Dunajec river - where danube salmon lives

Dunajec is a polish biggest mountain river with trout, grayling and danube salmon.

It is running through southern Poland and it is right tributary of the Vistula river. Dunajec is a border between Poland and Slovakia for 27km while running through Pieniny mountain range.

There is a big dam reservoir on this river - Czorsztyn Lake. The best places for fishing are from this reservoir to estuary to the Vistula.

What kind of fish can we catch?

Mainly: Danube Salmon, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Grayling, Chub, Barbel and sometimes zander or pike, when they come from Czorsztyn Lake.

Water in Dunajec is very cold all over the year because it comes from bottom vent on Czorsztyn dam reservoir. In summer it gets warmer with every mile.

Fishing in Dunajec river in summer is focused mainly on grayling and trout. In winter almost every one try to catch danube salmon. This fish, called "The Queen of Dunajec" is some kind of symbol of Dunajec.

Main fishing methods are flyfishing spinning. Sometimes people fish for barbel or bream with bread or cheese.

Even if you have no bites it is fantastic to fish in Dunajec because of stunning Pieniny views. Dunajec is quite far from me, but I am here as often as possible. I want to share with you some of my photos. I hope some of you will come to Poland and will fish in my favourite river!

MORE PHOTOS HERE: Gallery of Dunajec river photos

New site on my blog!

Hi!
Today I published new site, where i described 3 types of  my lure retrievers. I think it is a hot topic for every spinning and casting angler. Feel free to comment !! :)

Lure retrievers

Zander Fishing- lures, spots, technique

How to catch a zander ???

Zander (pike-perch) is a fantastic sport fish well known in almost whole Europe. it grows over 20kg (44 pounds), but typical catches are much smaller of course. most common are zanders between 1 and 6kg (2 - 13 pounds). Zander is a close cousin of American walleye.

Zander lives in lakes, dam reservoirs, rivers and in Baltic sea also. The best are deep spots with sand, rocks or gravel at the bottom. Of course zanders sometimes, when feeding come near to the shoreline and feed on fry in very shallow places. This situation occurs mainly at night. After sunrise it is better to find zanders near to sunken tree rots, big rocks, etc..

Zander fishing is VERY popular in Poland. That is why you need to find some special lures or techniques to achieve success. I have got 3 main types of lures, that I use regular 

1)POLISH JIG - "KOGUT" is a fantastic lure - invented in south of Poland at about 20 years ago. For a long time it was a good protected secret. Now everyone knows about "kogut" but not everyone knows how to make it and how to use it. I make this jigs by myself. Sometimes even my friends want me to do a few "Koguty" for them. I will write soon a tutorial "How to make your own polish jig - kogut". I'm using "Kogut" 70% of time when fishing for zander.

2) Most popular group are softlures with relatively heavy jig heads. If the depth of your spot is 3m (10ft), you should use 14 - 28g (1/2 - 1oz) jig head. The key is to raise your lure very fast from the bottom and let it fall down again. 90% bites comes when jig is falling down, so it is necessary to have great contact with your lure.

My favourite jigs are:

• Relax kopyto, california, clonay
• Lunker city shaker
• Dragon lunatic

3) Last, but not least group are slender crankbaits and slashbaits. They are fantastic lures, when zanders come to shallow spots to feed on fry. Most people use them only in rivers, but I do this in lakes and dam reservoirs too. In this group  I use mainly:

• Salmo sting 6cm, 9cm floating, suspending and sinking
• Rapala husky jerk, original
• Kamatsu jointed minnow
• Salmo minnow shallow runner and super deep runner

All this lures are effective, when you find zanders and use your lure correct. Zander fishing is quite difficult and it is necessary to learn all the time, but catching a BIG zander is the best reward.

Carp Fishing in Poland - My case study

As most of you know I prefer spinning, casting and sometimes flyfishing, but a few times every year i fish for carp and amur (grass carp). First successes came 2 years ago...

It was may and i was spinning for pike with my friend using waders in shallow (3ft - 4ft) parts of lake. We cought a few of them (20in - 35in). after few hours we found nice spot. It was a small bay - 4ft deep and with thin mule layer with small shallowing to 3ft with sand on the bottom. Wright next to this shallowing was end of bay and begining of deep part of lake with a lot of mule.

