Sweet San is just soooooo sweet, the conclusion



gettin off the plane and into the fishing mobile

 Well i never got a good chace to continue the blog days as the drinking at night got too much in the end!!
I have had many emails asking me o continue the Dream session so here goes......

The last post shows top angler Richie holding the fish of the week and it was well deserved indeed.
We arrived at the power lines pool which comprised of a long slow glide for over 300 meters...as our goal was to catch these huge grayling on the dry this looked perfect...it was obvious these fish were going to be very hard and me and Richie decided to pair up and go and stalk out rising fish together...i cannot tell you how hard the Grayling can be to catch on a dry, back in the UK they can be teased up by a fancy pattern like the sturdys fancy or a grifth knat, these fish are a nightmare, they will only take a perfect match of a hatch, the size, colour and drag free are all absolute critical, the trout are much easier to catch but still can be hard but like i say the Grayling can send you mental!!!!
Ritchie and myself waded into the river and stood still for a good hour, any movements would send the fish down, this was the technique for the week, get in your spot and wait for them to come on the feed, all around you!!!
We were taking it in turns to cast at rising fish, the difference from the Grayling rise and the trout rise was obvious, something i have learnt to a T on this trip...We saw a nice fishing sipping every five mins and we both covered it with no success...after grinding us down for over a hour Richie just flicked a dun to it and it just walloped it!!!!
Wicked!! the fish played him mellow until it found the deep water.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz this fish went mental taking line off...these fish are different strain to ours and are nasty in the fight, after a few mins the fish tailwalked right infront of us to give Richie a heart stopping moment...soon we landed a 46cm 2.8 oz San wacker on a size 20 dun pattern!!!
Top angling by Richie as you just dont catch on this river by luck, hard work paid off and a high five was given to him after we released it.....
Later in the evening was something else for me that night, i was at the bottom of the pool waiting for some rises......i saw a huge hatch of pale wateries  emerge off the pool, now i learnt more tonight in all my fishing on fly rivers...the trout and grayling would only take the emerger at this stage as they were coming out of the shuck, any full duns would be left alone... i selected a emerging dun with no luck...why?? i could see the fish sipping them no more than 5ft from me!!! I had no drag, the size was perfect.... i then thought of colour? something i dont really believe in....i selected a pale green shade emerger like the real dun and then bang!!! 3 Gralying coming straight to the net!!! great feeling that but then i could not get a take........they had switched to the full dun at the end of the hatch and selecting a full dun in green batterned them again.....i was standing in the river and realised how switched on u needed to be to get into these fish...yes you might get lucky with the odd fish but to take them u needed to be on your game...a lesson learnt....how many times do you see a angler walk past and say 'they are on the emerger today'! well now i would always think that could have changed in ten minutes!!!
In the evening the spinner fall was mental.......a sherry spinner took the odd trout but i was getting so many refusals it was not right...they were taking the real spinner but not mine...i went home happy but gutted i was doing something wrong... i soon would find out...

