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

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

I visited the Trophy section in the Otava River under the ruin of the Rábí Castle, I met there Honza who was guiding Katka, she had never caught tiger trout, the hybrid between brown trout and brook trout. This fishery is famous for this fish which are produced by a local hatchery.
I prepared two rods, one for a lighter fishing mainly for dry fly (Hanák Superlight 3), and one for a little harder work (Sage Z-Axis 5). I have to say that it was good team of rods for this water, and I caught a nice fish with all the method which I used. I got few graylings (max 38 cm), two brownies and also few smaller rainbows on the dry V-olive, some nice rainbows on the Orange tag nymph used on dry-dropper system, and also few rainbows on nymph and blob, and finally I got one bigger brown and one tiger trout on the streamer (small bullhead), in total I caught about 20 fish, not a bad day
Honza and Katka focused on streamer for the whole day and got few bigger fish, the tiger is really nice and hard fighting  fish.

I was asked by member of the youth team from Slovenia to help with short camp before the World Championship. In  the end, only Nejc Pesjak with his father Juri and team mate Žan could come. We used accommodation in the new apartment of our friend Vlasta in Rožmberk (http://www.milanhladik.cz/?page_id=2852) which is ideal base for fishermen for our region.

We met on Thursday afternoon and we started in Devil stones. After warm up under 33 degrees, for evening hatch we moved to Vltava 28 under Vyšší Brod, and we caught many browns and a lot of fish in size 30 – 40 cm. It was worth staying till night. Friday morning we spent under Petrol station, and we were successful with nymphs, I was lucky and caught brown of 50 cm, one of my best browns from this river, on 3 size Hanák Superlight rod, 18 size jig hook and 0,10 flurocarbon . On Friday afternoon we were resting while shopping in Hanák shop, next Vlasta joined us for evening hatch and we finished with grill party and few bottles of wine. On Saturday morning we moved under Rožmberk, it was big disappointment, we caught only few fish over 20 cm and it was very important for me before the championship and we have to stock some fish to this sector. We finished day back in the Devil stones. It was intensive, but I believe, that boys learned something in our nice rivers.

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.

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.

I decided to check the trout population  in our premium brown trout water. When I arrived to water, I saw few rising fish in a big pool and there were not trouts at the first sight. Later I caught three nice graylings on dry olive, what a surprise. After few minutes, they started rising again, so I use small sedge and I ruined their day for the second time, what they were thinking about me? “Kurva, the same bastard again ”

Next I was going downstream and fishing nymphs, water is full of trouts, after about 50 fish I decided that it was enough for this day and went home

I have also visited few times Vltava 28 in Vyšší Brod, brown trout population was not affected by the flood and there is a lot of fish, I caught also rainbow trout and brook trout and also grayling stocked in May. Evening fishing is never easy in July. I used maybe 15 patterns of dry flies and I caught a fish on all of them, but I did not catch more.

I was asked by Bruno to guide three of his German friends, Thomas, Stephan and Reinhard. We met at 7:00 at the petrol station in Vyšší Brod and moved a little downstream to Herbertov, we were in water at 7:30 and we met immediately few canoes. I asked the guys in boats why they woke up so early and they told me, that they were going directly from bar … Water was nice, flow of 10 m³/s was ideal. Reinhard was beginner, I paid attention to him at first and I made our nymhing setup for him. Thomas and Stephan decided to fish their “German” style with tapered leader and one huge fly in the end. Peter unfortunately broke his rod by very first cast, but I had reserve rod in the car. Fish were active and I presented technique to Reinhard, he practised the fishing quickly and he caught few nice trouts, also Thomas and Stephan had a fish and they started to be interested in the nymphing. Next I joined Stephan and I lent him my rod to try the nymphing technique and as he is experienced fisherman, he mastered it quickly and also caught few trouts. We realised, that flow in river was suddenly increasing and we had to go out, the guy operating the dam upstream probably dropped off  and his head fell to the button … you can see the flow in Vyšší Brod on the picture below … It came so quick that I had no picture from Vltava 28.

