Wrath of the Ice Men

Mid May is a period that traditional Czech folk lore calls The time of the Ice Men. It is a period of cold weather, supposedly driven by the same climatic forces as the Asian monsoons. The feasts of Messrs. Pankrác, Servác and Bonifác have been traditionally celebrated on May 12^th, 13^th and 14^th. Nowadays the religious observance is all but gone, but the folklore tradition - and climatic phenomenon - remains.

I took some time off to visit a small stream westward from Prague. Just as the folklore predicted the weather has dramatically worsened for the weekend, and the temperature dropped by almost 20°C. This was accompanied by a sudden change in barometric pressure and further compounded by low water levels. As a result I had only limited success fishing.

An unexpected outcome of the low water situation was that I was able to check first hand the abundance of caddis flies living in the stream. The little critters were easily visible in the low water, and I could easily see that there were a plenty of them around to ensure a very rewarding caddis fishing later in June.