "no-kill" sector. Next few days are to be spent with some important guests from America - hope they will get slightly better weather. |
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| October 17, 2007 |
| Absolutely beautiful weather, with little frost at night, but full sunshine all day long. The wind wasn't helping us with quite hard fishing, still we cannot complain about the results. Looks like the good weather is going to end soon. I hope anyhow to have a few more brilliant fishing days this year. |
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| October 10, 2007 |
| What a week! Along with a group of friends including Barry Unwin from Fulling Mill, Pat Stevens from Flytek, Jeremy Lucas and Paul Procter we fished the San. Each one of us had the best fishing this year. The amount of fish caught was unbelivable, even that the fish were active for no more than 3-4 hours during each day. It was almost all about dry flies and spiders. The trout are very active preparing for spawning, so you can't avoid catching them. Water is low and clear, although we had few showers during that week. When sun sets the temperature falls very quickly and we even get some frost in the mountains. |
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| October 03, 2007 |
Heavy rain since early morning spoiled the lovely weather we had for past few days. River got slightly tinted at it's minimal level, probably there might be a water drop soon. Look what splendind colours the autumn brought to our region!
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| September 28, 2007 |
| I was driving close to the no-kill, luckily had a rod and waders in the car. Stopped for a while and found myself in the middle of the usual fish madness just before the storm, which was coming. Got 20 fish in 30 minutes on dry, then all stopped and I had to run back to the car because of rain. |
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| September 26, 2007 |
| Water got lower and clearer. Good hours to fish are between 11am - 4 pm. I had a short session this afternoon: got 45 cm rainbow (which is rare in San river) then grayling started to take dries so I had around 12 fish with a tiny cdc nothing-at-all fly. 2 of them were over 40 cm. Good day. |
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| September 24, 2007 |
| Nice weather continues, up to 21 degrees today. Fishing is not at its best, but possibly because of another water level change. I managed to convince one lovely 40 cm grayling to have my nymph, then insisting on dry I was ignored by rarely rising fish. Well, tomorrow is a new day... Oh, just read that they anounce snow around half October! |
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| September 21, 2007 |
| Beutifull weather since yesterday, the level slightly dropped making fishing possible only in few places, yet dangerous. There is however quite a big activity in the afternoon on dries. |
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| September 19, 2007 |
| After all night rain the river is high again and even more heavily coloured. No fishing. |
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| September 17, 2007 |
| Water level dropped to average, however it is still coloured. We have a weather swing - from 20 degrees and beautifull sunshine to heavy rain. You can anyway spot fish taking dries... |
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| September 12, 2007 |
| Overflows were opened on the Myczkowce lake - no way to fish. Still raining.... |
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| September 11, 2007 |
First day the river is fishable, however the water is still stirred. We are glad to host Dan Cook on his flyfishing journey around the globe. Dan travels around the world visiting the best flyfishing destinations - it is nice nice that our river is among them!
You can visit Dan's website at www.flyfishingtheglobe.net |
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| September 06, 2007 |
| The South of Poland is very heavily flooded after some extreme rainfall last week. The San appears to be in best condition, however it is still unfishable. August has been hard as usual - no really good fishing, fickle fish, wicked weather. Let's see what autumn brings, when water drops down... |
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| August 01, 2007 |
| Few days of cooler air and some storms have revived the region. I went on the no-kill for an hour fishing in the pouring rain and caught lot of trout on nymph. Of course I didn't even take my dry fly box - the grayling were taking these all the time and all around me. Baaaaad angling as Jeremy would have said... Because of holidays, the new born and the usuall bad fishing in August I will not write much during following weeks. |
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| July 28, 2007 |
| The team grows. My little son Tadzik has joined us. Few days off for a hangover. |
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| July 24, 2007 |
| Still very hot - everyday we have over 30 degrees. That's not a fishing weather. River got low, you can spot fish very easily, but it is hard to catch them, sometimes very hard. |
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| July 16, 2007 |
San river is probably the only African river that still holds a good grayling population. With 35 degrees today and up to 38 announced for tomorrow we will probably quite shortly have also a good population of crocodiles and piranhas. |
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| July 11, 2007 |
| The water has cleared and the level dropped. Finally fishing was great with dry flies bigger than on hook 20... |
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| July 05, 2007 |
| After another very bad week, the weather changed flooding the region with rain, and making the river unfishable.Honestly - the river did need it - a brake from anglers and lots of high, cold water. In the last fishable day I had a nice 47 cm grayling on a tiny pheasant tail nymph. |
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| June 28, 2007 |
| Weather and lack of the expected hatches conspired to make the fishing challenging. Some very large trout were caught, including five of between 59cm and 70cm. In the low, clear water several very large grayling were sighted, but the largest we caught was 47cm. The smaller shoal grayling were not particularly active |
