The ultimate fly fishing destination for trout and grayling throughout Europe: San River,
flowing out of the Bieszczady National Park in the Carpathian mountains of South East Poland. This is paradise for the trout and grayling fly-fisher. The population of grayling over many miles of this vast river system is probably unsurpassed anywhere in the World, while numbers of wild brown trout are also enormous. Many parts of the river are also populated by the legendary taimen; big, powerful predatory salmonids which feed on the plentiful coarse fish species as well as small trout and grayling.

Please see our Pioneer Flyfishing website, dedicated to the ultimate fly fishing holiday on the San River.

We organise visits for individuals, families or groups to the San and have available the best fly fishing guides, all orchestrated by our top guide, Wojtek Gibinski, who looks after absolutely everything, finally delivering our guests to the river, allowing you to fish without concern for what happens after. Because on the San, you need to realise that whatever has happened before, nothing is likely to measure up to this. It is where you have dreamt about, why you took up fly fishing, where you have journeyed towards and never really believed you would arrive. Here is journey's end. You cannot go beyond, not in this sport, not in this life...

The San flows through heavily-wooded country, damned where it flows out of the National Park at two large lakes (Solina and Mycskowce) and then drops in a powerful, 100m-wide swathe through forest and meadowland, and through the historic, market towns of Lesko, Zagorz, Sanok and Dobra. You can wade this fabulous water, from bank to bank, among colossal shoals of grayling and blizzard hatches of ephemerids that simply take the breath away. Of all the fishing we have experienced in Europe and beyond there has been nothing to compare with the San during an ephemerid emergence.

The wild brown trout fishing, particularly in the upper river, gives unforgettable sport, but it is without doubt the European grayling that is the ultimate experience here. It is not possible, we feel, for a river to be so perfect for this species as the San.

The country is beautiful, being heavily forested hills and mountains, while the river valley itself is either forested or worked with sustainable, small scale agriculture, reminiscent of much of Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, before the destructive force of the Common Agricultural Policy took hold. Except during times of heavy flood, the water flows very clear, indicative of the pristine nature of the country which the San drains. The abundance and diversity of invertebrates is astonishing, thus healthily supporting the vast fish population.

Here you can download a booking form for a trip to the San.