Springtime on Střela

Having spent the 2010 Opening day on a put and take stream, which turned to be a disappointment of sorts, I teamed with my friend Vlado and drove to our beloved river Střela for the weekend. It is a smallish stream in what counts in relatively densely populated Central Europe as hard to access area and it supports a healthy population of both Brown trout and Grayling.

We knew from the online peg that the trip will most likely end up in a disappointment, as the heavy rain in the week immediately prior to Opening day caused the river to rise substantially, but the weather forecast promised a warm sunny weekend and we both suffered from a serious case of cabin fever.

The river turned out to be as unfishable as we had expected, and even though we assaulted it with flies of the Heavy Metal kind (Tungsten beads of 4 mm plus some lead) it refused to yield a single fish. The waters were high, muddy and cold (about 7°C). The fish were sensibly hugging the bottom in the deepest of deep pools and refused to be tempted with any of our flies.

After trying for a couple of hours we conceded defeat and turned out attention to the streamside to fully appreciate the beauty of early Springtime in the country.

And despite the fact that we got what we expected and not what we hoped for fishing wise we had a wonderful time, confirming the old saying that what matters is not the quarry, but the chase.

In any case, here is a toast to the successful 2010 season, wherever your fishing might take you - Cheers!