We moved to Vltava 29, I made nymphing set-up for all guys and I was fishing with Thomas, we were going about 1 km downstream from the parking place and next we moved together upstream and searched all pockets.  As the sun was high, fishing was not easy and it was necessary to cast to the shadows, under threes and as close to stones as possible, but we caught a lot of fish, we also tried “New Zealand style” with nymph on the point and big dry on the dropper. We finished in a big pool, but we can not catch a fish. But we found out what happened quickly, at first I found otter excrements at bank and next I hooked dace in the mouth of the pool and one kilo pike took it and did not want to give it to me. We finished the nice hot morning in Lesanka pub in Vyšši Brod with “vepřo-knedlo-zelo-kapučíno” (in German: Schweinebraten mit Knödeln und Sauerkraut und Cappuccino, in English: baken pork with dumplings and sauerkraut and cappuccino). Tschüss!

We had to cancel our spring course due to the terrible flood which affected whole republic and mainly the middle and northern parts, 15 people was killed and the damage is estimated at billion EURO…

Three attendants could not cancel their fights, so I asked Martin Musil and we decided to take care about them and to try to find a fishable river, at least to accompany them in pub  I was checking websites with flow in rivers and with meteorological radars almost every hour and I had idea to go to Moravia, the eastern part of our country, which was not affected by rain so heavily, I ordered fishing permits and hotel, but on Thursday June 6th came another storm which raised water also in Moravian rivers, there were no floods, but rivers were unfishable. I had something to do in Vimperk on Thursday morning, so by the way home I visited Warm Vltava and it looked hopefully, water was high but it was already in the river bed and it was clear, downstream from Lenora was to high. Another expected storm missed South Bohemia, so we decided to go to Warm Vltava,  I booked Penzion Lenora and on Friday 7th evening I picked Hendrik Eslin from South Africa and Kai from Finland up at the Prague Airport.

The journey was relatively quick  and on the way we were checking Otava and Volyňka rivers, which were unfortunately unfishable. We arrived Lenora and accommodated in Penzion which is owned by mother of one of my fishing buddy Honza Witner and after few beers and few stories about South African crocodiles and hypo we fall to beds. After great breakfast we headed to the river close to Horní Vltavice, river was higher, but clear, we can say in ideal condition, and fish were hungry. I explained to Hendrik our system of nymphing and almost on the first cast I caught couple of brownies. Fish were concentrated only in some places, mainly on the edges and surprisingly not in the deeper parts and in pools. I can say, that it was nice day, we had great roasted dug with dumplings and cabbage for lunch and I vpersonally caught about fifty fish including few graylings of about 35 cm. Bets fly was red-tag on the jig hook with tungsten gold bead (Kai commented on it that after 1000 years of development of fly-patterns I discovered red-tag . My friends were also satisfied and we were lucky that few storms missed us by a whisker, however it was raining in the upper part of the catchment area an the water started rising and getting muddy at about six o´clock, so we decided to go to dinner.

In the morning was water higher, but still fishable and it was going down, so I found a little less steep part of the river. My friends adapted to fishing relatively quickly, fish were still active and some of them were even rising in the afternoon (Kai caught all of them on fluo-green Czech nymph size 6 …) , Kai got nice grayling and Hendrik caught roach, bleak, dace, and also nice brown trout.

Martin Musil with his son Martin jr. joined our group on Sunday afternoon and they brought the last member of our small team Hamid from Canada. At about six started pouring rain which raised river and it was unfishable for next two days, so guys visited Karels´ shop and Hanak shop. I had to go home to look after kids and to work and Martin took over our guests, he brought his fly-tying suitcase, so mainly the evenings were nourishing. The weather were relatively good since Tuesday and on Wednesday was river again fishable and they discovered the upper part of the fishery, in which is flow reduced by the channel to power-plant. I joined the group on Thursday afternoon, fishing was nice, we found the last not-fished parts of the river, lower parts were still to high, flow from Lipno to Vltava in Vyšší Brod was 130 m3/s …

On Friday morning we returned back to the stretch where we were starting our fishing week and it was nice to compare location of fish, we caught few nice browns, hope that Hendrik will send me the picture of the king of the Warm Vltava.

On Friday afternoon we visited small inflow of Volyňka river called Spúlka, the brook is full of small brownies and it was another nice experience for our students. Kai had to leave on Friday afternoon for a competition in Finland.

