Jirka visited me for two days, we went to Penzion Herbertov to meet Ludvík and to talk about reconstruction of local cottages, which Jirka as an interior designer will help with, we were talking about oncoming fly fishing championships and about czech national teams and we were also fishing, I took him to the boat for zander and we visited also Vltava River. First day we were in Devil stones, Jirka with his fine dry dropper system ruined me , but second day we were under Vyšší Brod, discharge was a little higher and it suited more to me, mainly few nice brook trouts and one big rainbow who I invited to dinner made my day .

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I went to Vltava 28 above Rožmberk to practice dry-dropper fishing with my new dropper flies, new nymphs tied on Hanák superb jig hooks size 18 and Hanák Superlight 2 size rod. It was warm and a few light showers passed during the afternoon, so great fishing weather. I caught about 30 fish and did not lose any fish, and I could almost make an atlas of all fish species living in river, I caught brown trout, rainbow trout, dace, chub, roach and a monster gudgeon

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Next day I went to Devil Stones and I added brook trout and perch to the collection I´m always fascinated by the beautiful colours and variability of patterns of trout in this peaty water.

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Michal with his family visited Lipno Lake for one week holiday, So I took Michal and his dad Jarda to the trophy part of the Vltava 29 under the dam of the Lipno lake. We caught many trouts including few fish over 40 cm and one almost 50 cm and few brook trout, the best was for me pink ribbed jig with cooper head, bad luck that I had to leave earlier as the wind started blowing ….

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Kristof, my Belgian friend, who regularly attends our workshops, spent a week with family at Lipno lake during summer and we were fishing Vltava 29 under the dam one morning. We chose this water as there was very hot and in the main river, there was a lot of canoeists. In the morning, we were fishing nymphs, but fishing was slow, later we tried dry flies and it was the key for nice catches. I had to leave at lunch time, but Kristof returned in the evening and he reported me, that evening hatch was great.

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Daniel asked me to help his team during practice before championship. They don´t need to learn fishing, but local information and some tips for tactics were hopefully useful, we very enjoyed this few days, which were for me the last relax before the madness, and they gained bronze medal It was great experience for me to see them, how hard were they practising, how they were cooperating. The only problem was to get for them T-shirts in a children size

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I was asked by René Koops to organise short weekend camp for Dutch team in Rožmberk. It promised nice few days with friendly people, so I was looking forward to it. We were mainly practising fishing in the Devil Stones, which look easy for leisure fishermen, who always catch a nice trout there, but it is difficult for competitors, who have to catch many fish in a short time and more over after every catch they have to go to the judge. I hope I payed enough attention to everybody and all the attendants finally understand what is fishing in this difficult water about, how to cast, how to construct leaders, how to move, and all of them showed a significant improvement.

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Fishing in the Vltava river under Vyšší Brod was harder, water which is released from the deeper part of the Lipno lake comparing with Devil Stones is still much colder and fish and all life is not so active. But we caught few fish, mainly on nymph. Dutchmen  asked me also to show fishing with streamer, so brought from Franta Hanák´ shop his brand new line with sink tip, intermediate body and floating running line specially constructed for rivers like Vltava characterised by variable profile with shallows and pools. I prepared leader of 2 metres with two streamers, next I had a short speech about the technique and tactics, and I casted to the deepest pool in the river. To be honest, I did not believe in a success, I had expected that all the rainbows stocked one month ago are already away,  what was a surprise that after few casts I got a strong hit to the line and a decent rainbow of about 50 cm was dancing above the water. I was so frightened that I lost it I had another take, next I lent the rod to John and he lost also one fish. Finally, in an hour, I returned, and I got two good fish to the net. Tino got another nice rainbow one nymph. We both had seen rising them

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We really enjoyed the weekend, on Saturday afternoon visited us for the great dinner in Hotel Růže also Thierry Hockers with his friend from Belgium team, and we tasted also some bottles of Chardonay, both from California and Czech vineyards.

On Monday, I  barely could not move, jumping between boulders is not for my old bones and muscles

Lets wake up and back to the work with preparation of the Championship.

