I have recently not too much time for fishing, but Jirka came to help me to arrange some things connected with the upcoming championships, we visited Rožmberk and Vyšší Brod, and finally we moved to Květoňov lake to wet our fishing gear. Water was not as clear as we expected, so I decided to fish lures and look for some stockies, Jirka was fishing nymphs, finally we caught about 10 fish and we had some more takes, which was not bad.

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David invited me to Květoňov lake, it has been really good during last days according his stories. The conditions looked ideal, we were fishing different places, slowly moved to the tributary part of the lake, but we saw not any rising fish and we had not any take. In and hour and half we returned to main basin and decided to let flies sink deeper. David had first take on the sinking flies at an estimated three meters, so I decided to try egg flies 3 metres under bang. Finally, we caught about fifteen fish between us. Whether it was a change of weather or a change of location, or whether it was a change of depth that led to the success, we will never know, maybe combination of all factors :-) But the big fish had 60 cm and over 3 kilos and it was very tasty

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As usually first weekend in May, we organised May Cup on Květoňov lake, the lake was drained during winter due to some reconstruction, so all pike and other fish were removed (I will bring some statistic in separate post) and the lake has been stocked only trout since end of February and before competition we stocked another 400 kg.

As expected, the fishing was excellent, all fly fishing methods worked in different parts of the day and it was caught almost 800 fish, biggest fish had 50 cm. I was fishing well all three bank sectors but I blanked in boat, I´m not in the high competition mode like in the past

Good test before Championships which we will organise next year.

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Winter still has not gave up yet, moreover I caught COVID for the second time three weeks ago and it slowed down my fly-fishing activities. I had to cancel first competition because I could not recover enough, so I missed nice day in blizzard . But after two weeks I was feeling better and I visited Květoňov lake with David, who has there a small boat.  Weather was typical for April in our region, 30 minutes sunshine, 30 minutes snow fall … But we had over 30 fish in the boat including few nice brooks, so it was great day, the best method was pulling of lures, but we caught some fish also on dries and also on nymph under bung.

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Warm weather with strong warm wind and rain caused melting of ice on the Květoňov lake and I arranged “refreshment” of the fish stock immediately, we had nice rainbows and brooks in our hatchery, so there was no reason to wait
I visited the lake with Michal and we had a nice afternoon there, we caught about 30 fish together, mostly on yellow flies, a bigger fish smashed my 0,20 mm leader, it was probably an overwintered fish as few similar fish were caught by my friends, who were more lucky or better prepared ( I borrowed two pictures from FB). It was great practice before the first lake competition which will take place at Jestřabice lake on April 2nd. We are ready!!!

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We had heavy rain two weeks ago which melted snow in mountains and we had a small flood in the Vltava river and Lipno Lake is almost full, so also the discharge from Lipno Lake is high and discharge in Vltava 24 is 60 – 100 m3/s, too much also for a brave tall fisherman But we have Květoňov lake and we visited it with Michal to wet our lines and breathe fresh air. We caught about 20 fish between us in 2 hours, all on lures and intermediate lines, and mostly on light colours of lures like white or yellow, majority of fish on hang. Good practice for the lake competition season.

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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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After Hanák Open I visited Květoňov lake a few times and it was not easy, but I caught every day fish over 50 cm, best methods were booby fishing with yellow booby, pulling of my favourite yellow lure on fast glass line but also fine fishing at surface both with dries and nymphs, my favourite nymph was black with blue thorax and jungle cock cheeks. One day worked well grey CDC emerger sunk just under the surface. I was fishing also during the day when the elimination for the Czech team was held there, I had an appointment at a fish-pass which we are building at Malše river, so why don´t  cross swords with top anglers. They were fishing from boats, top rod was 8 fish, I got 9 from bank

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I attended also autumnal competition in Polička, traditional Czech competition lake, with cappuccino water, good stock of rainbows and surrounded by forest which complicate casting. This date competition hosted 98 competitors.

