Finally some grayling

With the flood waters finally subsiding to manageable levels I headed northeast to Úpa, a river known for a healthy stock of Grayling.

The water was still showing a hint of color and the flow was a tad higher than I would like for safe wading, but the river was certainly fishable.
I first started fishing the margins with a team of lightly weighted flies, drawing response from a number of brown trout. This came to me as a surprise of sorts, for I fish this river mostly later in the season when the brownies are otherwise occupied and the when the river seems to belong to grayling only.

For now it seemed that the situation was reversed, and brownies both big and small were the most active fish. When I changed my tactics and started to probe the bottom of the deep pools I finally managed to connect with some grayling. They were hugging the bottom and not yet in their prime condition, but already showing some appetite and seemed to be recovering well from spawning and the June floods.

The best performing fly seemed to be a simple orange headed wet fly. This little spider outfished my other flies by order of magnitude, and the only challenge seemed to be how to get it down to the level of the fish. A heavy Tungsten beaded fly a the point seemed to be the answer, with the "catching" wet fished on a short dropper.

The tie:
#10 Kamasan B160 hook, debarbed
6/0 Danville's Flymaster thread, red
red fox dubbing
holographic Gütermann tinsel
quail body feather
a light touch of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails

On High and Even Higher Rivers

I was complaining that this spring has been so wet that the high & muddy water was keeping me from having the kind of fishing I wanted. The mother Nature most likely heard me, and decided to show me what really high water means. Most of the Czech Republic (and surrounding parts of Germany and Austria, as Nature cares little for man made lines on the map) was hit by heavy rains and major flooding.

This chart shows volume on a small trout stream nearby Prague, one that is stocked with rainbows each spring. It holds trout mostly in the 25 - 30 centimeters range, as its low summer flow can not provide cover to bigger fish (not to mention the heavy fishing pressure). For most of the year it is easy wading, with the water reaching to my knees at the most - this week the water flow on this little brook hit 100 cubic meters per second, which is roughly a hunderd times the norm, or about the flow we get in Vltava in Prague, a much wider river.

I don't think that my complaining was direct cause for the flooding, but it seems unlikely I will be having much fun fishing the Kocába and other trout streams this season, given the damage done to the fish and surrounding countryside.

Opening the 2013 season

A combination of work & family issues, compounded by bad weather, has caused me to miss the traditional April 16^th trout opening day and start my season only in May. The stinky office stuff I can get over, rainy weather will clear, but a certain young lady has some serious growing up ahead of her before she can cast a fly rod. I suppose I just have to get used to it.

As most of the rivers were still too high I decided to start my season on a stillwater. My favorite venue for early season trouting was closed due to competition, so I had to settle for another - also popular with Prague fly fishermen, but without the Sliwovitz destillery.

As I was not familiar with the water I struggled at first, catching only number of baby Perch - tiny in size, but voraciously attacking any fly showing some red - but no trout. The situation was not helped by my being badly out of casting practice after the long winter. As the day progressed I managed to connect with some fish by fishing a team of buzzers in the "washing line" style - a buyoant booby fly fished on point and two buzzers on droppers fished just below surface.

Holo Red Buzzer
#10 Kamasan B110 hook
black spanflex
shiny holo tinsel
Chinese Red UNI Stretch
a layer of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails

Yelow Gold Buzzer
#10 Kamasan B110 hook
black spanflex
Yellow UNI Stretch
Black UNI 6/0 thread
a layer of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails

Coal Speck

One of the earliest hatches in the Czech season are a kind of tiny black dipterans that I have so far failed to scientifically place. They are tiny indeed, almost impossible to imitate due to their diminutive size. They are however one of the first hatches to appear, allowing for one of the first opportunities for surface action. I will be expecting them to appear in about a two weeks time.

Here is a fly pattern designed to imitate this insect, tied on the smallest hook I consider practical for actual use - #20 Hanák dry fly. Anything smaller than that is just showing off (unless your name spells Andy Baird; then it would be just normal).

The tie:
#20 Hanák H130BL hook
14/0 Sheer thread, color grey
#16 UNI tinsel, pearl
2 tips of CDC feather
homemade Muskrat dubbing, dyed black
a light touch of black CD marker to darken the head

Black Buzzer

I can hardly wait for the moment when the icky white stuff finally melts and I can go fishing again. I still have to wait a while, but The Moment is getting nearer each passing hour!

It is very likely the first cast of the 2013 season will be at a still water. The rivers will be flooded with snowmelt, supressing any fish activity. I should do better on some sheltered still water.

In order to prepare for the occasion I am stocking up on my buzzer box. These are about perfect for what I have in mind for early season stillwater fishing - a team of simple buzzers drifting slowly on a floating line. Not the most active of fishing styles, but effective in the early season when the fish are feeling lazy after the winter.

An added bonus is that tying buzzers is a simple task, using only a very limited number of materials. The "clean" style stresses function over form, appealing to my estetic feelings.

The tie:
#10 Kamasan B110 grubber hook
black UNI Stretch thread
red flexi floss
a drop of thin lacquer

La Toxique

This fly originates from the competition scheme: as such it goes light on the specific imitation front, while being heavy on general attraction, at the same time being easy to tie and thus expendable. Not the best pattern for gin clear waters, but deadly whenever there is color in the river.
Effective when used with the long leader nymphing techinque.

The tie:
heavy gauge curved hook (#10 Kamasan B110 Grubber in this case)
3.0 mm silver Tungsten bead
ribbing of peacock side of the #16 UNI Peacock/Orange tinsel, stretched out to make it even thinner
body of red Mylar tinsel
collar of synthetic peacock dubbing

What a difference dubbing makes?

What's in a dubbing? That which we call a fly
By any other fur would catch as sweet.

This sort of question occurs each tying season to many fly fishing Juliets; and just like a name in drama the dubbing in fly tying matters more than seems obvious at the first glance.

I am tie the all time favorite Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear on a gathering of fly tying pals. To make it a bit more interesting - after all the GRHE is not exactly rocket science - I have prepared a demonstration of various dubbing choices.

The following flies are all variants on the GRHE theme, tied on #10 Skalka wet fly hooks with 3.3mm bead, partridge tails and ribbed with Gütterman golden tinsel. Only the dubbing varies.

#1 - Young Hare

This fly is tied with fur from a young hare. The fur is light in colour and smooth in structure. It will have lots of movement in water, but it will have a "soft" feel to it.

#2 - Old Hare

This fly uses fur from an older animal. It is darker, with some hints of grey. The dubbing is mostly guard hairs from the back of the animal, where the hairs are longest and roughest.

#3 - Hare mixed with Fox Squirrel

This is actually the same fur as in exhibit #1 (I mix my dubbing myself, so I know for sure it comes from the same pelt). It has been mixed with some Fox Squirrel hair to give it some structure. The Fox Squirrel is very rough fur, with plenty of structure but it does not dub easily and is very messy. Mixing it with some Hare makes it much easier to work with.
This fly has the most structure, in fact so much it might have trouble in sinking to the catching depth.

#4 - Flashy Oppossum

Something else for a perspective. Entirely different from the previous flies - the result is not exactly undesirable, but definitely something else.