Weather is extremely warm this year in November, however, when I checked posts from last year, it was not too different. We had bank holiday last Thursday November 17th, we celebrate this day “Day of fight for freedom and democracy”, this day in 1939 were closed Czech universities by Nazis and after 50 years in 1989, students protest started main part of “Velvet revolution” which resulted in the fall of the communism in the Eastern Europe.

The weather had been rainy from night, but the best way to celebrate this important day was of course fishing and in the late afternoon when the rain stopped I went to Vltava for a short visit.  I caught 6 rainbows within one hour and the last one was invited for dinner, I made three-course menu, as a starter we had touts with meat from tail marinated in the lemon juice, Dijon mustard and herbs, next we had fish soup and the main meal was grilled fillet served on mashed potatoes with Swiss chard.

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Another cold front came on Friday and we got our first frost and snowfall, about 10 cm of snow fell during Saturday.  I didn’t even count on fishing this weekend, but on Sunday afternoon an unexpected window appeared in my busy schedule and the weather also improved, so I packed my things and went to Vltava 24. I met David who was just finishing, he caught 5 rainbows on nymphs, so I started where David left off and he made me a few pictures. The low sun and nearby shower even conjured up a rainbow in the sky, so I thought I’d hope to see some rainbows too.

David was successful with black nymphs, so I used similar patterns, but water started to get a little muddy from the melting snow and nymphs did not working and it was necessary to use something more distinctive … in a fluorescent orange colour . I caught three more rainbows in the end of the pool after David, then I continued downstream and I caught one trout in every nice spot ending up with number seven. Not a bad day in November

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In the end of May, the evening sport was great in Boršov nad Vltavou despite the slightly cloudy water after the rains. We met with Franta in the camp, I saw one rising fish already from car, but Franta was in the river sooner, so I had privilege of recording the entire fight Surface of the river was full of insect, both sedge and different species of olives. We caught about 20 fish between us, I caught my fish mainly on wet flies.  I found it more productive as rainbows travelled during rising and team of wets had had a larger radius of action then a dry fly.

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I had free Sunday, weather was nice, so I decided to visit the Vltava River, my plan was to start a little downstream and next to go to Vyšší Brod for the afternoon hatch of olives. I passed Český Krumlov and stopped for a moment at the bridge, which creates border between the fisheries Vltava 26 and Vltava 27. Two fish rising just under the bridge pulled me from my car and after few minutes of observation I spotted another three rising rainbows, so I did no waiting for anything and run to the river. The first fish I caught on dry fly, it was rainbow of about 30 cm, but I found out, that fish were moving during rising, so it was difficult to localise them and to catch them with the dry fly. I decided to try wet fly, which I use mainly for fishing of rising rainbows (I observed similar behaviour also in Vltava 24, rainbows always move, sometimes you can thing, that there is rising five fish in the pool and it is only one). I made cats from three different March-brown-style wet flies size 14, I used tippet of 0,14 mm and covered first rising fish. The fish responded immediately and during playing of it, I saw another circle on the surface. I had great 30 minutes of fishing, I caught about 10 bows. Suddenly I saw another two fishermen next to me, one was upstream and the second one was downstream. Both were fishing with floaters and worms and they almost surrounded me, after first few seconds of surprise I realised, that I was fishing in the non-trout section of river where life baits are allowed.  I decided to move, firstly I don´t like so intimate society, and secondly, there was no more rising fish. When I sat to the car, I had call from Jaromír, who was fishing in Vyšší Brod, and he told me, that water discharge in river was increased and he is moving downstream to me. We met at another good spot, but I was not fishing anymore, the wet fly session satisfied me, so I was only observing Jaromír for a while, enjoyed a little sunbathing in the late autumnal sun and I went home.

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I have been working hard for the last two weeks as we have the deadline for reports from our projects in the end of January, so the cold weather and the high flow in the Vltava river did not mind me. But, today at three in the morning, I finished the last report and sent it to my colleagues for the last check, I was sleeping till ten, next I arranged some other important things, and at about half past one after lunch, I noticed bright sunshine penetrating the heavy cloud cover. It was the best impulse to stop everything, to pack my fly fishing gear and despite the the high flow to head to the river. Honza and Franta could not join me, so I was there alone. The flow was about 28 m3/s, but the water was relatively clear, no problem for a fisherman of my figure, and I decided to try a team of the jig-blobs which I recently tied from the fritz which I got from my friend Toby Merigan, Funky Flytying.

I saved blank by the third cast …. and in one hour and half, I had 10 takes, I touched 7 fish, and the last one I touched relatively strongly to the head and invited him for dinner   Franta visited me on the way home from work, he arrived just in the time when I was finishing my fishing. He made the photo of the last fish and he asked me to lent my rod for few casts while I was changing my clothes … and he caught two trouts from the bank

Just now I´m studying comments from my colleagues in the reports, it will be again a long night …..

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After snow strom and rains, almost all rivers in our region were flooded, so I decided to visit my cottage and prepare some things for windsurfing and next to go to Vltava 29 Devil stones , which flows from Lipno lake and it is always fishable, and next to go to Květoňov. On the way to cottage I came around to Bruno for coffee and found him just packing things for fishing so he joined me.

It was still very could, in the mountains was still about 30 cm of snow, and water in Vltava was a little dirty, so fish did not cooperate to much, we caught about 20 fish between us including some nice browns and one rainbow in one and half hour. Not bad start of the day, I´m always satisfied if I catch at least one fish.