On the Thursday we went to a pool i cant remember the name but one that i wont ever forget...
The sun was out, bright clear and a flat calm pool that looked like a lake....i was not going to flog my heart out when the lads all ventured off to get in the river... i decided to stay back with JT and we sunk cans of lager for most of the day in the most scenic place i have ever been...just being with JT at the side of the river we just chilled out and talked of past sessions in our fishing days....Richardo came to the river at dinner time on most days and cooked us full barby meals next to the river...sausages, pork the full job, we were right looked after....
That evening i made my way upto the top end of the beat as Jt had advised me of some deep runs that hold big ladies...
I walked up and got into my position and waited.....waited....a hour gone with no rises and i saw a huge fin come out of the water with a typical grayling boil....my heart started to pound.....i put my line though and waited for it to rise again....nothing..... i thought of moving but this fish was huge... i then waited bollock deep in the river for another hour!! the lads were catching fish and i was staring at a blank for the day but this fish was a proper ltd fish!!! i had noticed from the week that a big fish will hold its pool so i just stayed and waited..a sudden flush of P waterys came off and the fish came up again... then one minuite later again....this was my chance... i selected a full dun in pale green, size 20.....i knew it was my chance....the cast had to be down stream, no other would do, drag would kill it off back to the depths...i mudded my 9 x tippet and just hoped it would hold the fish if i hooked it...any bigger tippet lower than 8X would send me home with nothing on this river...
A few false casts and i dropped the fly perfect in the scum lane of drifting olives.....the fish came up and nailed a real dun 3 inches from mine!!! i was now starting to get that sinking feeling...i then put in the second cast and fucked it up with swinging drag...i then though that was all over....i then put a third cast in thinking i had put it down.....i saw the huge fin come out roll over my fly, the sheers size of this fish was mental, as soon as i saw the huge crimson colour down the side my heart just skipped a beat as only anglers will know this feeling...like slow motion i struck down to my left and the lovely feeling of the line tightening as the hook set home.....i was in!!!! the fish came back upto the surface and my heart was beating out my chest when i saw the real size of this fish...it was bigger than anything i haad ever seen...over 50cm no probs and over 3lb for sure...
The fish snapped it head and the fly came pinging back to me hitting me in my chest!!! FUCKIN HELL!! i screamed across the river!!! i had just pulled out of the fish of a lifetime on the dry....i had waited all day for that and stood over the fish for nearly three hours!!!
I was so angry i had the the thought of snapping my rod in two to ease the pain....
I caught fish in the spinner fall that night but the thought of losing this fish hurt me deep...Richie stood 20 yards up the river from me and saw what this fish did to me, he looked as gutted for me as i was...

Back at the fishing lodge at night we had some right good crack, sinking beer and just full piss take all around...all the lads on the trip were sound, i got to know all of them very well,
Roger my room mate is so cool, takes everything in his stride, and had massive balls...
Steve, a calm mellow lad, who just sits there and laughs all day long...always catches fish
John/Richie two geordie cunts who are hard to separate, always smiling and talking and both very good fisherman, a joy to pair up with and fish..
Clive a sound lad who loves his fishing and a right nob after drinking!!!
JT A bloke who is hardcore, can fish hard, drink hard, nothing bothers him, shares all his knowledge and a right good laugh...
On the last day before we come home i stumbled across c=some Polish fly men and got chatting to them which turned out to be a right good laugh, non of us could speak each others language but we swapped flys and they give me Vodka shots next to the river!!! real LTD with the Poles!!!


The trip was one to remember and i will be back there again next year, i learnt so much and never thought fish could get that hard, its made me a better angler for sure, the fishing was hard going at times but this was not normal for the time of year but hey thats fishing, i still sit here now writing this and that fish i lost is still in my head, i could go back to the very spot tomoz and know where the lunker is... i will cover that pool next year and hopefully have more luck....
Nice one
LTD
Glen

2nd cast of the day!! Johnny

My room mate Roger

Geordie twat

Clive in the spinner

wankers..all of em!!

Steve

time to go

JT shows us the snake roll pissed up

the dream liver

Richie into the fish of the week...top angling shag

crimson wacker

the downstream cast

wojek

The Polish lads on the Vodka!!

Day 4 - Richie bags 46cm (2.5lb) clunker in a San 'living the dream' session



San slab

 More to follow........................

Day 3 - Sponsored by Tyskie (not Queen of the Moorlands Piss)

Poland's finest piss

JT with his tits out giving his masterclass



 Went to El Dorado today, river very low, clear and very hot conditions.....all caught fish but nothing to shout about...........we ended up getting leathered on the bank with a JT casting mastercalss session which ended up with 25 cans of piss being sunk whilst sat on the bank.

Ricardo - collapsed after nailing a load of Polish piss

Ricardo brought the cans over and ended up drinking more than us. We left him in a pile as we headed up out into thr river. He was our only drive home so we had to wait til dusk until he could sober up (bonus was the spinner potential). We all sobered up for the evening rise which produced a 15 minute spell of fish-a-cast action on the spinners.



Pissed up trying to catch a San grayling with GP drag drift method



As i write this I am getting more sexually frustrated over the week and Roger's hairy bottom looks more appealing by the day when I get morning glory in the mornings........ I will let you know how things go on this week.......

