I returned to service my floating islands anchored in the lakes in the northern part of our country, I took my fly-fishing friend Vojta on a work brigade, and surprisingly, after one and half day work we found time for a half day fishing in the Ohře River, which is the best trout and grayling river in our country. The discharge in the river was ideal, we started with nymphs, but after very short time I noticed first hatching olives and also first rising fish, so I replaced nymphs by my favourite olive emerger, the olive shuttlecock size 16. We caught about 45 fish together, Vojta lost one good brown trout and my best fish was also brown of 44 cm, caught on nymph in one deep pool in the and of the day. I caught about 10 graylings of size 26-28 cm, and my friend Ondra, local fisheries manager, told me that this fish were stocked in Spring and they are only 1,5 years old, the river is very nourishing, hopefully cormorants will not kill them during Winter.

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I have one project aimed on floating wetlands in the north-west part of our country, which is famous for the largest Czech trout river named Ohře. Surprisingly, I always find my fly-fishing gear during my field trips to this region

River is really cold as it flows from big reservoirs, and it is full of weed beds which hide deep pools with trophy trout, a brown trout over 70 cm is caught there every year, fish over 40 cm are not rare. Dry fly fishing for this monsters belongs to the cream of the fly fishing in our country. Fishing is not easy there, fish are under high fishing pressure so they are relatively spooky, and movement in the river is demanding due to large weed beds, slippery bottom and deep danger pools. To catch 3-4 fish per hour is a good result. If you see a rising fish, it is always worth to go there and try to catch it.

Last time I was there in August and I spent one afternoon and one morning in the river. Fishing was great, fish were occasionally but continuously rising all the time, so I was mainly fishing with different patterns of dry fly. I was not so lucky to meet a monster, but few browns over 40 cm were not bad, and the rainbow which took my new emerger pattern tied according a YouTube video from a Spanish Champion made my day. See you in Autumn

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I visited Ohře River last weekend of November. Milan Janus called this river “River of rivers” as it is the biggest trout river in the Czech Republic which flows from Nechranice Reservoir, its water is relatively cold as the reservoir is deep and it is full of nutrients, the river is therefore full of weed and it hosts a lot of food for trout. It is the only river in our country, where you can regularly catch a brown trout over 50 cm. Almost everybody of my friends has already visited this river this season, but I found time at least now at the end of the season. I asked my friends from České Budějovice for some advice and I also called local otters Ondra and Venca.

I arrived at about 11 o´clock and Ondra and Venca were waiting for me and they took care of me like a baby, I was gifted by successful flies (local version of PTN jigs) and brunch, they shoved me best places and let me go first. We caught about 40 fish between us, mostly browns, the best fish attacked 50 cm as you can see on pictures, I caught only two fish of about 40 cm. We caught also few rainbows, small brook trout and grayling. Not a bad day in the very end of the season, hopefully I will come again next year.

It is great that local angling authority in cooperation with fishermen’s initiative introduced relatively strict rules of fishing (protection of brown trout and grayling) , proceeds regular stocking and mainly cooperates with hunters in fight against cormorants. More big browns in river means better natural reproduction, which is key. Well done.

The last picture I made for my kids to show them how is produced hop, the green gold of the Czech Republic and the essential ingredient of our beer

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My mates visited Ohře river one week ago and they get some nice fish, hope they will take boss there next time

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