I was fifth in spring, so I was full of ambitions. I prepared leaders on Friday evening and I woke up at 4 o’clock, journey took 2,5 hours and at 6:30 I reached the parking place at the lake. It was total darkness, foggy and 1°C,  so I moved to lodge to draw and for a drink, I bought rum. When I was leaving, in the doors I met Jiří and he invited me for another rum…good start of the day. At about 7:15 the fog rose a little and it was enough light to see leaders, so I built rods, prepared flies and it was time to run to the first peg. Competition was composed by three rounds of 80 minutes with one rotation after 40 minutes. I started as usually with slow glass line with team of three lures, orange blob, black tadpole and yellow tadpole. I had contact one the very first cast but the fish did not take seriously, but in the second cast I got stuck in the first rainbow. Before first rotation I got four fish which looked hopefully, during rotation I met Igor who had already 8. I moved to the water-gate, which is always good spot. First cast, take, strike, three jumps towards me and fish was free… second cast, take, strike, jump, another fish gone. I decided change line to hover with lure with tungsten bead in the point and to roly poly retrieve, after next fish took, I speeded up the puling to get the fish no time to jump. I got another three fish and one couple. In the second round I moved to the upper part of the lake to the forest. I remembered, that it has been always possible to catch a fish close bank there. First cast, roly-poly, hang at the bank, strong take, and first fish was in the net. Second cast, bang in the distance, and another fish was in scoring card. My neighbours started to hate me. The cold north-east wind was making nice riffles, but nothing more happened till the rotation except, for the second half I mowed to spot, where it was possible to cast and I utilised my 40+line and got another two fish on long casts. Under pressure of 98 falling lines fish were keeping save distance from bank, but not enough save for 40 + line After two rounds I was third and Igor was leading. It was clear, that in the last round was essential not to blank as in the second round half of people had no fish.
After good schnitzel for lunch I was hurrying to the peg, I have to make two new leaders. I started in relatively good spot, on my left hand was forest just up to the bank and there was marked buffer zone, behind me was window between trees which enabled me to cast. After five minutes I made good cast with hover line, and after first pull I felt soft touch, I continued puling in the same speed, felt another few “calls”  and about 10 metres from bank I speeded up and stopped, and fish took seriously the black lure with fluo-green bead, gold fish, actually “potato” fish, as finally I was fourth. Nice competition, prices for almost everybody, good system of evaluation (fish were only counted, no fish was measured).

But this result definitely lifted me to the Top 40 in the Czech fly-fishing ranking and I qualified to the Czech lake championship 2015 which will be held in Květoňov lake.

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First weekend in November we attended with Michal traditional marathon for couples in Jestřabice lake, but we were fishing not well, we had the same number of takes like winners, but we utilised only 30% of them and it was the difference. Key was to use the proper line – floating or hover – and roly poly retrieve. But it was good experience. Before the competition I was practising in Skalička lake, I got 8 fish on dries and light nymphs under surface.

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On the way to Jestřabice I visited company AGAMA, traditional Czech producer of neoprene suits and other equipment for scuba divers, rescues and army forces, and they had started programme for fly – fishermen. I met owner of company, an enthusiastic lady Mrs. Věra Hevrová, who manages the company with her two pretty daughters … I bought special neoprene suit for windsurfing and 6,5 mm neoprene waders for winter fishing. They offer service to all gear in 7 days and to all fishing gears they offer 4 years warranty for seams. More over, they can make for you your own waders combining any size of neoprene with any size of neoprene socks or boots. If you are interested, check website www.agama-diving.cz.

We  decided to empty Květoňov lake and remove all undesirable fish species (mainly pike and carp), the lake has never been drained since its filling. We started to decrease the water level two weeks ago in it goes down by 20 cm every day. The aim of this action is also to check all devices in the dam of the lake to guarantee safety. Problem is, that in the lake lives very strong population of rare and protected original riverine crayfish, the dam of the lake protect them against invasive american crayfish and crayfish plague. So we cooperate with specialists from University of South Bohemia to rescue and protect as many as possible crayfish, it has been already caught more the 1300 individuals.

Fishing is still allowed and I met there David last weekend and we tried fishing from his boat. It was partly sunny and partly cloudy and windy and fish were rising. We tried also lures and boobies, but without any take, the best method was dry fly or dry fly pulled under surface. My best fly were CDC Shipman´s buzzer size 16 and CDC sedge size 16 with peacock body and tag from pearl rib, David was fishing with a little bigger pattern with black body and also bright tag.  We had say 20 takes, but we utilised only half of them, the biggest fish weighted about 1 kg.  In another boat were our friends Kneifl´s brothers, they were also fishing dries and they got fish up 2 kilos. From next Monday will be fishing prohibited and next weekend will be the lake empty, hope we will catch the monster fish which pulled a guy for 5 hours across the lake and next snapped his leader 3 years ago.

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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.

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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.

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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.