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| June 26, 2007 |
| Nothing changes, getting good amount of proper sized grayling is possible only with tiny flies (size 20-22!!) and needs a lot of patience. |
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| June 21, 2007 |
| More big trout, and still few grayling. A day without 2-4 big over 50 cm trout didn't happen last week! Grayling seem to ignore our flies during the day, giving us 30 minutes of joy in the evening, just before you can't see a thing. The River needs some fresh water, we didn't have high water level since March!!! I think this is the reason of strange fish behaviour and lack of activity. |
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| June 18, 2007 |
Mixed thundery weather and hot days have produced strange conditions on the San in June. Coloured, swollen waters one day, and low, clear flow the next, and high temperatures. In June the grayling have been increasingly difficult to catch, while the trout fishing has been excellent. Very big trout have been caught, throughout the river. Some days have seen us with several 60cm plus trout. Huchen are beginning to make an appearance (82 cm one pictured) making a lot of noise when hunting. |
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| June 14, 2007 |
Strange. Conditions are perfect; water clear, though fishing is challenging! We had one day with 50 fish each until 1-2 PM, then not a single one till the evening. Grayling are so hard to catch! They do rise and take some tiny flies just from below the surface, but ignore every single dry or nymph. We had some nice trout as reward. |
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| June 11, 2007 |
No comments. We better tie flies today.
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| June 10, 2007 |
| Wonderfull morning - each of our guests had lots of fish caught, among them quite a few grayling well over 40 cm. But around noon... the picture tells all - this gray-violet sky has fallen on our heads. Well tomorrow is another day, but we rather expect the river to be hardly fishable. |
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| June 09, 2007 |
| There it goes again - yesterday the river revived - fish rising, flies, takes! Richard caught a 50 cm grayling, other guests have done very well too, especially in the evening. For last few days the fish didn't want to cooperate, but even though, when wading you could see enormous quantity of spooked grayling. The river is still low and clear, temperatures still around 30 during the day. |
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| June 07, 2007 |
| The River got back to its low and clear state, but the fish didn't start biting yet. They are so extremely hard to get, that even Kuba can't do a lot about it. His secret: killer upstream nymphs - the "Kuba Style" are perfectly ignored by fish. What was supposed to be the best fishing period became probably the worst fishing days this season. But fish will have to eat, and this will change the situation soon :) |
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| June 03, 2007 |
| First serious rain this season has spoiled the fishing for 2 days - water got coloured, but didn't significantly rise. Fish are not active and accessible only with nymphs/streamers. When saying the fishing was not good I don't mean no fish were caught - we can't miss a 50 cm grayling and a 55 cm trout caught in these difficult conditions... |
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| May 30, 2007 |
Some fresh water is now coming form the lakes which has cooled the river a little. Also there have been some thunderstorms and after some excessive heat we have a 'normal' May time. Fishing away from the "No-Kill" is exacting but very rewarding with size 18 nymphs and dry flies. Trout are now even more active than the grayling. The latter are now in excellent condition after spawning. |
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| May 25, 2007 |
| Big trout day. Lars from Danmark and Kuba and another friend had a fantastic trout day: they each caught a 70 cm brown trout! Lars actually had two of these monsters. A day after one of our French guests had a 63 cm pictured here. They were taken with nymphs and streamers. Water remains low and clear, the temperature for last 3 days was around 30 degrees during the day... |
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| May 23, 2007 |
| Although grayling is in close season it is almost impossible to avoid catching them. They are more numerous here than probably anywhere in Europe. Each year we catch more bigger fish - it is quite usual to catch a 40+ cm grayling, which wasn't the case 2-3 years ago. Water is still low and clear, temperatures want to compete with Africa in summer. |
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| May 20, 2007 |
| Jeremy Lucas accompanied John Bailey on the No Kill sector last week. Increasingly hot days, with intermittent thunder storms, have not put off the fish. Hatches are trickles rather than blizzards and the trout are not overwhelmed by blankets of flies. They easily pick out the angler's fly. Grayling have rapidly returned to excellent condition (the San River feed is so immense at this time of year). Even though they are still technically out of season until next month you cannot avoid contacting the enormous shoals while trout fishing. The weather forecast is for temperatures up to 33 Celcius, and the necessity of thunder storms, which will drive the fishing into the mornings and evenings. |
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| May 18, 2007 |
| With some friends from England, New Zealand and Ireland we had some fantastic fishing on the no-kill sector for few days. The amount of fish caught in not very good conditions surprised all our guests. We also surprised them with our new "lunch machine" - a WWII field kitchen towed by only a bit recent military Land Rover. The picture shows Richard with the set on the San river bank just before serving a fantastic hot soup. |
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| May 11, 2007 |
Earlier than last year sedges appeared. It started one night when small black winged caddies invaded our village - at every spot of light there were milion flies. Seeing this I went on the river bank - the river was alive - thousands of splashes all over the river "spoiled" the silence of this warm night. Incredible how rich this ecosystem is!