After snow strom and rains, almost all rivers in our region were flooded, so I decided to visit my cottage and prepare some things for windsurfing and next to go to Vltava 29 Devil stones , which flows from Lipno lake and it is always fishable, and next to go to Květoňov. On the way to cottage I came around to Bruno for coffee and found him just packing things for fishing so he joined me.

It was still very could, in the mountains was still about 30 cm of snow, and water in Vltava was a little dirty, so fish did not cooperate to much, we caught about 20 fish between us including some nice browns and one rainbow in one and half hour. Not bad start of the day, I´m always satisfied if I catch at least one fish.

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Next we moved to Květoňov, Bruno is mainly zander-fishing specialist in Lipno lake and he had never been there, so I prepared rod a leader for him, demonstrated casting, how to move lures and how to hang before recasting, and I gave him rod and went to prepare my rod. After few seconds Bruno lifted rod and a fish was on …. and he caught zander Next he hooked also pike but it bit the leader. Simply predatory fish specialist.

I caught two rainbows on lures and 7 on dry fly including nice 47 long older fish which was jumping like salmon, great fun with 5 weight rod and 0,14 mm leader.

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Because of the coincidence of dates and availability of holidays of our clients, we were not able to organise whole workshop, and our activities were spread to several weeks. Rob, Ludwig and Richard arrived already in the last week of May and we spend together two evening sessions and enjoyed dinner in hotel Růže.

Main group from Belgium came in the first week of June and we managed two days of fishing, Jiří joined us as second guide. Finally, two old friends from Switzerland joined the Belgium group, we had in fact small workshop. Flow was higher in the Vtava river under Vyšší Brod, so we spent this two days in Černá river, Devil stones and also in Warm Vltava in Šumava Mountains, beautiful days with a lot of fish caught.

Černá river (Black river) got name thanks to its brown peaty water, in the past time, world “black” was in the old czech language used also in the meaning “dark”, old German name is similar “Schwarzaubach”. Small river hosts good native population of brown trout and grayling and also rainbow trout or brook trout occasionally escaping our hatchery located upstream. Best conditions are during a higher flow as fish are not too shy. It is not far from civilisation, but fishing there is really  nice as you can spend all day in pure nature. Best section is between Benešov nad Černou and Ličov.

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Second day we headed to Warm Vltava in Šumava mountains, water flow after rain decreases always faster in the upper part close to Horní Vltavice and water is usually clear as there are only forests and meadows in the catchment area. We were parking in the camp in Horní Vltavice and we were fishing in the adjacent part of river. We caught a lot of browns and graylings, occasionally also dace and bleak migrating from Lipno lake located downstream. Biggest fish I get on dry fly.

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Then me and Jiří  moved to the south-east part of our country to river Svratka for spring session of the First Czech Fly Fishing League, but it is another story

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

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Last Saturday we organised our regional championship in Vltava 29 – Devil stones. After our workshop, I had some good flies and tactic, so I prepared one nymphing rod with 0,12 tippet and flies size 14 for brown trout and deep pools, second nymphing rod with 0,10 tippet and flies size 16 for riffles and also for dace and one rod with floating line and nymp/dry set-up.  Weather was like in Scotland, 6 times a day rain and six times sunny. 20 attendants were divided to the two groups and every body was fishing and judging 3 rounds of 75 minutes. Fish were only counted, only in case that two competitors had the same number of fish caught better was with bigger fish, therefore we measured always first fish and every bigger. I did not underestimate preparation, I had new felt soles and also paint-ball knee and shin protectors.

I was in group A, so I was fishing first round. Brown trout was surprisingly not active, so very important was also to catch dace and other coarse fish. I was third in first session after Pepa Hanák with same number of 22 fish, but Pepa had bigger trout. I should maybe sooner concentrate on dace, but I´m afraid, that it would be not enough to beat Martin Musil with 34 fish gaining first place in the session. In second session, I was fishing in relatively steep section with big boulders and deep pools, movement was difficult and 15 fish was enough only for 5th place. In the last session, I came to relatively wide beat, just before start of my section appeared sun and I saw few rising fish at opposite bank so I took dry-fly and I get 20 fish which brought me victory of the session. Finally, I had total placings 9 following 3 people with 8 and I gained “potato medal” which is not bad in the great concurrence in our region. It was caught almost 1000 fish, what a nice day in great place and with good friends.

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