It was time to visit trophy section Vltava 24, I met there with Tobi and we were testing different flies – Tobi was fishing “nymph chasing blob”, and I was fishing “blob chasing squirmy” Both teams of flies worked well, I was using Z-Axis size 5 and 0,18 tippet, big fish requires appropriate equipment. Mainly the agressive bleak tested my gear

We caught 22 rainbows between us this afternoon, which was great start of the autumnal season. 

 

I visited river after work with Michal, in one hour and half we landed 10 rainbows between us in size 40 – 55 cm, few on blobs but majority on smaller jigs, and we finished in the local pub by a great snack, no more words are needed, simple perfect life 

One fish was injured probably by a cormorant, but it looked that it could survive, injury was not deep.

I found on FB some pictures of my friends –  Vojta, Ivan, Franta and Franta – from the same water 

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 …..

January is always busy month in my job, we are finishing reports from just finished  projects, writing annual reports from running projects, planing work for next season and also starting new projects. I was not thinking about fishing at all, more over it has been blizzard or rain outdoors since new year, and river has been murky. But, on Thursday, I finished some important work and arranged a lot of things and I noticed sunshine penetrating the low clouds after the lunch. I checked flow in the river (18 m3/s, 1,2 °C) and outdoor thermometer (+2°C), it looked promising, so I packed my gear and called Tobi (too busy) and Honza (too lazy) to join me, so I went fishing alone. At about 2 pm I was at river, water was surprisingly relatively clear, and in two hours I caught 15 rainbows and one chub on team of blobs, more over I saw one rising fish (and got it on the emerging blob ), the biggest fish had about 50 cm. Honza finally came to visit me and he made the picture with the nice silver trout. At 16:30 I was back in front of the screen of my computer with brain full of fresh oxygen and blood  full of adrenaline
SAGE Z-Axis size 5 and tippet 0,16 mm fluorocarbon HC worked well, however, 0,18 mm would be maybe more sure for this hard-fighting fish.

Next day the situation was similar, I finished a meeting with a major of a town close to České Budějovice at about 13:00 and bright sunshine did not allowed me to go back to office. I called Tobi, we set our meeting at 14:00 at river and I was hurrying home for equipment. At 2 p.m. we were in river. Finally, we hooked 18 fish between us in two hours, I caught half fish on blob and the other half on the orange tag size 16. Memorable were my first which had about 2 kg, the next two fish caught together on the team of tequila blobs and the beautifully coloured trout caught on the nymph.  We finished our fishing session by the great goulash in local pub “Poslední štace” I thing, that this season is running more then satisfactorily.

 

Mild weather enabled us to enjoy another two superb days fishing in Vltava 24. On the New Year’s Eve we met with Franta Hanák, Franta Tobiáš and Honza Vender at the railway bridge. Flow was a little higher but water was relatively clear, Franta Hanák decided to try to catch a pike, rest of the group focused on nymphing. We caught 8 rainbows between us and Franta finished the day by a decent pike. The great day and also the great year we finished in the local pub in Včelná by a great lunch.

On the New Year afternoon I picked up Tobi, he had just sobered after the party, he made me coffee and lunch and at about 14:00 we were at Vltava river in Boršov. Water flow was a little higher comparing yesterday and water was also slightly muddy, as there was a rain during the night. When we were preparing rods, we saw a rising fish just in front of us. Tobi immediately covered it by first cast and got it by an olive emerger. To be honest, we really did not await that we could catch the first fish of the new year by a dry fly. Another rising fish he got on the blob
To be short, in two hours we hooked 21 rainbows of size 40 – 60 cm, no more words are needed, simply superb day. Most fish we caught on the orange blob, this is always a great pattern in this water in winter. After fishing, we noticed that the local pub in the camp ”Poslední štace” owned by our friend and fisherman Honza Čerkl is open, so we finished the great day by the delicious lentil soup and goulash. Keep it up!!!

