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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Some of my friends asked me last week where  I would going at the opening day of the season. April 16th is the opening day in our trout waters. My answer was, that I opened this season on January 1st as Vltava 24 offers great fishing whole year around. I don´t like the  rush along our trout waters during the first weekend of the season. On Saturday the 16th morning, I looked out of the window, it was cloudy and 5°C, I made breakfast for my wife and returned to bed. Next we were watching a ladies tennis match between Czech rep. and UK which we won . At the lunchtime, the weather improved a little so I decided to visit Vltava 24, discharge in the river was low, maybe it could show up a hatch of something.

When I arrived at the river, my friend Honza, owner of the local restaurant, had just finished grilling of chickens, so I started my fishing trip with half of the chicken, coffee and small Pilsner, not a bad start.  During the lunch, I talked with other fishermen who came to the pub to warm up after the morning session, all of them caught something, and they told me, that morning was very cold and very busy, they estimated at least 20 people fishing in the stretch in the town.

I decided to visit lower part of the fishery, maybe there could be still some fish from last Autumn. I was welcomed by a massive hatch of the spring olives and by Sun which had just broken through the clouds. I was fishing for about an hour and a half, and I caught 5 nice overwintered fish in size 45 – 60 cm, all of them were in the great condition, but all of them had some injuries from predators, probably from otter.

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Rest of the weekend we spent at our cottage at the Lipno Lake with whole family, I prepared windsurfing gear for incoming season, we also underwent some Easter customs (painting of eggs, making of whip, carolling, drinking, overeating …) and I also tried carp fishing and I made some pictures of yachtsmen and of the spring nature.

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Higher flow in the river and relatively cold nights slowed down a little bit the spring development of the life in the river. The flow is temporary decreased only during weekends, so last Sunday afternoon I arranged date with Tobi to find out if anything is going on. Stoneflies roamed all around the water and above the water and I saw one rising rainbow during preparation of rod, and I caught it ten minutes later. It was the only rising fish which I saw. I caught few fish on nymphs, also on blob, including the perch, and Tobi, who was fishing only team of dry flies all afternoon, finally caught two rainbows rising just before sunset. Weather forecast for next week is nothing special, so we will see what will April bring.

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It had looked like it wouldn’t be real winter in our country this year, but it finally arrived in the end of February, we had nice spring holiday with family on mountains, and the cold weather didn’t attract me much to the water. Květoňov lake froze again. But on Sunday, the withdrawal symptoms were too severe and I set off to the river despite the air temperature that barely climbed above zero. I started with blob and 0,18 mm tippet as there were stocked some fresh fish one week ago, but I had no take for about 30 minutes. So I decided to change my tactic and I used 0,15 mm tippet and 16 size nymphs and PTN nymph made my day. In two hours, I caught 12 trout including nice overwintered rainbow, few brooks and also one small brown. I met Tobi and few other friends, we talked a little on the bank during warm-up breaks, simply nice afternoon. When I returned home, I was in the bath for an hour

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I visited Vltava 24 for three times in January, it was always not bad, but I made no picture. Blobs were not working well as fish were a little smarter after high autumnal and Christmas fishing pressure, therefore it was necessary to use smaller nymphs and also to reduce diameter of tippet to 0,14 mm. During first two weeks of February, there was high discharge in the river, I had too much work and we also paid attention to other winter sports (indoor beach volleyball, winter windsurfing, fly tying, …. . The drop of discharge together with the warming pulled me back to the water yesterday afternoon. I was fishing mainly with dry dropper system, I finally hooked 9 rainbows in two hours, majority in the range of 45 – 50 cm and in the great condition, the best fly was PTN with orange bead. I saw one fish rising and one stonefly hatching, and also first spring flowers blossoming. Spring is coming, I expect first hatch of stonefly in two weeks !!!

Last trout was invited for dinner, meat from the tail was marinated in the lemon juice, mixed with teaspoon of Dijon mustard and herbs and served on toast, from the front part of the trout I made pasta with vegetable, white wine and Feta cheese, simply great two-course meal for five people from one trout

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We say, that weather was like on a swing. Few days frost, few days warmer, and finally, before the New Year Eve, temperature records were falling with temperatures reaching 15°C.
On 24th morning, I had everything prepared and finished, and I found myself unnecessary at home so I jumped to my car to visit the river. I met few friends with the same experience , so we wished each other all the best and also soaked our flies. I caught few rainbows, surprisingly, the best was the active fishing and I caught also few fish on streamer.

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During Christmas, the temperatures dropped down and rain changed to snowfall, so the winter mood was simple irresistible, so I simply could not resist a I went to the river for at least an hour on 27th morning.

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We have new colleague Jakub and he started with fly-fishing this autumn, he has never fished with nymphs, he has fished mainly with wet flies for chub and other coarse fish in the Otava River close to his home. I gave him one day fishing on Vltava 24 on Dec 30th as the Christmas present. I prepared for him my new Hanák Superb XP 5 size rod and french leader with two smaller nymphs. There was a little busy in the town of Boršov, so I took him to my favourite place under the town, I demonstrated the technique and I gave him some tips how to move in river and send him to first pool, and after few casts he hooked rainbow of about 3 kg I thing, that he is hooked . We finished day with about 12 fish between us, one of the fish had injury on its tail, probably from otter, hopefully it will survive the winter, fish was in relatively good condition.

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The opening day of our fly fishing season is usually 1st of January and we did not missed this date. More over if the date looked so magical and the air temperature was over 10 °C from the morning. We met with Honza, David and Franta at river after lunch, we caught some fish (the biggest fish caught Franta as usually and my first fish of the year was roach ) we told some stories, exchanged some Christmas presents, drunk some drinks, and in the evening, the town hall held fireworks in honour of the start of the fishing season, so I made few pictures. What a nice start of the season.

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After few days of frost, it came relatively mild weather and Peter and me found time to again visit Vltava 24 for a short afternoon session, it was the best way to face the pre-Christmas stress , we caught few rainbows and also small barbel. Peter was fishing with small nymphs, I was trying also a combination with a little bigger and more bright files

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After 6 days of high flow and bad weather, in the end of the week the discharge in the river was decreased and  sun shone on a beautiful day, simple irresistible conditions, I thing, that it is not necessary to comment these pictures. I met Peter and Tobi and I estimate that we caught over 20 fish between us.

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Winter is coming slowly and therefore fishing in Vltava 24 has been still perfect. On Sunday, we met with David after lunch and we enjoyed two hours of nice fishing, we caught some fish on streamer and some on a nymph. At the end of the day we decided to invite the last fish for dinner. I was a little luckier, David lost a big fish, and finally he caught his 50 cm nice rainbow and decided to finish, and when he moved out from the water, I slowly arrived to his place and from the same spot I got the 3,2 cracker (62 cm). December is not bad, and water forecast is promising at least for next week .

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In the end of November, we had first snow and first night frosts, I hate the morning scraping of the windows of my car But…. during these days, we still have temperatures above zero in the afternoon and this is great time for fishing in Vltava 24. Not big traffic in the water, and fish are in the great condition after few weeks in the river. Discharge in the river is usually also low, so the only problem are short days. After few snapped big fish during last days, I use 8 size Sage Z-Axis rod, one fly only and 0,20 mm tippet as every day I can meet a fish over 3 kg and the minimal size of fish is about 1 kg. There are some pictures from last days, my best killing fly was a small zonker-imitation of bullhead.

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