Michal and Peter offered me to go again to spring trip to Slovakia to fish Bešeňová Lake and to attend competition Kežmarská Zlatná Lake Cup, where I was second few years ago. First day we were fishing Bešeňová Lake, a mountain reservoir stocked regularly by rainbow trout, conditions were tough as it was sunny and no wind in the morning, but later in the afternoon a wind raised and we caught few nice fish, I was fishing washing line setup, sunburst blob in the point and two wets on droppers, half of fish I caught on the blob and second half on Bibio.

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Competition hosted about 130 competitors, it consisted from 5 ground spread between two days. Fishing was great from the first round, I finished eighth, which was not bad, I was fishing mainly slow glass line and hover line and team of lures, the best was my sunburst killer as usually. Almost everybody was fishing “dry-dropper setup”, which was very similar to “float fishing”, you use one big bushy dry-fly and two suspended egg-flies, you cast, sit on a chair, and if the dry-fly sinks, you strike. In my opinion, it is not fly-fishing and we have to thing about it in the future. However, I have to admit that I also succumbed to this “dark side” of the fly-fishing second day. In the fourth round I was casting 30 m and pulling my lures. Next to me was fishing a local uncle, he was sitting on chair, casting the float with fluo-green eggs 5 metres far from the shore and in 15 minutes he was leading 4:1 … so I also picked up the same setup and got another 6 fish.

I really liked the friendly atmosphere during both days, we have a lot of friends in Slovakia and we were nice group from the Czech Republic including Luboš Roza and Milan Čubík completed by Dutch Rene Koops as usually, hope to be back next year.

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I again visited Slovakia with kids and friends for one week summer holiday in June, we love hiking in the beautiful Slovak mountains, I can call Slovakia as “Land of flowers, butterflies and kind people”.

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Michal was on business trip to monitor concurrence business with mineral water in Slovakia occasionally in the same time , so we went to Revúca River together to wet our flies. Revúca is famous for great native grayling population, mainly in lower parts, so the target fish was grayling over 40 cm. We caught together about 50 fish and few fish was on the edge of 40 cm, majority was over 30 cm, the best fly was the traditional Czech nymph. Fish fought very strong, so the 3-size Hanák rods and 0,12 tippet were ideal. At about lunch time I moved to a hiking trip, but Michal continued fishing, his best humorous performance occurred in one nice pool upstream from the parking place, he was swimming a little through the pool at first, and after pouring water from his shoes he caught there grayling of 46 cm .

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Váh River was more difficult, first day during high discharge (86 cm in the profile Bešeňová) I visited spot where we caught 30 fish during Big River Race one year ago, I had not a single take, so I moved to a different place, another blank, and third blank I gained in my favourite place from last year. This is fishing But on Saturday the discharge was decreased to 50 cm, I caught about 20 fish including nice brownies and hard fighting rainbows of 40-50 cm, I had to use tippet 0,16 mm as the fish smashed  thinner tippet already during the take. I was also keeping 50 cm loop of line under my finger during nymphing (like during salmon fishing) which gave me a little space to lift my rod and cushion the hard takes.

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We returned in August for Big River Race, during practice days we enjoyed fishing, but during competition was our performance not so good comparing our victory two years ago. Nothing to do, we have to improve our skills for next year.

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This year we went to defend victory from the last year to Big River Race, and we knew, that it would be a very difficult mission. To win such a big competition in such a big river, it requires except of some knowledge also big portion of luck, and nobody can be lucky in two subsequent years

Patrik and Honza could not come, so I took Michal and also our friend Vlasta. We went on Wednesday to have some time to practice, and I have to say that we very enjoyed the trip, we had great food, great accommodation, good beer, we met many friendly people, caught many nice fish, learned a lot, and the competition was interesting. Twelfth place is not bad, however after wining of the second session and gaining 5th position after the second session we looked higher, but as I said in the beginning, we can not be lucky every year everywhere.

And Franta Hanák is right as he says  ” it is always by one fish or by one centimetre ”

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I went with Michal to Slovakia to fish still-waters – Bešeňová reservoir and Zlatná lake during Eastern.