Nice one

Glen





Me and JT - just before we went into the bushes together



Holy San, Day 2 - San Soul Breakers



Day 2 started early after a night on the lash in our luxury fishing hut. As I mentioned before, this hut is the bollox. It has drying out rooms for wet waders, full fly tying room, games room.....about everything you could imagine....like a fly fishing brothel!!



JT with a  proper San slab





Knocking out olive emergers in the 'lodge of dreams'



Still hung over from a heavy night, Richard our Polish guide took us to the 'islands pool' in our seven seater Citroeon mini-bus, all kitted out.  Driving around Poland to the River San, I have noticed that although this is a poor country it is extremely clean and people are very friendly.  Driving through the forest we have even seen the Polish lumber jacks who scare the shit out of me. They glare into my eyes through the van window and I have to put my hands over my arris, memories of 1970s classic film Deliverance starring Burt Reynolds!!....

Pulling up next to the river I realised what a place this is to fish..the scenery reminds me of Canada...even though I have not been there.  Huge valleys either side with loads of trees.....Richard the guide warned us of bears roaming in the woods and to be well aware if approached.  I fear the polish lumber jacks more than i do any bear!!


Everyone spread out on the mighty San

 We spread out across the river we approached a flat calm drifting pool.  I followed JT and the Geordie cunts Richie and John.  I gazed up the pool to see literally millions of pale waters hatching off.....were they on 'em? Oh yes they were!! I thought this was going to be easy takings until JT shouted across..these fish are no mugs and drag is a big no no.  I started to select small emerging olive paterns and covered fish taking olives waiting for fish to wallop the net...but this was not to be.  These fish were as selective and wised up as I have ever seen in any fishing I have ever done.  Watching these rising fish was something else....half an hour had gone and even JT had struggled to rise a fish to his artifical. It was time to get my head on and really get a grip of these fish.
I saw a fish at the rear of mesipping the full dun I could tell by the rise form this was a grayling and I knelt down in the water and spent a full hour trying to get this fish to take my olive.  In the end it came down to a 10x tippet with a size 21 pale watery, a drag free drfit and the lady calming sipped it down and I tigtened into my first San grayling.  What a joy!! But hard......I can't explain what it takes to catch such wised up fish....a San soul breaker.  To watch your artificial duns drfit past..these fish don;t even twitch a fin.  I now relaxed as I had caught a fish and went to fish a streamy pool for some action.  There I selected my LTD and twictched it through a streamy pool where it produced six small wild brownies....not really my style but I needed a destress from fishing those flat calm pools. 

JT and Richie waiting for the hatch

All the lads were having the same problems and Roger was also having problems getting a hard on. I decided to go solo and find some spots for myself and ventured into another flat calm pool full of specimen sized brown and graylings. These two were rising heavily but I knew they were going to be no mugs again.  After one hour i sat on the grass after using all my fly box and not getting a take and just sat deflated at the river edge, sparked up a Benson, started to look again at what was going on and selected a special fly JT had given me earlier in the day.  It was an olive emerger with three tails that hung in the water and obvious bright green ribbon with a CDC tuft sticking above the water.  I could see that these fish were taking pale watery emergers and were ignoring every dun that went past.  Three casts later and three cracking wild browns all above pound and a half mark all fighting like virgin hooked browns!!  From sheer frustration to sheer joy.....I had chosen the perfect fly after numerous flops and personally i think it was down to the colouration of the ribbing as I had used other emergers with different colours to no avail.
This river San gives you more ups and downs than a moody girlfriend....

Our guide Ricardo with his massive Polish sausage

The lads liined up where the stag crossed the river

Our guide Richard shouted us up for dinner which comprised of sausages fully barbecued on a wild camp fire. All the lads were starving and made short work of the grub on offer. After dinner the lads got back in the river and I saw one of the most insane things ever.  JT and the Geordies were lined across the a pool and a huge stag came dashing through the woods and dived into the river 50m in front of the 3 lads and swam the full width of the river back into the wilderness....we all stood there in amazement.  A memory I will never forget.