In the end of every season, I always focus on fishing in our trophy water Vltava 24 which is located 5 kilometres far from my town, days are short, weather and water are cold, so it is not good for a long trip and a long fishing. Few hours fishing after lunch are always enough, and you can have really nice day. More over, Honza has small boat in one part above a weir and there are many big pikes. I was not lucky for a big pike, I caught only few smaller babies, but Honza got few monsters attaching 1 m border and followers which did not take were much bigger, of course

But we also tried trout fishing, if the water was muddy, I successfully used team of traditional flies – orange blob jig and squirmy , and in the clear water, small jigs size 14 – 16  worked best and also the traditional czech nymphs of the size 12 in the green colour.

Top of the season came in the last week, when a warming came after short frosty period and water was very clear. First afternoon, I caught 14 rainbows size 40 – 50 cm and one chub in an hour and a half, all on the long nymph using 0,16 mm fluorocarbon Hanák Competition and small jigs size 16 tied on reinforced Hanák jig hook size 16. I used SAGE Z-Axis rod size 5, my favourite rod for the trophy water. I could not believe, how many fish is in the water, I was fishing maybe 60 metres of river, in fact, I caught all fish in 3 pools.

I returned back after one day, with the same setup, and after two nice fish of about 40 cm I hooked something heavy and I knew, that it would be real trest of the equipment. After about 5 minutes, a monster let me lift it to the surface of the river, and I thanked to Saint Peter that I took the landing net with me After another 5 minutes, I got it to the net. I release a lot of fish, but I´m sorry, this was an exceptional fish and a great dinner for two families The fish had 64 cm and 3,48 kg …

I always smile, when we discus in our regional board or in the main board of the Czech Angling Union about fishing rules with people who don´t go fishing. I always say, go fishing, and you will see, what is better for fishing, don´t sit in the office and don´t listen liars and whimpers!!!

I had another great day in Vltava 24, this time with Michal Rypl, who was novice at the fishery. So I took him to the all interesting places, showed him all the secret flies and also how to fish in this water. It’s not as easy as you would expect, fish change their position, last week they were only in the deeper and the slowest parts, this time they moved a little a stayed in the end of riffles in mouths of pools and along sides of the main current, still relatively deep. Nymphing is still the most effective fishing, streamer is too quick, I was fishing with nymphs behind another colleague who was using a D5 line and streamers, he was without a take and I caught 7 fish after him. Not only blob-jig worked, also PTN with an orange or pink neck, in the sunny periods with a gold bead, in the cloudy periods with a silver one. Size 12 was the best, leader 0,18 mm HC. Michal is a good pupil and he took my advice quickly as you can see in the gallery.
I had a nice story, I tried two colours of the blob-jig, one in the point and the other in the dropper, I hooked a rainbow of about 2 kg on the point fly, the fish was jumping a little and took about 15m of line, but next it calmed down and I pulled it to me. I could not lift it from bottom in the strong current, so I moved a little downstream to be under the fish and I was preparing the net, and suddenly two rainbows jumped from the water, both of them had a blob-jig in the mouth and I was clear. For this case, 0,18 mm is not enough

.. but I don´t thing that  After one week of skiing holiday with kids I had enough “home points”  so I was checking possibilities where to “wet a knot”during weekend. The strong cold front was moving through our country from north east during Saturday, but the temperature in the South Bohemia was above zero whole day whilst the rest of our country was gripped by blizzard. The discharge in the Vltava river was ideal, our fishery Vltava 24 was stocked by fresh fish on Thursday, so it was no doubt where to go. We met with Honza at the railway bridge at 10 a.m. and we decided to check the lower part of the fishery. There was already several fishermen in the water and I noticed a few bent rods. I helped to one funny guy to land his good fish as he had too small net (we say, that is was just good for butterflies …)
To cut a long story short, we both caught about 10 rainbows within approximately 3 hours, all fish of size 45 – 55 cm, both overwintered fish and stockies. I tried several colours of blob, and also nymphs and squirmies, all flies worked well.