I checked flows in rivers on Friday afternoon and I found out, that flow from Lipno was reduced to 40 m3/s, which meant, that flow in Vltava 29 – Devil streams was reduced to usual flow of 2 m3/s and we decided to show to our friends this beautiful stretch of river and also the Lesanka Pub in Vyšší Brod. We warmed up in the lower more wide and more easy stretch and after the great lunch in Lesanka pub we wended to upper and more wild stretch. It was nice end of the week, fishing was not easy due to a lot of sticks in the water, but we really enjoyed it.

It is a pity that we had to cancel the course, it is fact, that although we were very lucky on the weather (after one week of temperatures over 35 °C it has been again raining for 5 days and there are another floods nowadays) , the fishable stretch was to small for 25 people and one week, but I´m sure that Autumn will be nice when we have no summer.

The fishing started slowly comparing with last season due to longer winter, it is similar probably in the whole Europe. I spent the opening day April 16th with friends at Květoňov lake, we were there just before the 6 a.m. The nice mild weather and the dawn on the eastern sky welcomed about 50 fishermen, all banks were occupied like during competitions and on the water surface was traffic of boats and belly boats.  Fish were taking from really first casts, everybody was satisfied and everybody caught a good fish, the biggest trout was caught by Franta Hanak (as usually :-)) The best line was Di3 or fast glass and the best flies were lures or boobies in light colours, surprisingly the  black/green combination was not good. I caught majority of fish on yellow lure with silver bead. They were also caught come big pikes, but majority of pikes were parading along the banks without any interest in our flies as they were preparing for spawning. I saw one crocodile of the length about 1,3 m followed by two smaller males.
I returned after few days, weather was very warm but light breeze promised nice fishing. After few missed takes we found that fish search more for natural food as there occurred an occasional hatch of lake olives and olive buzzers. And probably all of them had been already caught by a lure. I caught about 10 fish (both rainbow and brook trout) on black and olive buzzers, the best method was to pull flies on hover or slow glass line and change speed of retrieve, the take usually came during the speed-up. So it was nice afternoon and good practice for England, to which we are flying in the end of April.

I also visited the trophy fishery Vltava 24, we stocked again really good fish and the icing on the cake is brown trout in weight 3-4 kg. As the flow in river is still high, the best method is streamer, I caught majority of fish on pink or white combinations. The first rises of olives and sedges hopefully attract fish to surface, I saw some occasionally rising fish, but I was to lazy to change rod and I caught two of them on nymph. I took one rainbow home and he had in stomach buds of trees, so it was probably the reason why he was rising. Lets tie the brown/green buds . I also found nest of kingfisher.

I got the hot message that the Czech republic was approved by the Congress of FIPS MOUCHE to organise The World Fly Fishing Championship 2014, so if you would like to see top fishermen in water, come in May 2014 to South Bohemia. The schedule of the championship will be similar like the EFFC 2011, if you are interested find the link on the main page.

 

After almost three months of overcast sky (it was the record period of lowest sun shine in memory in Czech), we had have first few nice sunny days which promised incoming spring. I was skiing with kids during weekend and I watched the blue sky through the windows in my office and through the pictures from weekend fishing from my friends. Yesterday I decided to a little refresh my working enthusiasms and I arranged one day fishing for Wednesday. We met with Honza in Volary at 10am and we headed to the stretch of the Warm Vltava which is open for fishing all year around. The weather and nature were so nice that it would had been a great day without any catch. I also looked forward to test my new rod which I bought from one competitor, the specially extended SAGE SLT 9´00´´ for line  3, which is great for all kinds of fishing and mainly the french-nymph style.

The water was still low and clear although the afternoon temperatures has reached 10°C during last two days as in the night, there is still frost and snow in mountains is still not melting. We started fishing at about 11, I caught couple of grayling in the first pool by almost the very first cast, but beginning of fishing was slow. We were enjoying nice countryside and admired work of beavers and we were trying to localise fish.

The hatch of black stone-fly enhanced activity of fish after lunch and we found, that active fish are not in deep holes but in relatively shallow parts with slowly flowing water, usually in the end of pool above rifles. Best flies were jigs with dark body and pink or coper head, the olive one was also good. We caught over 30 fish between us, fifty fifty grayling and brown trout, I also got two small rainbows. Five graylings were in size 35+ and also few browns was over 30, so it was great day.

Journey back to the car in the warm afternoon sunbath was a little demanding as we had to go through the deep snow. We missed a few military bunkers which were built before the Second World War to face Nazis, finally not any shot was fired from the bunkers and only angling weapons can be seen here nowadays