Washing Line on Bohdaneč

Organizing the wedding has seriously cut into my fishing time, but with the affair done I decided to seek some quiet - and to replenish my stock of slivovitz - on my favorite small stillwater fishery in Bohdaneč. By this pond is a small distillery specializing in fruit brandy - plums, apples, apricots and the kind. Very much like the lochside distilleries in Scotland, but with a definite Central European twist.

The conditions were not perfect, as it was still quite hot and the water was full of algae, of almost coffee color. The sun was shining brightly and there was no wind. Few fish were active, taking hatching buzzer pupae. In order to connect with them I had to either offer them either a brightly colored orange lure - an effective, but not overly satisfying method - or a midge imitation fished very close to the surface.

At the end the best tactic proved to be the washing line method - using a very buoyant foam buzzer on point and two smaller "catching" buzzers on droppers, with a floating leader and line. My catching flies sank just a couple centimeters below the surface. Thus I was able to have some good sport without having to depart from imitative fly fishing.

Imitative buzzer:
#12 TMC2487 BL hook
Olive UNI 8/0 thread
Olive UNI stretch to form the body
Pearl UNI #16 tinsel
Burnt Orange Neon UNI 1/0 thread
White TMC Aero Dry Wing
Black Opossum dubbing

Buoyant buzzer:
#10 TMC2487 BL hook
Tan UNI 6/0 thread (thicker thread in order not to cut the foam)
White Booby foam post
Hare + Seal dubbing mix dyed Olive
Pearl #16 UNI tinsel

The Most Important Knot

This Saturday, in the chapel of Holy Trinity in the gardens of Červená Lhota chateau, I will be tying the most important knot of them all.

As a result I spent more time in recent weeks preparing these:

Than tying or fishing any of these:

And if my married friends are right it is not likely to get much better soon. But I am still looking forward to the moment... :)

Translation widget

Many readers of these pages are using Google Translate tool. I am flattered by the trouble they take to understand my ramblings and to make it easier for them I have added a Translation Widget to the blog.

Out of curiosity I tried to translate the page into my native Czech, and the result was very entertaining - it seems that fly fishing texts are not regular items on menu of the translation robots.

Spreading the Word

A friend of mine is a keen coarse fisherman, but I have a feeling there is a chance of making him see the light, cast aside his boilies & tripod and convert to Fly Fishing.

I hope a gift of this little fly box - made to suit the taste of trout on our local stillwater - would be enough to tip him to the dark side.

#10 Kamasan B110 Buzzer, Chinese Red

#10 Kamasan B110 Buzzer, Black, Pearl and Orange

#10 Kamasan B110 Buzzer, Dennis the Menace

#10 Black Lure

#10 Orange Lure

#12 GRHE Wet Fly

#12 GRHE Dry Fly