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| May 7, 2007 |
| River is still low and clear. We had some rain for past two days, but it didn't influence very much the river. Fishing is still limited to these few spots where grayling didn't spawn. Evening sessions are definately the best, as first sedges begin to hatch. Due to this absolute cristal water there is not much visual activity during the day - but after sunset when approaching the river bank you can hear milions of splashes. |
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| May 1, 2007 |
| Weather is beautiful except for some very cold nights. San is low and crystal clear. We limit fishing so as not to destroy grayling nests which are almost all over the river!!. However, fishing days have confirmed that at this time of year wet flies work best - partridge and yellow and black spiders do the job perfectly tempting trout, but also hungry grayling - that's another reason not to fish, allowing these fabulous fish to recover after spawning. |
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| April 20, 2007 |
| Water got low and clear. Grayling keep on spawning offering a fantastic show for those who watch. Fishing is good, best with wet flies, dries also work well. However I enjoyed much more watching the milion grayling spawn - believe me - you can spend a week on it. |
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| April 12, 2007 |
The grayling spawns. Everywhere. Millions of them.
It is now that you realise how enormous numbers of these fish is present in the San.
Seeing 200 fish in 15 minutes is not a problem.
Water stays low and clear, still cold. |
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| April 06, 2007 |
| This will be a day to remember. I have no proofs, no pictures, no witness... I was alone on the no-kill on a lazy Easter afternoon fishing streamers, luckily on a 7-8 wt. powerfull Orvis Advantage rod. After around 20 good, but not breathtaking trout in about 2.5 hours, I was already heading to the car when I had the fiftieth snag this day. Unlikely the 49 before this one after a moment of hesitation started to swim upstream with a force of a submarine. It took 25 minutes of arguing between my reel drag, my waisted hand and the fish before I managed to bring the torpedo close to me. Than I discovered that my ridiculous small landing net was not made to land logs. This one was a log, a gorgeous, easily one meter huchen, in its incredible spawning purple colours... I let it loose at my feet realising that it is impossible to land it, especially beeing alone in the middle of an 80 meters large river with water up to my chest. By the way - I discovered the fact of beeing all wet well after returning home - I must have stepped to deep when dancing with the salmon... |
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| April 01, 2007 |
Winter is almost over - even on the highest peaks snow is almost gone, only northern slopes covered with forests are still painted in white. The water level dropped so water gets slightly warmer. Fishing is good and first fish on dries were reported. Grayling and huchen started spawning so we try to avoid wading in "suspicious" places.
