Wet Caddis

Taking fish on dry flies is great fun, but as I learned the hard way on a recent trip when my friend Jirka totally outclassed me, trout truly do consume most of their food below surface.

I was fishing a dry caddis imitation and enjoying seeing the occasional strike on surface, while he was fishing a wet caddis and having fun getting 10 fish to 1 mine.

Once I got home I sat down and tied these simple wet caddis flies to do better the next time.

It is a very simple tie, the key factor being wing of Australian Possum hair. It has a peculiar wavy but coarse look and once wet is very mobile. I hear that it is commonly used in many Australian fly patterns.

The tie:
#8 Veniard Ospery heavyweight grub hook (1x short, 1x strong)
tan UTC thread, 70 den
ribbing of fine gold Gütermann tinsel
body & thorax from homemade rough hare dubbing
underwing of 5 threads of orange Krystal flash
overwing of Australian Possum guard hairs

Caddis Magic

The river Ohře has special meaning to Czech fly fishermen. Ours is a small country, and this river has a big reputation. Most of us have fished it, and formed a relationship with the stream. It is a typical love / hate relationship.

Old Ohře hands gladly tell stories of the times when Ohře fish were bigger and more numerous - and they themselves younger and fuller of life. Ohře is a moody river, and although its best days might be over it holds many a quality fish still. The river however does not yield easily to human understanding. Many fishermen try their luck once or twice and refuse to suffer another humiliating blank day a third time.

I have to confess that I have fallen into the spell of this magical river. It is at its best at the time of early summer, at the time of the so called dusk caddis. This rather large caddis fly hatches from June till late July. Its enormous numbers bring to surface even the huge lunkers who rarely leave the darkness of the deep pools.

And even if the evening does not always lead to a spectacular success one cannot but feel enlightened by the whirl of the caddis flies in the setting sun, far from the maddening crowds of our capital.

Grayling on Fly on Fishtec

Grayling on the fly is now part of the Fishtec favourite blog list, produced by fly fishing tackle retailers, Fishtec.

You can see the full list at the Fishtec blog site http://www.fishtec.co.uk/blog/more-great-fishing-blogs. I am flattered by being included on the list, as it seems I am the only Czech and most likely the only blogger from mainland Europe so far.

More Redheads

I have failed to discover what is the key success factor of my "Redhead" pattern: is it the gold ribbed hare body? subtle movements and translucency of the CDC wing? the red head? the way the fly lies stuck inside the water film?
Most likely it is the combination of all of the above.

On the other hand I could not fail to notice it outfishes my other imitations by wide margin. It has been the most productive dry fly for the mixed hatches period of late spring.

I therefore refrain from tampering with a design that works and keep on churning more and more copies to replenish my boxes (and to share a few with deserving friends).

Small Fry

The dog days of high summer have hit the Central Europe, with temperatures ranging above 30°C. The game fish are overcome with a strange torpor. Some trout fishing is still possible, mainly on the tailwaters where the big dams keep water temperature down, but this is compressed to a short period around dawn and dusk.

On the other hand an excellent sport can be had fishing for coarse fish, such as perch, pike or asp. These are very active at this period, feeding on this season fry.

Here is a sample of summer fry imitations from a swap run by my good mate Karel Stýblo on Czech server www.mrk.cz.