Closing the 2012 Season

November 30^th is the last day of the Czech trout fishing season. It is the last opportunity to wet a line in trout waters till April 16^th 2013. Due to unfavorable weather forecast and work & family issues I have ended the season a few days earlier than officially required.

For the last fishing trip I selected the river Úpa. It is one of the lesser known Czech streams, but it supports a healthy population of my favorite fish species.

I wanted to avoid the most popular stretch of the water, which is known to hold a large population of Grayling - not only it contains such excellent spawning area that the fish have a tendency to overbreed and as result are somewhat stunted, but it runs next to a busy road. The car trafic in particular turns me down.

Instead I decided to fish a more scenic spot downstream, which I have not fished for several years. I have encountered some quality Grayling there in the past, but I have not fished it for a long time.

After fishing for some time I was surprised to catch ony smallish brown trout. I was not comfortable fishing for spawning fish, and so I was forced to change plans and turn my fishing trip into a hiking trip (in full wading gear). A few phone calls confirmed that a few dry summers and a some legally protected herons & cormorants had completely ruined this once great stretch of Grayling water.

So at the end this little brownie is likely to be my last salmonid fish of the 2012 fishing season.

October Frosts

Family obligations have kept me off the water for most of September and October (i.e. the best part of the Grayling season). I have therefore put great expectations to this past weekend, when I have finally managed to squeeze in a little time by the river with some fishing pals.

The trip was planned to the greatest detail, so that nothing could possibly go wrong. As is often the case with fishing trips planned too meticulously something did go wrong - in this case we were let down by the weather. A freak October snowstorm hit the Czech Republic, which made the fishing somewhat difficult.

When the snow stopped to fall we had a period of crisp frosty sunshine, very unlike the usual October mists. There was no chance of surface fish activity, but at least we were not fishing in a snowstorm.

The nymph proved to be an effective method, and both me and my friends managed to catch and release over a score grayling - not bad given the circumstances.

We even managed to catch a few out of season brownies, which was rather unexpected. The stretch of river we had chosen is way downstream from the prime brown trout riffles, and is locally known as pure grayling water.

The flies that proved the most effective were largish Czech Nymphs with contrasting hotspot and beaded nymphs tied after the Slovak pattern Uhorčík.

The color pink, normally a certain grayling favorite, was surprisingly ineffective. We had much better success with flies with tags and hotspots tied in darker claret or fluo green.

The Joys of Fly Swapping

Swapping flies is as old as fly tying. It probably started between ancient Greek folks fishing for fishes of a speckled hue on fabled Astraeus, but it was greatly improved with advent of the Internet.

I am a great fan of swapping flies, active on several internet forums. These couple of flies are for a swap on Czech site www.mrk.cz.

Having finished this bunch of tiny flees (#20 Eagle Owl mayflies) makes me think a bit on what is the most fun part of swaping. I have come up with several answers:

• The first and most obvious is that fly swaps let me see patterns and tricks of other fly tiers and learn from them.
• The second is that preparing for a swap makes me think hard about what pattern to select; it has to be something unusual to be interesting, and yet it has to be a pattern that I know well.
• The third is that tying dozens of identical flies is good for the soul of fly tier; it polishes the  techniques.
• And finally the fourth reason is that it builds relationship over the fly tying community.

Looking at my collection of some hundreds of labelled flies I wonder which of the four reasons matters the most to me. It will probably take some more fly swaps to fully understand :)

Scruffy Grayling Bug

A new pattern has been added to my Step by Step tying page: the Scruffy Grayling Bug.

This is a good pattern for the times when grayling do not consider it necessary to rise to the surface. But need not be considered exclusively a grayling pattern, as this little brownie attests.

Golden Olive Emergers

The weather seems to be taking a turn to the "worse" - the temperature has dropped, and after weeks of scorching heat we finally had some rain - which can mean only one thing: the summer is past, and the grayling season is coming!

Due to both past and forthcoming changes in my family arrangements I expect to spend somewhat fewer days fishing than I used to, but still I need to get ready for my favorite part of the fishing season.

Here are a couple emergers for grayling fishing. They are tied on a slightly heavier hooks and meant to be fished sunk in the film.

The tie:
#18 Dohiku 301 dry fly (somewhat heavier gauge than Hanák 103BL, my other favorite)
14/0 Sheer Thread color grey
3 strands of orange Krystal Flash to make my fly stand out in the crowd
body wrapped from goose herl dyed Golden Olive (Veniard)
2 tips of CDC feather

More of the same

The summer is still very much with us and that means high temperatures and low water levels. I am delaying the start of proper Grayling fishing season on small streams till the conditions improve.

In the meantime I spent a some more time on the river Ohře, famous for its caddis hatches. I even had a special rod made for this river, built on the green Winston WT blank.

The best part of the day on Ohře is at dusk. The caddis hatch is still strong, and predictable. It continues to amuse me that the river is so full of mayflies that it has the look and consistency of a soup - but the fish let the hatching olives and sulphurs pass, only to become active on the surface when the caddis start to hatch.

The variance in color and spots of the fish in Ohře is tremendous - these two fish were caught about ten meters from each other, but look very differently. I will have to consult a ichthyologist friend whether there is a good reason for this, or whether it is just another aspect of the natural tendency of salmonid fish to be unpredictable.

More Summer Caddis

The Ohře river is about 90 kilometers drive from Prague and during high summer it is at its best late in the day. This creates a possibility to combine some quality trout fishing with a regular day in the office. This intriguing idea comes at a price though, for Ohře is a harsh mistress.

The drive home, returning just before midnight, seems much longer than the one hour it actually takes. The morning after feels like a major hangover. On the other handthe rewards of a night out with a group of friends by this fine river are worth the minor inconveniences.

This week I travelled to Ohře with a group of friends. We were led by my friend Martin, who has formed a special bond with the river Ohře. Just as some men are uniquely suited for relationship with one woman (while others seem uniquely unsuited to do so) this fisherman has entered into relationship with a single river. For some reason the idea of new rivers and new horizons fails to excite him and apart from a little sea fishing he dedicates all his time to Ohře.

During the long and harmonious relationship with the river he developed an uncanny understanding of the mood of the river that he can reliably forecast the part where the evening caddis hatch will be the strongest. Thus we all felt fortunate to be guided by a true expert.

We arrived at Žatec around 7 PM, and killed some time by a little nymph fishing. There was a hatch of olives happening, but the little anorectic mayflies failed to stir the fish and there was no surface activity.

By half past eight the sun had set and the first caddis started to appear. By nine the hatch was in full swing and the fish finally started to notice the meaty morsels. We had about a hour of intensive surface action, before the light failed entirely.

The choice of pattern was not hard, as the fading light made the color of our flies entirely irrelevant. What mattered was a strong Caddis silouhette and solid hook - the fish in Ohře grow to good size and fight with vigor. Many a fish had been lost to bent or broken hook.