The day comes to an end on the San River

The evening for me was a failure as I was still tired from the last nights lash up. JT found a pod of 40cm grayling and battered them with his spinner in a magic hour spell.   We all headed back to the van where our guide Richard had set up a camp fire, baking local Polish potatoes. Starving again, all of the lads huddled around and scoffed the potatoes before getting into the van and making our way back to the lodge. We got back to the lodge with talk of fishing and got in the hot showers....but not all at the same time.
We all sat down for the evening meal which comprised of sausage meat burgers. Later on it turned into a full lash up in hard core Polish style.

Roger 'big bollox' Bryant

I must admit at this point that i am rooming with old leek and district chum Roger Bryant a good old friend of mine from LADFFA who as it turns out farts like i have never heard in my life.  Roger tells me that I talk in my sleep and i keep shouting sexual obscenities about John Tyzack. I am getting worried about this as I dont have these feelings in real life!!! Something else i must say is that Roger has the biggest pair of bollox I have ever seen in my life!! his ball sack hangs to just below the back of his knees when released from his y fronts!
Nice one
Glen

JT wastes no time......into a clunker on the San

JT's Magnificant 7 hit Polands famous river San (Day 1)

Arrived on the holy San today with JT, Clive, Roger B, Steve, and Geordie cunts Richy and Johnny.....
After a early hour flight we arrived in Poland at 10 am and were picked up by Polish Richard and driven to our digs...
The house we are stopping in is owned by Wojtek, a house made to fit a group of anglers, we have a chef,  our fly tying room, infact its the bollox!!
Standing at the rear of our fishing home is the river San and seeing it was something else, a huge wide river with rifles all over and just looks like fishing heaven...
We could not wait and after some Polish mushroom soup we all got onto the river...
I walked down with Johnny M  and we spotted rises going off all over a steady flowing pool, my heart was in my mouth as I saw huge browns head and tailing taking olives which were coming off in thousands!!! these olives were hatching in blizzards!!, something I have never seen....

A cracking wild San Brownie - pure class!

Johhny M shouted me over as he hooked into a clunking brown on his first few casts...I had not even put my leader on and was already taking pictures of a brown pushing the 3lb mark, wild and pure beauty...
I soon got myself set up and put on a JT olive, i covered a few fish  that were rising in a pool before i could reach my huge brown....slowley the fish came upto the olive and sipped it down as cool as they come and i tightened into my first San brown, not a big fish but a cracking wild brown...i was in the zone and looked across this huge river in awe as to what the week might bring me....

My first San fish - small, but wild and beautiful

I quitey waded over to the huge brown, every 10 seconds it would head and tail, a fish of around 4lb!! i usually count this rise as a spinner take but the duns were struggling to get off and were drifting around 20 yards and this fish was taking advantage and sipping away with no energy spent... i worked out the flow and knew that it was a one fish cast....i placed my fly bang in the zone, the fish calmly follwed the olive and calmly sipped it down... heart in the mouth stufff and i struck low and hard and the fly came straight out of its mouth back behind me!! the big gun just drifted to the depths as to say 'unlucky'... i had just pulled out of the fish of a life time.....ltd (nearly)
I was thinking this river was going to be easy but this was far from the truth, we had arrived in the middle of a huge hatch and the fish were 'on it'


7 of us were all dotted around this huge river and pulling the odd fish but the fish just switched off, hatches were insane, but these fish are spoilt and they can feed whenever they feel they need to...and getting your presenatation right is pure critical..

The hatch goes off and waiting for the spinners the start falling

We all had a few hours fishing but we were all fucked and the air went cold and it was time to get back to our fishing lodge.. the fish had just smacked us in the face and turned off.....i had thought this river was going to be easy but i soon realised that this would not be the case......





We all went back to the lodge and were made tea by Wojtek's wife, a superb cook.........

 

Everyone gathered - before getting rat arsed



Me and JT planning our trip for the next day on the San River




Pissed as a cunt - ready for some ATM




Professor Pointon reads up on the San River (glasses borrowed from the Geordie cunt)



Well it was all set up for a mellow night but JT got the beers out and it was a night of pure crack!! with some of the funniest stories i have every heard...

All the lads we have with us are quality lads and it sure going to be one of them weeks u never forget....

I am sitting writing this at 12.30 am and we have had a day to remember today but will post about that tomoz...

Nice one

Glen