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Next we moved to Květoňov, Bruno is mainly zander-fishing specialist in Lipno lake and he had never been there, so I prepared rod a leader for him, demonstrated casting, how to move lures and how to hang before recasting, and I gave him rod and went to prepare my rod. After few seconds Bruno lifted rod and a fish was on …. and he caught zander Next he hooked also pike but it bit the leader. Simply predatory fish specialist.

I caught two rainbows on lures and 7 on dry fly including nice 47 long older fish which was jumping like salmon, great fun with 5 weight rod and 0,14 mm leader.

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I changed management of the the Květoňov lake to the the “non salmonid management” three years ago, which mainly means that the lake is open for fishing all year around except the time when it is frozen (salmonid waters are annually closed from November 1st till April 16th). It gives us a few more weeks of fishing in the early spring every year, more over the fishing in lakes for trouts is great in this time of the year as we have very often nice warm days in the and of March and early April,water is clear, fish are hungry. I visited the lake on Friday afternoon, I had some work in this area and surprisingly I have my gear in the car I finished work at about half past three and I was speeding to Květoňov. Weather was warm but very windy, and there was a strip of the free water along one bank of about 30 metres wide, rest of the lake was still frozen. When I reached the lake, I surprisingly noticed a rising fish. I started with the slow intermediate line and my favourite team of lures, two black and one white. The first take came relatively quickly and it was real ecstasy to feel the strong pull in the line after such a long winter. I love takes during the lake fishing, when you feel the fish in your hand. Finally, I caught 9 nice overwintered fish including two fish over 40 cm, all full finned in a great condition. I had another 10 – 15 takes, what a nice two hours of fishing, and I finished just before the coming cold front and heavy rain.

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Beautiful spring weather reached our country after 2 months of strong winter, so I could not resist, took one day of and went with Honza to our trophy water Vltava 24, and we caught few rainbows . The biggest surprises was, that this fish had been stocked in October 2016 and have not lost weight yet. The fish on the last picture had 63 cm and 3,7 kg. Natural imitative flies worked well, the best was the orange blob Tobi came later and he caught also barbel and chub, on the blob of course After fishing, we moved to a restaurant, sat to the sunlit open terrace and had lunch and few beers, what a great life .

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Not only rainbows are in our trophy water, strict rules and less fishing pressure enable to grow up also other fish species. One day in December I was there with big streamers with Honza. I found one nice fish from railway bridge and I was navigating Honza during casting and moving of fly (it is not correct to call this 25 cm long monster as fly), he caught the pike on the very first cast, it was clear, that it would be a highlight of the New Year Eve, I cooked it with vegetables, lemon and on the white wine I was not so successful, few pikes of similar size only followed my flies. We saw one pike which looked like three, I estimated size of 120 cm. I caught only one barbel under wing My line was to heavy, I should shorten sinking head to about 4 m. Another day , Honza caught pike of 95 cm, another crocodile, how many rainbows it eats a day ?:-)

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Tobi goes there sometimes also with spinning rod, it is true, that it is sometimes better than to stay in the ice cold water. One afternoon he caught there 17 fish including nice pike, chub, rainbow and also perch. I have to try it next year.

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I had withdrawal symptoms as I had had fly fishing rod in my hand at least month ago for the last time. Flow has been high in all waters in our region because of rainy summer and I was spending holiday at Lipno lake so I was fishing for zander. But it is another story. Last week I had twice dream about fly fishing, so it was high time to undertake an action. Coincidentally, I met my old buddy Vítek Misar on Monday and he told me, that he was in Vyšší Brod despite of flow over 20 m3/s last weekend and he caught nice fish, so on Tuesday afternoon I picked him up at his summer house. Sky was full of strom clouds, but after “detailed analysis of satelit pictures and animations” we decided that we are not on the trajectory of storms and we headed to Petrol station in Vyšší Brod (in fact we looked to the sky and said “it will miss us” . At six we stayed at the bank of Vltava river, it was nice to be back after one month. I was fishing with extended Hanak Alpen nymph rod size 4, stronger leader HC 0,14 and also nymphs size 14-12 according to formula:  high flow – stronger gear – bigger nymphs – bigger fish. We caught altogether about 40 fish including one rainbow of 46 cm, three smaller rainbows of about 35 cm and  three browns over 30 cm. All fish were in great condition, what a great evening. Just before dark, after few light showers, it started hatch of small olives and fish started rising, so I simply cut of nymphs, put one dry-fly to the point of nymphing leader, removed extension part of the rod and caught last three brownies on the dry fly. The change of setup took me about 2 minutes.

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On Thursday I was watching radar pictures of moving storms whole day and all clouds were travelling in right direction far away from Vyšší Brod. Problem was, that just in the time when we arrived a storm was developed just over our heads, poring rain closed us in petrol station where we met David. Espresso and cake were not bad and we had time for some old stories. One hour later when rain stopped we decided to go just under the dam as  water should be there relatively clear and it was good idea. David caught rainbow of 49 cm, I caught about 20 fish including brown, dace and perch both on nymphs and streamer, top of the day was the nice brownie.

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I was at a business trip in Prague and after I arrived home in the evening I checked website of the Czech hydrology institute (as every day ten times ) whether it had not been already decreased the flow in the Vltava river, and what I found was great, the flow dropped down by 10 m3/s …. I packed my fishing bag in the same minute and I planed to call Tobi in the morning …. and at 7 o’clock I got message from Tobi to check website …. we met at river at about lunch time. It is not necessary to add anything more, it was orange blob symphony Bad luck that I got a flu and could not return this week and I also missed Tobi´s 40th birthday celebration, according to pictures which I saw on facebook it had to be epochal ….

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