I took my colleague from work Jakub who is starting with fly fishing to one day trip to Warm Vltava. We were in water at about lunch time, as it was nothing hatching, we started with nymphs and caught few graylings. We awaited a massive hatch of olives, but it took only one hour, still we caught some nice fish on dry. It total, we caught about 25 graylings, what a nice day.
As it is middle of October, so we had probably last WS day on our lake, so it is time to evaluate, it was not a bad season, we have had good wind in Lipno from April, mainly June and July were great. Hopefully I will have time for some good fishing before the end of the year and coming winter will be nice and I will make some good winter windy sport, this time without injury 
In the middle of September we organised our traditional competition in Vltava River under Rožmberk. Czech A-team was competing in the World and therefore there was a chance to get a good result for the rest of competitors. I helped with preparation of draw and database as usually and I also tied some flies. I prepared three rods: one standard nymphing, one dry-dropper and one with dry fly.
I started in beat B11, place looked well, I started from the upper border and caught first fine fish under one big stone by the third cast. I was gradually fishing the most promising places, including the opposite bank, and about 15 minutes before the end I had 9 fish, so I decided to try the best pool with the dry-dropper rod. In 10 minutes I had no take, so I picked up the nymphing rod again and caught last fish just before the end. The 10 minutes with the different rod cost me probably a medal, if I had continued nymphing, I would probably have caught one more fish … Libor had also 10 fish and his biggest fish was 1 cm longer then mine, so I was third in the session. In the next round, I was keeping my nymphing rod whole the session and 9 fish brought me second place. In the last session, I was fishing one of the best places in Sector A, there was cascade of pools at the opposite bank. Tomáš, who was fishing before me, caught 11 fish on nymph, so decided to try dry fly to have better chance to catch fish in shallow parts under trees. But it was not good and I wasted 15 minutes, so I took the nymphing rod and finished with 7 fish and Libor had also 7 fish and his biggest fish was 2 cm longer then mine … In total, I was 7th, which is not bad, but one more fish or few centimetres could gave me bronze medal, it is always about one fish or one centimetre. And in this style of competition, when sessions take only 75 minutes, the most important thing is to make proper decisions.
We caught 1088 fish, there was caught few nice trout but the majority were coarse fish like dace, chub and roach, which is not good for trout water.
We will host four subsequent World fly fishing championships in the coming years and Mario Podmanik, President of the FIPS MOUCHE, came for an inspection last week. We visited competition sectors and hotels, talked about programme, rules modifications, budget, and other things connected with the organisation of this events, but we also drank few beers, talked about fishing and life and fished the competition sectors. We expect that all fish species will by eligible and minimal size limit will be 20 cm.
We started in the Malše River under Kaplice, which will host one 3,5 km long sector of the Ladies comp and maybe also Youth comp. I had already visited lower part with Finnish ladies and middle part with Czech and English ladies, so we went to the upper part of the planned competition sector. This smaller river hosts good mixed stock composed mainly by coarse fish, we caught chub, dace, bleak, roach, and perch, but brown trout created about 25 % of catches.
We expect that dominant fishing technique will be dry fly combined with nymphing and dry-dropper technique, maybe also wet fly. We were fishing about three hours and caught about 40 fish between us, I hope that fishing during championship will be at least as good. Mario was fishing only dry fly, I combined nymphing and dry fly and at the end I caught few fish also on wet march brown.
We stayed in the Penzion Herbertov and in the morning I took Mario to my favourite place above Rožmberk. We again caught a lot of fish, I hooked three rainbows of about 50 cm, but I got only one, the other two smashed my 0,12 mm tippet. We also caught few brook trouts, many brownies, and in the pockets along the banks also few cyprinid fish like chub, dace and roach. Next we moved to Sport Hotel Zátoň, which will be one of the bases of the championships, and next we visited Restaurant Rybářská bašta for their famous fish soup and kind talk with Franta Kůrka, owner of the Restaurant and local fly fishing legend.