On Sunday, it was too could for me (-8°C), but Tobi, who returned from skiing on the Sunday afternoon, could not resist and persuaded Jirka to go fishing and they also caught over ten fish. Jirka get the fish which smashed my leader two weeks ago. Next week it will be warmer …

The Lipno Reservoir was almost full after Christmas and in the mountains, there was almost 2 m of snow, so the Vltava River Authority decided to release water from the reservoir and make enough space for the spring melting. The discharge from the lake had been 20 m3/s for the last 4 weeks, which resulted in the value of over 30 m3/s in the Vltava 24 in Boršov, although the weather was relatively mild during the last weeks, the flow in the Vltava river was too high for fishing. So I paid attention to finish some work, to preparation of the European Championship and also to tying flies. Till last Friday ….

On Friday, the discharge from the reservoir was decreased to 10 m3/s and the weather forecast promised for the weekend sunny and temperatures above zero  …

On Saturday morning, I watched the phenomenal performance by Ester Ledecká during the Winter Olympics (I was windsurfing with her in the same bay in Greece last summer ) and next I got two very similar messages from Tobi and Honza, who also noticed the drop of the discharge. We settled the meeting  in the camp at 13:30. I was there 13:00, Tobi 13:05 and Honza 13:10 . We always compete and who is the first in the water has always an advantage

The river looked great, only the cold front coming from the north partly covered sky by clouds, so the temperature stayed under the zero for the whole afternoon. I was going upstream from the camp with Tobi, Honza decided to go a little bit downstream. I was fishing with blob in the point and nymph on the dropper, same Tobi. I found a suitable place in the first pool, and during the third cast I saw visible hit to the line, I struck, and I was missing the point fly, probably a monster fish. I took another blob from my fly box, and after a few casts I had the second take, and on the blob was another fish with the first blob in its tail. So the story about the big fish was away, but the decent rainbow in the net warmed my frozen fingers and the first blob returned to the box. Next strike I got a few casts later, and it was a silver full finned rainbow over 60 cm, we were observing each other eye to eye for a few moments, I saw the blob in the corner of its mouth, and I imagined great fillets, the fish understood what I was thinking about, and ran upstream, took all my leader, nymphing line, a few metres of backing and smashed my leader over a stone. So I went to the bank to make a new leader and let Tobi the hot spot. He had another three takes and 2 fish in my hand. Great start of the day.
Next we moved downstream to the next pool and we caught there another 7 fish between us. While we were having a break on the bank in a short sunny period to thaw frozen reels, rods and leaders, Jan Čerkl, owner of the local pub in the camp and keen fly-fisherman, brought us espresso and small beer. What a great service and a great life . Honza had also few takes in the downstream part.

The best fly was orange blob jig as usually in this time of the year, but we got a few fish also on the “traditional” jigs like Orange tag and PTN. I was fishing extended Hanák Alpen nymph rod size 5, I started with 0,16 mm fluorocarbon, but I replaced it by 0,18 after losing the big fish.

Dear fly fishing friends, first of all, I wish you Happy New Year full of love, happiness, contentment and, of course, fishing. From the upcoming year 2018, I will cooperate on all activities connected with fly fishing with Patrik Jedlička under one brand CzechFlyFish.com. Patrik Jedlička is my friend, great fly-fisherman and owner of the luxury hotel Annín at Otava river. If you would like to visit us, let me know and we can arrange details.

January 1st – first trip of the year to Vltava 24

Mild weather on 1st of January was simply irresistible, so I called Tobi after lunch weather he had already bought fishing permit for the Vltava 24 and if he was already sobering. Answers was “YES, of course, Im just packing my gear” ….. and we met at the bridge in Boršov with Šindy in 15 minutes. After the windy morning, the west wind calmed down and sun was peeking out of the clouds, it was about 8 degrees above zero, simply ideal conditions for the winter fishing. In 1,5 hour, we hooked nice 11 rainbows of size 45-55 cm, a few barbel and coarse fish, not a bad start of the season, what do you thing? I saw also few hatching olives and midges and also a rainbow rising. Do you know another water in the Czech Republic where you can catch fish such quality in January? As the new year, so throughout the year