A very warm day with sudden rise of temperature up to 8 degrees has resulted in melting the ice on San tributaries, which floating down along with trees and branches made the river unfisheable for a day.

Nice winter conditions, with surprisingly clear and low river. Few huchen have been reported this week – I know about 4 being caught. One by our friend Peter, a little 117 cm.

We have been present at the Belgian Fly Fair organised by the APMC fishing club from Charleroi. It is definately the best and the biggest fly fair in continental Europe nowadays. About 100 exhibitors, over 5000 visitors and a very friendly setup.  We met lots of old friends and made some new. We will definately be back in 2011. Thank you Jacques for the invitation!

This winter is real. We had temperatures down to minus 30 for two days, with quite a few weeks of  between minus 10 and minus 20. Fishing is non-existant. Not much snow either – maximum of 30 cm around Lesko, but way more in the mountains.

For the fourth season I’m writing the river reports for the San River I’ve finally gathered them in one place. I hope you will enjoy the blog formula.
2010 will be a very busy season for us:  World Championship is held on the San and quite a few teams that asked us about guiding before the event.
We are almost fully booked for groups, only 3 more weeks can be booked  in July and August.
See you on the San, tight lines,
Wojtek

Fantastic day down at our secret water. With my friend we explored one of the most beautiful places on the San, where we rarely go before October. Once again it was outstanding. We caught few decent grayling each, numerous trout, but the most impressing was just being there. Nothing like it in the entire universe.

Snow is gone, the fishing got a bit more difficult due to melting snow. Once the level dropped it became good. Good grayling were caught, less greedy trout than last weeks – looks like they are getting quite ready to spawn.

Paul Procter wrote us a short river report:

The San river greeted us with autumnal sunshine and a gentle breeze.  That first lunchtime is something I will long remember as Blue Winged Olives hatched like I’ve never seen before, literally thousands of duns streamed off the water.  As for the fishing, it doesn’t get any better than standing in one place, picking off rising grayling with small dry flies.  However, what a difference a day makes.  From somewhere an Artic blast rolled in over eastern Europe?  I reckon it was Wojtek doing one of his strange weather rituals!  Anyway, the next three days saw heavy snow and coupled with biting winds, it almost reached blizzard conditions.  Admittedly, our hands and toes suffered, but the olives hatches kept coming, treating us to some superb fishing during the afternoon periods.  If that wasn’t enough, spinners returned to egg lay late in the day, extending sport into near darkness.  Naturally, frequent breaks had to be taken to warm up.  Thankfully, our guide Richard tended a nice warm fire and was on hand with coffee to keep us going.  Despite the weather, the fishing we experienced really was second to none. Paul Procter

Hahaha, what a joke – we have 20 cm of snow all around us, up to a meter in the mountains. Huge amount of broken trees that fell under the weight of wet snow. Fishing is still very good – check Paul Procter’s blog where he describes this crazy week of fishing on the North Pole.

JT’s river report:

My autumn trip from 2008 was so good that I simply had to come back this year. The San river looked perfect as we arrived with low clear water and plenty of rising fish. My party agreed to wait until the morning before wetting a line. We must have albatross blood on our hands though, because some faceless chap in Warsaw decided to generate some electricity over night and by breakfast time the river was a foot higher and running like brown sludge! Wojtek assured us that we shouldn’t worry and that the river would clear very quickly. He was right. The influx of cold water didn’t help though and the fish were definitely off their grub to start with. The flies must have sensed this because they hatched with a ferocity I have never witnessed before in my life. Blue Winged Olives streamed off the surface as if there was going to be no tomorrow. Their spinners returned (also in massive numbers) throughout the late afternoons and have I mentioned the sedges yet? Awesome fishing. Dry fly reigned supreme for me, but some of the others opted for spiders and duo tactics. All methods were working and we caught plenty of grayling to 45cm plus a few bonus trout that didn’t realise they were out of season. We went home exhausted but ridiculously happy every night and I have already booked for next year! John Tyzack