I spent one weekend in the end of June with Maria and Istvan on Vltava River. Istvan is member of the National Fly-fishing Team Hungary and he wanted to practice upstream dry fly fishing and nymphing before the World Championship in Spain. We spent first day in the Warm Vltava in the National park Šumava, fish were active whole day, so we caught a lot of them (brown trout, grayling, come cyprinid fish), mainly on nymph, dry dropper setup and also on dry fly. I also presented wet fly fishing and we caught many of bleak, nice small silver cyprinid fish which realy loves wet flies. In the evening it was opened local pub in the camp in Horní Vltavice and Pilsner beer was a worthy end to the day. We sat in to the car just before the start of a heavy storm

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Second day we spent in Vltava River above Herbertov, water was a little dirty after rain, but conditions were ideal,  fish were surprisingly rising whole day and they stopped before evening. I did not counted amount of fish, but I guess we could catch 80 fish between us, mainly brown trout, but occasionally also rainbow trout and chub. It was really nice weekend and hopefully it was useful also for Istvan.

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In the end of May, the evening sport was great in Boršov nad Vltavou despite the slightly cloudy water after the rains. We met with Franta in the camp, I saw one rising fish already from car, but Franta was in the river sooner, so I had privilege of recording the entire fight Surface of the river was full of insect, both sedge and different species of olives. We caught about 20 fish between us, I caught my fish mainly on wet flies.  I found it more productive as rainbows travelled during rising and team of wets had had a larger radius of action then a dry fly.

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I was very busy in spring, but I found time for one guided day with Andreas, beginner fly-fisherman from Passau, Germany. It was a nice day, we caught fish on nymph, dry-dropper system and also on dry fly. During the nymphing session, I was first at the river as Andreas was something tangling, and I did not resist to try a cast to my favourite pool before demonstration of the technique for him … and it was mistake, a rainbow of about two kilos took the nymph, jumped twice and smashed my leader just under the indicator, 0,12 mm tippet was not enough the rule of thumb for guides says that never cast when the client can’t see you, because you’re always lucky on the first cast only !!!!! Next arrived Andreas, found me just making a new leader, the story about the big fish didn’t sound very believable and I could not catch anything at least for next 10 minutes But finally we enjoyed the day, we caught about 50 fish together, and he caught fish on all techniques. I guess that the most educating moment was, that I sat down on the bank and I let him fish a nice pool first and next I shoved him where he left fish He promised to return in Autumn.

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After one year brake, there were organised both Czech lake and river fly-fishing championships. The lake champ was held on a new trout water in a sand pit in the middle of the Czech rep., the only memorable things were, the it was well organised (organiser martin Ruzha used also boat session from anchored boats) and whole podium was occupied by competitors representing South Bohemia: the winner was Miloslav Hosenseidl, the second was František Kouba (both weaned by Květoňov lake) and third place was taken by Roman Heimlich. The last member of our team, Martin Vlk, who was twelfth, also placed excellently.
We organised the River championship on Vltava River at Herbertov and it was also very successful as Team South Bohemia in the same composition again gained gold medal. All girls who will represent Czech Rep. in the first World Ladies Championship to be held in Norway in Summer also attended the Czech champ. and we hope that it was great preparation for them.

We used pegs from Hanák Open, but every competitor had two pegs (about 400 m) to fish, and we also included rotation to make Champ fair as much as possible. It was caught 1593 fish. We will keep our fingers crossed for our teams in all the championship which will be held this year, we plan to attend all of the, World, Euro, World Ladies, World Masters and World Youth.

And we have also good news, the Vltava river will host World Ladies, World Masters and World Youth in 2024 and World in 2025.