First day we were fishing in the Bešeňová reservoir, small reservoir under the big reservoir Liptovská Mara built on famous Váh River. Reservoir is stocked by rainbows, hosts also natural brown trout and it is managed as bank only and catch and release only. We really enjoyed the fishing under high mountains, we met old good friends, and caught about 20 fish together, not bad result.

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Second day we attended annual cup in the Zlatná  lake. I entered the competition full of ambitions after 2nd place three years ago,  but I started with blank in the first round and although I was fishing well in the three from five rounds, another blank shot me down a lot. This year, it was not so easy and it was necessary to concentrate and score every take. Next time 

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Luboš Roza and Milan Čubík offered me to join them during journey to a competition in one nice small reservoir located under Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. What a nice trip, I caught 72 fish in two days and gained second place. My method? Fast glass line, long leader and fishing deep and slowly I tested brand new Hanak competition hooks for lake fishing and they were fantastic.

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I was invited by Rene Coops, Milan Čubík and Luboš Roza to help Dutch team during preparation camp before European fly-fishing championship in Slovakia. René was the manager of the Dutch team composed mainly by good lake fishermen and he asked us to explain something about river fishing. I agreed as I know Rene, he goes to Hanák open every year, I looked forward to spend some time with friends Milan and Luboš and I wanted to see rivers in Slovakia, which I had visited during my studies at least ten times for hiking in beautiful mountains.
The Tuesday journey to Milans house in Bojkovice, where was meeting point, was nothing special as a torrential rain was moving east together with me. We had great dinner and with glass of great wine in hands we solved problems of fly-fishing world till 2 a.m. Rain arrived at about 2:30. In the morning we headed to Slovakia accompanied by the rain through Hends shop in Hranice na Moravě and River-land shop in Žilina. In the afternoon we reached Tvrdošín and we bought fishing permits. It was nice that fishery manager Mr. Motyčka invited us home and his lovely wife hosted us by coffee and Slivovice while he was  preparing the permits. Next we moved to Hotel Osobitá and we decided not to fish but rest and tie some flies. We met our friend Stan Mankov from Bulgaria who attended EUCH as the individual.

In the morning we went to fish Orava river in Tvrdošín, interesting bigger river with potential to produce big fish, full of coarse fish, grayling and  brown trout, occasionally rainbow and huchen. Water was a little green as it flows from big dam. We caught a lot of fish, both on nymphs and dries and I snapped a fish which did not gave ma any millimetre of line and I had no chance to stop its run under tree. For lunch we went to local restaurant and I had great lamb steak. In the evening started rise of big white may flies (I guess Origoneurila same like in Vltava 24) which lifted from bottom trouts and I caught some nice fish and I saw one fish over 50 cm jumping for may flies,  but it did not take my flies. In the evening Team Spain and Milan Čubík joined us, so we welcomed them with glass of beer. I forget my camera in hotel, so here are only few pictures from my phone.

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In the evening we tied again some flies and in the morning we went to Váh river. Nice crystal-clear water full of grayling size about 30 cm. They were rising since morning and I caught more then 50 fish on dry fly, the biggest grayling had 37 cm. Also our Dutch friends improved their river fishing and they caught fish, I demonstrated upstream fishing with long leader and it was very successful. The key was light olive CDC fly size 18 and 0,10 mm tipped. After bowling tournament we shoved to our friends tying of easy and effective dry flies and explained also construction of leaders. In the evening arrived team Ireland, so we had to welcome them with beer in hand.

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Third day we returned to Orava river, we were again invited for coffee to Mr. Motyčka before he prepared permits,  thanks again, water was a little lower and we were fishing dries from morning, we also tried nymphs, but it was more difficult, high pressure caused by practising teams was visible. Luboš caught a monster, we did not recognised whether it was lake trout, salmon or huchen. In the afternoon I had to move home as our workshop started on Sunday, the journey home took 6 hours.
What to say in the end, hotel was great, 30 Euro per HB is great price and food was delicious, nice rivers, kind people, nice mountain scenery, it is really worth to visit.  I hope that I will return to Slovakia soon. 

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