We finished in the upper part of the “Devil stones” under the dam of the Lipno lake, fishing was not so easy, but I managed to catch about 15 countable fish in 2 hours including nice brook trout (on the very first cast) and one bigger brown trout (in the same place). Mario caught about 10 fish, my local knowledge of this difficult water gave me a smaller advantage . We started with nymphs, but finished with dries just before sunset to be at home safe and sound.
It was a pleasant start to the demanding work that will last more than two years, so hopefully everything will go according to our expectations and to the satisfaction of all participants.
After few visits of smaller streams, I was missing a bigger river and visited Vltava 24 and Vltava 28. One afternoon I met my friend Petr on Vltava 24. Water was low and clear, my aim was to try fishing for pike or zander with wobblers and I had not a single take in two hours while Peter caught over 10 rainbows on nymphs. My aim was also to try fishing in river with new egg flies, which we frequently use in still-waters nowadays, and which I call “The dark side of the fly fishing” And it works ….
Next day I went to Vltava 28 to my favourite meander under Rožmberk, I caught about 30 fish on nymph or dry dropper, the most abundant was surprisingly roach, but I caught all riverine species including nice rainbow. The highlight of the day was the grass snake that passed me, some of my friends would probably go crazy. And “the dark side” works also for chub and roach ….
This year, end of June and July was great on Lipno lake, there was windy few days every week and fishing was also good, I caught few carp and zander, and also one nice pike, one evening I took my son Fanda to the boat and we were lucky, we caught two zander in 15 minutes I´m posting few pictures.
I helped to arrange a cooperation between the Czech and English Ladies Teams, Czech ladies went to practise lake fishing in England in April and English ladies came to practice river fishing in the beginning of July. Our friend Vlasta offered us his weekend-house located just on the river bank in Rožmberk, Czech ladies ensured catering and bier and I also visited them for two days, we were talking about the World Ladies championship 2024 which we will host in our waters next May, and we were also fishing the championship sectors. We started in Vltava under Vyšší Brod and next we moved to the Malše River. Despite of really hot weather fishing was not bad and I hope they enjoyed the trip and a little improved their river fishing, good luck in British Columbia in September and see you next year in South Bohemia.
Jirka visited me for two days, we went to Penzion Herbertov to meet Ludvík and to talk about reconstruction of local cottages, which Jirka as an interior designer will help with, we were talking about oncoming fly fishing championships and about czech national teams and we were also fishing, I took him to the boat for zander and we visited also Vltava River. First day we were in Devil stones, Jirka with his fine dry dropper system ruined me , but second day we were under Vyšší Brod, discharge was a little higher and it suited more to me, mainly few nice brook trouts and one big rainbow who I invited to dinner made my day .
Finland ladies asked me to help with organisation of the short practice trip before the World Championship 2024. We spent also one day fishing together, I took them to Malše River as I plan to prepare one or two sectors for the Ladies Championship on this river. I don’t thing that it will be safe for them in Devils Stones, I will let Devils Stones for the Masters We started in the lower part nearby village Pořešín and to be honest I was really wondering what it would be like as I had not been fishing this part for ages. I was surprised that it was not bad, conditions were ideal, water was a little higher after rain, weather was warm and cloudy, and river hosted mixed fish stock composed by brown trout occupying ripples and cyprinid fish (chub, dace, roach, bleak) living in slower places, we caught fish on nymphs, wets and also on dries, we caught few chub of 40 cm, biggest trout had about 30 cm. After lunch at new Kebab takeaway we moved upstream to Skoronice, the girls tried a small intra-team race and I moved upstream, I was fishing only with dry-fly and I caught mostly brown trout and also occasionally grayling. I had to leave at about 5 p.m as my daughter Anna had a concert at the music school, but Franta took care of the girls and invited them to dinner, we always share work inside of the Hanák Team
Warmer and windy weather finally arrived to our country and I have to divide my free time between windsurfing and fishing …. I can manage it so far May and June are usually best months for WS at Lipno Lake, but May was very cold this year and there was not suitable wind, hopefully the Boreás will make it up to us in June.
