As thick layers of smog descended on Prague I headed with some friends to fish the river Ohře in north western Bohemia. This river, also called Eger in German, is one of the finer Czech tailwaters fisheries. The days of its former glory are past now, but it still retains aura of certain mystique as river where it is possible (though unlikely) to catch brown trout in the 50+ cm range.
It is also notorious as a moody river, where blank days happen to even the best fishermen. The news we had through the fly fishing grapevine was that a hatch of olives was going on and that the fish were rising freely. Thus we overcame our natural laziness and temperature just slightly above freezing and headed to the famed river.
The the reports turned out to be correct; but one thing the grapevine failed to mention was that even though the fish were indeed freely rising they were awfully choosy in what they put into their little mouths. The sound of fish splashing carried well over the waters and the huge riseforms were impossible to miss. But the wily fish utterly ignored all my fancy offerings, only to rise again once my imitations passed. Frustration rode high.
At the end - after trying out most of my grayling fly box - I decided the imitative approach had failed and turned to attraction. First with my pink Barbie dun and then a little Goldie fly.
The Goldie, while not imitating anything particular, turned out to be just what the fish wanted. Why should the fish prefer such thing to #18 Olive dun when #18 Olive duns were drifting by and being eaten is one of the great mysteries that make fly fishing so alluring.
I was rewarded by several fine grayling and also some rainbow trout. This one has evidently suffered a close encounter with a predator (perhaps a small pike?) in his youth.
Little Goldie Fly:
#14 Hanák 130 BL hook
tan elastic tying thread
UNI 1/32 " tinsel Gold
3 natural CDC feathers
Definitely an attractive attractor, and oh so simple just like I like em. Will be tying some up for sure.
ReplyDeletegonna have to tie these up. So simple it is great!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteThe Goldie fly looks simple - as it should, with only two materials - but it comes with a long history. It descends from the Liška Hackle fly, which was made with body of golden tinsel and hackle & tails of black rooster cock.
It was first dressed by Karel Liška, one of my fly fishing heroes, and it was the first fly pattern mentioned in the angling literature as originating in the Czech lands (then still a part of Austria).
Cheers!
J.
Funny looking rainbow tail...
ReplyDeleteThanks Harri, it was a strange looking rainbow indeed. And the funny part is that I noticed his tail only at home, when going through my photos of the trip.
ReplyDeleteBut then it was not a difficult choice which one of the several options to use for my blog post summarizing the day. It now seems ages ago...
Cheers!
J.