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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Higher flow in the river and relatively cold nights slowed down a little bit the spring development of the life in the river. The flow is temporary decreased only during weekends, so last Sunday afternoon I arranged date with Tobi to find out if anything is going on. Stoneflies roamed all around the water and above the water and I saw one rising rainbow during preparation of rod, and I caught it ten minutes later. It was the only rising fish which I saw. I caught few fish on nymphs, also on blob, including the perch, and Tobi, who was fishing only team of dry flies all afternoon, finally caught two rainbows rising just before sunset. Weather forecast for next week is nothing special, so we will see what will April bring.

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It had looked like it wouldn’t be real winter in our country this year, but it finally arrived in the end of February, we had nice spring holiday with family on mountains, and the cold weather didn’t attract me much to the water. Květoňov lake froze again. But on Sunday, the withdrawal symptoms were too severe and I set off to the river despite the air temperature that barely climbed above zero. I started with blob and 0,18 mm tippet as there were stocked some fresh fish one week ago, but I had no take for about 30 minutes. So I decided to change my tactic and I used 0,15 mm tippet and 16 size nymphs and PTN nymph made my day. In two hours, I caught 12 trout including nice overwintered rainbow, few brooks and also one small brown. I met Tobi and few other friends, we talked a little on the bank during warm-up breaks, simply nice afternoon. When I returned home, I was in the bath for an hour

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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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I visited Vltava 24 for three times in January, it was always not bad, but I made no picture. Blobs were not working well as fish were a little smarter after high autumnal and Christmas fishing pressure, therefore it was necessary to use smaller nymphs and also to reduce diameter of tippet to 0,14 mm. During first two weeks of February, there was high discharge in the river, I had too much work and we also paid attention to other winter sports (indoor beach volleyball, winter windsurfing, fly tying, …. . The drop of discharge together with the warming pulled me back to the water yesterday afternoon. I was fishing mainly with dry dropper system, I finally hooked 9 rainbows in two hours, majority in the range of 45 – 50 cm and in the great condition, the best fly was PTN with orange bead. I saw one fish rising and one stonefly hatching, and also first spring flowers blossoming. Spring is coming, I expect first hatch of stonefly in two weeks !!!

Last trout was invited for dinner, meat from the tail was marinated in the lemon juice, mixed with teaspoon of Dijon mustard and herbs and served on toast, from the front part of the trout I made pasta with vegetable, white wine and Feta cheese, simply great two-course meal for five people from one trout

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Fly fishing is not the only winter sport which I like. I constructed home made Ice-Snow-Wind Board (or sledge), I was studying Google and YouTube, I was soaking experiences from our colleagues from Canada and Russia, and next I exchanged old ski for a bottle of wine with my friend and visited OBI to buy all components and I made the board in our living room during one evening. Last weekend we were testing it on the Lipno Lake, which was frozen by solid layer of glassy ice, and the test was successful. If there had been a little more windy and a if a small layer of snow had lay on the ice, it could be fantastic.

But, some fishing wouldn´t be bad, we will see what this week brings

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I wish you all the best in the New Year to be better than the previous one, especially health, time for fishing and a good wind in the sails. I hope to see you by the water and wish you to have as much enthusiasm for fishing as the two guys in the boat on the picture (the picture was made at the Lipno lake on December 31st 2020:-)) Don’t let your fishing boots dry!!!

We say, that weather was like on a swing. Few days frost, few days warmer, and finally, before the New Year Eve, temperature records were falling with temperatures reaching 15°C.
On 24th morning, I had everything prepared and finished, and I found myself unnecessary at home so I jumped to my car to visit the river. I met few friends with the same experience , so we wished each other all the best and also soaked our flies. I caught few rainbows, surprisingly, the best was the active fishing and I caught also few fish on streamer.

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During Christmas, the temperatures dropped down and rain changed to snowfall, so the winter mood was simple irresistible, so I simply could not resist a I went to the river for at least an hour on 27th morning.

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We have new colleague Jakub and he started with fly-fishing this autumn, he has never fished with nymphs, he has fished mainly with wet flies for chub and other coarse fish in the Otava River close to his home. I gave him one day fishing on Vltava 24 on Dec 30th as the Christmas present. I prepared for him my new Hanák Superb XP 5 size rod and french leader with two smaller nymphs. There was a little busy in the town of Boršov, so I took him to my favourite place under the town, I demonstrated the technique and I gave him some tips how to move in river and send him to first pool, and after few casts he hooked rainbow of about 3 kg I thing, that he is hooked . We finished day with about 12 fish between us, one of the fish had injury on its tail, probably from otter, hopefully it will survive the winter, fish was in relatively good condition.

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The opening day of our fly fishing season is usually 1st of January and we did not missed this date. More over if the date looked so magical and the air temperature was over 10 °C from the morning. We met with Honza, David and Franta at river after lunch, we caught some fish (the biggest fish caught Franta as usually and my first fish of the year was roach ) we told some stories, exchanged some Christmas presents, drunk some drinks, and in the evening, the town hall held fireworks in honour of the start of the fishing season, so I made few pictures. What a nice start of the season.

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After few days of frost, it came relatively mild weather and Peter and me found time to again visit Vltava 24 for a short afternoon session, it was the best way to face the pre-Christmas stress , we caught few rainbows and also small barbel. Peter was fishing with small nymphs, I was trying also a combination with a little bigger and more bright files

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After 6 days of high flow and bad weather, in the end of the week the discharge in the river was decreased and  sun shone on a beautiful day, simple irresistible conditions, I thing, that it is not necessary to comment these pictures. I met Peter and Tobi and I estimate that we caught over 20 fish between us.

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