We decided that it is great place to find carp. Next day we brought there big buckets of cooked corn with hemp and agrimony and of course about 4lb of self made protein boiles plus some carp pellet. We did the same thing 3 more times in 2 day inervals.

After a week of regular putting there groundbait we came for the first time with rods and started to fish an 5PM with putting groundbait again.

In this night there was only one carp - 10LB. It was a good sign and we could keep on fishing and luring.

We came back 2 days later at 3PM. Of course we started with a ground bait and then we start to fish. At 11PM my friend Adam had the first bite but we did not land this fish. At 1AM in the middle of night on there was a delicate bite on my rod. I thought it is a small fish because I felt no resist. When i had it near to the shore we saw (using torch) huge grass carp. Adam saw it better and he rated it for about 30lb - 35lb. The fight started! After 10 - 15 minuts (i had a 30lb monofinament) we put this fish to a landing net, but it was still strong and tore a hole in net, broke the line and gone away...

I was mad and angry so i couldn't sleep... At 7AM I had next bite. This time we land beautiful almost 30lb grass carp and until 3PM we had 7 carps between 9lb and 14lb. It was fantastic day.

We have been fishing in this spot a few times more and every time we caught some carps and grass carps. Never came home with nothing.

Since this summer I like carp fishing a lot, but it isn't better than spinning and casting. Idon't have special carp equipment. I use my sea trout and danube salmon rods and reels :)

Now it is:

1) Shimano Nexave 3,3m 20-50g with Tic GD 4059
2) Shimano technium 2,7m 50-100g with Shimano SUper GT-RB 4000

I used to have other rods and reels, but i am still buying new equipment :)



Ready for bite!!

Any questions? Ask with a comment!

Danube Salmon - How to catch?

Danube Salmon

is close cousin of syberian taimen. They both are the world biggest salmonidae species. I heard about over 200lb taimen! Normal size of danube salmon is between 10lb (~30in) and 40lb(~50in). Sometimes 60lb. In Poland you can't take danube salmon if it is smaller than 70cm(~28 inch). There is also limit - one fish per week.

Most of anglers releases all of them because it is very rare and beautiful fish. In Poland we can find danube salmon in 3 big mountain rivers: San, Poprad and Dunajec (on my photos) and sometimes in big dam reservoirs on this rivers (like Czorsztyn, Rożnów, Solina). This fish needs clear, cold and deep water, but sometimes when feeding (mostly on trout, grayling, chub and barbel) it comes to 2 feet depth.Danube salmon favourite feed is big fish. Often between 10in and 20in. Sometimes even bigger! That is why it is necessary to use big lures - mostly crankbaits.

This fish is a night predator. It feeds mainly between sunset and sunrise, but in Poland is forbidden to fish at night in most of mountain rivers. That is why it is very difficult to catch. I didn't catch one yet, but i had a few bites. Once i lost it before landing. There are people who try to catch it for 10 years or more without result.

I live over 200km from the nearest river with danube salmon so i can't fish there often. My friend who lives 15km from Dunajec caught already (during 12 years) over 90 danube salmons bigger than 28 inch!!

For three years i collected a few best lures for danube salmon. Of course there is much more of them, but they are very similar.

Recipe to catch danube salmon is:

• Come to Poland to Dunajec in Sromowce in November when it is snowing and it is cold and windy
• Start fishing with sun rise
• Use long (9 - 10 feet) and heavy (up to 4 - 5oz) rod - I use Shimno technium 2,7m (9 feet), 50 - 100g (2oz - 4oz).
• Use light, but strong reel - I use Penn Slammer 360 with 30lb monofilament
• Use big crankbait(6 - 8 in) imitating trout
• Fish slowly, cast across the river, look for deep spots and underwater obstacles like big stones.
• Be very PATIENT. You can come here for a week and leave with nothing...

Pike Lures - jerkbaits, crankbaits, softlures, spiners and spoons

     

Today I'm going to describe best polish pike lures.

Maybe some of them would be new for you and you will try them by yourself!! I think my pike lures could be very effective for your northern pike and musky.

    

First and best known group of them are jerkbaits

I know that jerkbaits are common almost everywhere, but we have in Poland some interesting models. Typical size of jerkbaits is between 4in and 7in. There are of course some smaller and bigger, but I don't use them often.

     

 

      This group in my box is represented mostly by gliders - the best of the best Salmo Slider and a few BigBaits. Also there are some pullbaits on first photo - Salmo Fatso, two hand made jerkbaits and one BigBait (pike imitation).