Let's give it a few more days and the show will begin. |
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| March 27, 2007 |
| River stays high and cold and last week was probably the most windy this year, so we didn't fish at all. Snow melts allover the mountains and spring is visible on every step. Soon, very soon we will fish each and every day ! |
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| March 18, 2007 |
| Another good day of fishing, however afternoon strong wind appeared and made casting unpleasant. We caught less fish than yesterday in the average size of 35-40. The interesting catch was Sylvain's 45 cm huchen (picture on the right). Well that was good training before the 1meter one he is planning to catch soon. The colours and the condition of every single trout are incredibly good. |
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| March 17, 2007 |
| Enjoying the beautifull weather we went to fish the no-kill sector of the San. As grayling will spawn very soon we avoided nymphs. So it was all about streamers. We landed 15 fish in few hours each but lost two times that much!!! Next time we promise to tie flies on hooks :) Great fishing however water level is still high. Spring leaves a new trace every day on the bank. |
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| March 12, 2007 |
| Peter - the president of the Angling Association and Polish flyfishing champion gave a try in these difficult conditions on the no-kill sector (comparing to yesterday the water has significantly cleared) - his results: 45 minutes 12 trout between 27-40 cm, about 10 other lost - all these on streamers. The curiosity was a 40 cm grayling caught on a lure! He tried nymphs also but as grayling, which are protected now as they spawn, kept on attacking, he instantly stopped. The only explanation needed is that few people in the world would compete with him and probably noone reading these words will ever be able to fish like he does... |
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| March 11, 2007 |
| As the sun keeps on shining the snow melts and the river got almost unfishable. However this will not last long as the snow lies only over the top of the highest mountains. As you can see on pictures - only the upper San is high, while Wetlinka and Solinka stay rather clear. Within a week the fishing should be good. |
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| March 07, 2007 |
| The weather is fantastic, sun is shining, temperature well above 10 degrees but for some reason the fish are very difficult to catch! They are probably getting ready for our first group coming next weekend. Water remains high, cold and slightly coloured. On the picture you can see the difference in colour of the river and the small stream. |
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| March 01, 2007 |
Spring, spring, spring !!!
Warm, around 10 degrees, sunshine, lovely weather! Only a very strong wind is an excuse not to go fishing. Water stays high and clear.
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| February 26, 2007 |
| After few days down to minus 10, the temperature has risen above zero and fishing is possible. River is still high, but even clearer than a few days ago. Strangely, while just last week black tadpoles, leeches and zonker streamers were scoring, white streamers are today's hit. There is still some snow in the mountains, as you can see on the panorama below. |
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| February 21, 2007 |
| As we approach the end of February a glimmer of sunshine brings new activity in the fish.
Dead-drifted nymphs and streamers, deeply sunk and stripped, are doing the trick. Water remains high and powerful, but clear. Probably the best method is streamer fishing with leech or zonker patterns using a sink tip line. Two of us caught about 15 fish, with several others lost during two and a half hour. |
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| February 16, 2007 |
| Weather gets better and better every day. Unfortunatelly the snow in the mountains starts melting with the lovely sunshine, which makes the water more coloured and the fish less active than few days ago. We have observed first signs of spring on the river bank! Waiting for the water to clear we must drink a glass of cold vodka for our teammate Maciek's newborn child! Na zdrowie! |
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| February 11, 2007 |
The overflows have finally been closed and the water has cleared.
Although the river remains high (two turbines), the trout season slowly starts and the first good results have come in.
If the weather gets better we can expect excellent fishing soon.
Take a fast sinking line with you and some streamers!
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| The San is still too high and coloured to be fishable. Rods are gathering dust and flies start to rust. We anticipate the big freeze, if it comes this year, when water levels will drop and the water will clear. Big orders are coming in for flies, in preparation for the better fishing months to come, so please take a look at our Online Store and order now in time for the new season. |
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| January 27, 2007 |
| Overflows at Myczkowce made the river unfishable - the trout opening will be delayed then. |
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| January 24, 2007 |
| Finally snow has fallen and the weather seems normal for this time of year. They have started to draw down water from the lakes, so the level is high and water is coloured. |
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| January 08, 2007 |
| The weather has gone mad - temperatures from 10-15 degrees during day, not even a small cold at night. That is at least 20 degrees too much for this time of year. Grayling feed like crazy on dries and nymphs preparing to spawn. |
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| January 03, 2007 |
Cold, but not as cold as it should be, only little snow, which is rare for this time of year.
Fish are hard to get, but still we managed to convince few small grayling to cooperate.
The upper San above the lake is partially frozen, as you can see it on pictures.
Few changes to the rules in 2007: all hooks must be barbless even outside the no-kill, streamers only from 1st February till 1st September, no bite indicators. |
San River in Lukawica - after a cold night with temperature of -12 degrees - carries some ice. |
The upper San under Otryt is almost entirely frozen. |
Rocks on the river stay covered with ice and snow. Favourite place for ducks to seat on. |
The high Bieszczady mountains are covered with snow. |
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