A General introduction about the creek Revúca.
When you talk to Jan at Thymallus you might receive the recommendation to start at river Revúca. He is right at this point. Váh can be dangerous and not fishy at all some times. By the absence of small fish, the big fish of river Váh act differently from their smaller colleagues of the Revúca creek. You can translate the name of the river as the howling, which somehow reflects it quite good in my opinion.
Revúca is 33km long and starts its fishy waters at Liptovská Osada until Ruzomberok at the Zusammenfluss with the river Váh. Revúca has in the upper section the character of a mountain creek flowing through the valleys, small villages. You will find small till medium-sized creek with a lot of white water and pocket water. You can find deep holes and long gutters, always surrounded or covered in the middle European green jungle of nearly untouched nature.
Keep your 10ft rods at home, go for the shorter ones, 8ft might do the thing. Be careful, do not underestimate the current. Even it may not be deep, the current may be strong and the stones at the ground lose and glitchy surrounded by holes. You do not want to go for a swim. Again, a wading stock will support you.
The dominant fish of the upper sections is the brown trout. You may find some pretty sized grayling and few rainbows as well. But the rainbows are rare in the upper section. The upper sections end at the place where a huge amount of water is taken away by the local fishery industry. Several barriers need high water to allow the fish to move up the small creeks in the autumn. When the fish come to breed you will find one of the most spectacular plays of nature which you have ever seen in life. Even it is not the right time to fish, it is the right time to see the nature of Velká Fatra and Nízke Tatry in green, yellow, red, brown and see the spectacle of natural trout breed.
In the lower section, Révuce flows through grasslands through villages towards the big mama Váh. The spots will be in a more open environment. Still a shorter stick and cast in the front of you without backcasting will help you not to lose to much time on reestablishing your fishing equipment. Learn smooth pickups and nice tight switch casts for your success on the river Revúca. This experience will help you in many spots when dealing with the big one.
The lower river section is partially regulated/canalized in some sections. You find deep spots for big trouts and a huge amount Grayling, some Bullheads and Crayfish are also present. At all Revúca is a good place to be. A good place to learn your flyfishing skills and get them slowly towards perfection. Revúca is good preparation for the big story at Váh. And often very kind to its fishermen. The fish are more willed to take the fly because food is rare at Revúca. For that fact, the fish grow slower and do not reach the sizes as on Váh. But do not get it wrong, there are still species above 50cm in there and caught regularly. The local record is somewhere close to 70cm on Brown trout. Take this as a warning when thinking about a small-sized tippets. The current is difficult and there are a lot of stones, trees, roots where you want to keep your fish away from during the fight.
When you look at the details and may have a look at the spots on google maps you may explore that places are difficult. There is quite a lot of water but the fish have their territories. Be careful, take your time, plan the wading route carefully. Take your wading stock with you. Don’t blindly follow or wade through the water. Keep always at least one stable foot in position. Move only if you are sure and have tested that the next stand is a stable one. So many times there are stories about fishermen who got a swim because the lost stability, stepped in a hole or stepped on loose material which started rolling underweight.
Do not underestimate the power of this river. It will exhaust you faster then you consider. I recommend you to get in touch with a local for a talk about the current situation and recommendations or hire a guide at least for one day, or even more if you like so. You find good people in the local environment.
I do strongly recommend a visit to local store Thymallus in Ruzomberok and get some Nymphs and information about the current hatch. Same recommendation for Esox store in Liptovský Mikulás, get in touch with the owner and ask for some of his genuine dry flies, wets, and nymphs. His own inventions returned me a couple of outstanding bites and fights which I will never forget. We might get back to this later again.
Summary:
Revúca: Revúca 3-3220-4-1 P* For Beginner, Advanced and Expert Fishermen
Accomodation: Contact us. Several Option for every Budget
Licenses: Local bar, Thymallus Ruzomberok, Esox L. Mikulás we can help you
Guiding: talk to a local or contact us, we can help you
P* Trout water regulations