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Not only fly-fishing is our life, May is usually also very good windsurfing-month at Lipno Lake, and this season was great, every weekend was windy. And I also started mushrooming season

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After two years of Covid restrictions, we organised May Cup, we hosted 44 competitors and we again introduced boat session from anchored boats. The weather was really bad, whole day rain and windy, and therefore fishing was not bad, 44 competitors caught 617 fish. I was not fishing bad, but one blank in the second round dropped me to 20th place even though I was third in the third session and I won the last session.

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On the eve of May 1st I decided to go to visit my favourite Vltava river close to Rožmberk and Vyšší Brod. I arrived to Herbertov at about 6 p.m. and I was welcomed by a massive hatch of sedge, but fish had absolutely no interest. I tried many nymphs and also dries, but I got only few small brownies and dace. At about 8 p.m. fish started to rise and I had fantastic two hours, surprisingly, the most successful pattern was spent of olive. It´s fishing, like a sport, everything can change in a minute.

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My friend Zsigmond, captain of the Fly Fishing Team Hungary, asked me to help with organisation of small camp for Hungarian fly fishermen connected with competition, which we called “Vltava Cup”. I booked Penzion Hebertov, our traditional fly-fishing base, arranged all necessary documents, permission from our board and discharge in river. All participants of the competition contributed 10 euros to our Fund for the support of youth sport. I also tried to arrange weather, but it is beyond my competence .

Some people arrived already on Thursday, but main practice day was on Friday, I presented main important methods for competition – nymphing, dry fly and streamer. Morning was cold so fish were not active and did not cooperate well, but we caught something. In the afternoon, after a typical April shower, massive hatch of olives started and fish responded immediately, so we enjoyed also dry fly action. Saturday competition was not easy, but nobody blanked and winner caught 11 fish in two rounds by 90 minutes. On Sunday we again practised different methods of nymphing, mainly dry-dropper system. It was nice early season weekend with great friends, see you next time.

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Some of my friends asked me last week where  I would going at the opening day of the season. April 16th is the opening day in our trout waters. My answer was, that I opened this season on January 1st as Vltava 24 offers great fishing whole year around. I don´t like the  rush along our trout waters during the first weekend of the season. On Saturday the 16th morning, I looked out of the window, it was cloudy and 5°C, I made breakfast for my wife and returned to bed. Next we were watching a ladies tennis match between Czech rep. and UK which we won . At the lunchtime, the weather improved a little so I decided to visit Vltava 24, discharge in the river was low, maybe it could show up a hatch of something.

When I arrived at the river, my friend Honza, owner of the local restaurant, had just finished grilling of chickens, so I started my fishing trip with half of the chicken, coffee and small Pilsner, not a bad start.  During the lunch, I talked with other fishermen who came to the pub to warm up after the morning session, all of them caught something, and they told me, that morning was very cold and very busy, they estimated at least 20 people fishing in the stretch in the town.

I decided to visit lower part of the fishery, maybe there could be still some fish from last Autumn. I was welcomed by a massive hatch of the spring olives and by Sun which had just broken through the clouds. I was fishing for about an hour and a half, and I caught 5 nice overwintered fish in size 45 – 60 cm, all of them were in the great condition, but all of them had some injuries from predators, probably from otter.

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Rest of the weekend we spent at our cottage at the Lipno Lake with whole family, I prepared windsurfing gear for incoming season, we also underwent some Easter customs (painting of eggs, making of whip, carolling, drinking, overeating …) and I also tried carp fishing and I made some pictures of yachtsmen and of the spring nature.

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Reduced discharge in Vltava River and warm weather resulted in a massive hatch of Stonefly and March Brown and fish finally started to rise, I was fishing with Tobi and we caught about 30 fish together on dries, 50% of catches was created by big chub and rest was rainbow trout and brook trout. Peter caught another 15 fish, half on dry, half on nymph, mostly rainbows. Its a pity that the reduced discharge is only during weekends, but we hope that Lipno Reservoir will be on required level soon and the discharge in the river will be reduced for a longer period, the second half of April is usually famous for lunch time hatch of small light sedge.

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