     

Second big group are Softlures.

They are very popular in Poland. We use as well foreign models like Lunker City Shaker 6in, as our domestic products like Relax Kopyto 5in, 6in. We use them together with 0,5oz - 1,5oz jig heads and 6/0 - 12/0 hooks. Most common technique is jiging or sometimes jerking. The weight of jig head you should compare with the depth of your spot. I usualy use 3/4oz for 8ft - 10ft depth and 6 inches soft lure.

      First photo shows my favourite Relax Kopyto 6 (6 inch) in few different colours. In the second photo we can see Delalande Sandra, Prologic Alien Eel, Lunker City Shaker, Relax Kopyto 5, and 4 Imakatsu Javallon, Rozemeijer Shad, Prologic Cannibal Shad and one of my best lures - little pearl Prologic LB minnow - fantastic lure!!

     

We also often use crankbaits, twitchbaits and slashbaits.

Our technique is just the same like everywhere in the world, but we've got some interesting and very effective crankbaits (mostly made by polish company SALMO). Average size of them is between 3in and 7in.

 

      I like very much Rapala lures. In this photo you can see Shad Rap 9, Shallow Shad Rap 9 and DT 16. Also effective are Kamatsu Jointed Minnow, Dorado Lake (Perch imitating - also great lure for catfish) and silver holographic Jaxon Ferox, but i like mostly big Salmo Whitefish, Pike (You can  also find his smaller version on this photo), Perch and Skinner, which are good trolling lures too.

     

Of course I use some other lures like big spoons and spinners,

but not so often like jerkbaits, softbaits, crankbaits and slashbaits.

      Honestly I don't prefere them, but sometimes it is the only way to feel a fish on the other end of your line. 

      Every lure mentioned here has been tested by myself in different fisheries and in my opinion is a good choice for northern pike. Maybe for other species too, but I can't be sure of that. Of course there is much more models and types of pike lures in Poland, but I didn't use them yet. Contact me if you want to have more information about this lures.

Pikes from Chechło-Nakło

 

     

Chechło-Nakło

is a small lake (90 hectars) located in a middle of forest between Tarnowskie Góry and Miasteczko Śląskie.  The average depth is about 8 - 10ft, but you can also find 20ft depth spots. The main fish of this lake is Pike. Every year people catch a few of them, bigger than 25 pounds. Of course it doesn't happen every day. Normal average size of pikes cought here is between 3 and 10 pounds.

     Best lures for them are middle sized jerkbaits, like Salmo Slider and Salmo Jack and big Softlures, like Relax Kopyto 6. Of course big spinners, spinnerbaits, crankbaits (Rapala Shad Rap 9) and slashbaits (Rapala X-Rap) are also effective.

 

    When water is cold you can find here fantastic perch!  Sometimes over 15in. I often have some of them while fishing for pike, but  it is just an incident.  For few years i hear about quite nice catfishes from this lake. My friend had one (50in) last year. I will try to catch some in summer with crankbait like Salmo Boxer, Manns Baby or Rapala DT.

 

Today on Kłodnica River

     Since Thursday we've got in Poland nice, sunny, quite warm weather, so I decided to try catch some chubs on Kłodnica River near Kędzierzyn Koźle. It was great day, I got rest and relax after long, hard winter. Unfortunetly the water was still cold, and very shallow. Chubs didn't come form Odra river and i caught only few small perches. Next time will be better!!

Kozlowa Gora Lake

     

      Kozłowa Góra is a big dam resorvoir is south Poland next to Piekary Śląskie. It is 550 hectars big. Middle depth is about 8ft, while the deepest spots are at about 14ft. Kozłowa Góra is very shallow, but we can find here lot of big zanders and pikes. The biggest zander form this lake is over 25 pounds!!

 

      To have bigger chances it is necessary to use a boat, whitch you can always rent here, but you can't use your own boat! While fishing on Kozłowa Góra I usually use spinning or casting. My favourite lures for pike are big plastic jigs like RELAX KOPYTO 6'' or jerkbaits like SALMO SLIDER 10. There is no better lure for zander than "kogut" - special jig made of cock capes. I make this jigs myself. I describe how, with photos soon.

    The season here starts in June and ends in december. he best results I have in June and from october to december. It isn't a big problem to catch about 10 pikes and zander by a day.

 

If you want to know some more about this place ask me with your comment!