March 2010 Bratislava

[Driftless]

Anyone know about the fishing there?

Below is email from my friend Jan

..................................

Dear Len,

Come to my 50th birthday party and then fish afterwords.

Can stay with me.

No, no visa necessary.

Would be nice if you would

come. Didn´t see you a long time.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand there are some

veeeery nice places for fishing.

The first is the river Danube. You know

it already from Germany but it is much bigger

there. Catfish up to 2 meter!

And big “Zander” "Walleye" and so on.

I have a boat for fishing in Bratislava.

About 200 km from Bratislava is the

“Hohe Tatra”. Perfect nature. Nice

rivers for Fly fishing. Very nice trouts

and “Huchen”.

Jan

[Swimbait2009]

Only thing I know about Bratislava is from the movie "Eruo Trip":

Apparently, if you have $.84us you are treated like royalty!

[tharreld]

$800 for a one way flight. If you want to visit your friend for their 50th birthday book the flight. Sounds like most expences will be covered. If your looking for a fishing trip I would think that you could do better then Bratislava for $1600 in airfare alone.

[Driftless]

539 round trip now to Munich and drive or ride there

with Jan's friends to the party and stay FREE there

in the Alps.

Most people that fly often don't even look at fares until

it is three months out.

Bet you can cut another 100 bucks off that price at least.

I priced the same trip last year and it 329.00 round trip.

It is loads cheaper to fly in to Munich than a small airport.

I guess I would have to stay in southern Germany a couple days too.

Might go visit all my old friends there. Lived in Germany for 6 years and I speak fluent German and have an open invitation to stay for FREE at any of their homes. Oh...and have down it 7 times already.

YES...it would be an awful vacation.

............................................

Lufthansa

Lufthansa

Flight 9269 operated by United

6:18pm

Chicago, IL (ORD)

9:50am - Wed, Mar 3

Next day arrival

Munich, Germany (MUC)

8hrs 32min - Nonstop

Flight #9269 on-time: 86 %

$539

...................................................

[Driftless]

Looks like an awful place to fish?

[Scudly]

Go for it Len. You will have a blast! Glad to see you found a reasonable flight.

You are one lucky monkey.

[Zenit]

Looks like an awful place to fish?

Certainly not. Let me tell you, Eastern Europe is filled with great travel bargains, for the sportsman and non-sportsman alike. I'll tell you how I know.

I speak fluent Russian, I was a Russian linguist in the Army and my degree from the U of MN is in Russian Language and Literature. Pretty worthless degree these days, but one thing I have done with it is travelled extensively in Russia and Eastern Europe, more so Easter Europe these days.I just got back from my 2nd trip to Lithuania last month, we were catching small halibut off of the beaches of the Curonian Spit located between Klaipeda and Nida on the Baltic Sea, and fishing for big pike in the lakes around the spa town of Druskininkai. Next March I'm returning to Lithuania and Belarus to fish what the Lithuanians and Belarusians call "sea trout" and ocean run salmon. In the past, I've taken Baltic sea charters out of the Latvian port town of Ventspils at a fraction of the cost of what it costs to take an Alaskan charter; I've ice fished in the Neva delta where the river empties out into the Baltic, and watched in astonishment as ice fishermen calmly go about their business when a big floe breaks off and they go floating away (the authorities discourage the practice, but the Russian Navy routinely sends small helicopters out to pick up these floating fishermen, and the natives know exactly what they can get away with.) I've spent whole afternoons chatting up the local peasants, fishing for tropy carp and catfish on the might Volga and Don rivers, and more often or not I get invited to some small peasant home for dinner, homemade "samogon" (the word for moonshine in Russian) and more conversation after such afternoons.

Most East Europeans love to fish, both men and women, mostly because fish is a huge staple of EE cuisine. If you get a chance to go to Slovakia and stay in and around Bratislava for $600 R/t, and a friend is making accomodations open to you, by all means go. You won't regret it.

The only word of caution is that watch what you eat out of the Danube, or really any of the big rivers in Eastern Europe (Dnepr, Dniester, Vistula, Oder, Neman, etc. ) Or in other words, DON'T eat any of the big river catch, even if your hosts insist they do it all of the time (they more than likely do, but their systems are probably well-accustomed to giardia lamblia or whatever other parasites in the water.

[Driftless]

couple of the websites i have looked at...

the place looks beautiful and there are abundant fish to chase..

Many species...

Already decided it will depend on the air fares and the weather over there.

[Note from admin: Edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[tharreld]

Hope you have a great trip if you decide to go.

[Driftless]

Zenit

what kind of regs do they have there.

some of those European rules are odd.

When I went to Germany the rules were governed by the

Fishing Club Of Munich. Catch and release was against

club rules and i was given a length of fish I could keep.

It made no difference the size.

Switzerland also has some odd rules.

Do you know what that area has for regs Zenit?

[Driftless]

couple inquiries to see any story and

photos of Bratislava before I use them

on general posts.

Bet the scenery there is amazing but if

the rules are odd like the last time I fished

in Europe...all i might end up with some 16 inch guppy.

Guess it could be worse.

If the fishing sucks...I bet the scenery and the HUGE

birthday party should even it out.

Is interesting that I could get paid for fishing there.

[Swimbait2009]

Well if you're getting paid, then I'm sure you need an assistant of some sort....right????

[Driftless]

only paid if story good and fishing good.

And photos important.

Photos are the easy part.

Not a done deal.

Town I will be staying in has a really famous

brewery.

[Scudly]

You could travel to Yellowstone and  catch 16 inch guppies too. I saw your photos from Germany from 2007. The laws there hamstring the "sport" angler.