Jan Šiman shares a little fly fishing wisdom on some sweet Czech rivers.
Jan, http://www.goflyfish.cz, set me up with a 6 minute metro ride
and an easy 2.5 hour bus ride through the Czech countryside from Prague to Susice. This area is called Southern Bohemia and is very close to the German and Austrian border.
According to Jan, three time member of the Czech National Fly Fishing Team, the term Czech nymphing was invented by Orvis or some other American to explain the technique used by the Europeans that was cleaning the clock of the US Team in every championship. They are actually a little insulted that now the world thinks they invented it and don't know how to do anything else.
Let me set the record straight. If Jan Šiman is any example, they know how to do a lot of things right.
First the technique know as Czech Nymphing. This is Jan doing it right. The stream is flowing from right to left. He's using a bi-color sighter (indicator) just off the water and is leading his weighted "czech nymph" down stream. Looks like high-sticking but look where the fly line is. He's probably using 15 feet of leader/tippet.
He rigged me up for tandem dries with a massive 18 feet of leader tippet ending in 7x. He uses what he calls a Spanish cast that collapses before rolling out the last 5 feet of tippet, putting no weight or force on the dry fly which drifts slowly and naturally to the surface near the loose piles of tippet. The result is a drag free drift of at least 10 feet. The Spanish cast puts a loop of leader up stream from the tippet pile so when line is gently pulled in the fly travels UPSTREAM just like a natural. Truly amazing and nicely effective. It works on Clear Creek near Denver also. I tried it and I like it.
The licenses, permits, access, and training needed to actually get on the river is daunting. You'd never be able to do it yourself. It is nothing like public waters in any state in the US. It's more like fishing on the Wigwam club property, e.g. State License, Local Permit, Personal Relationship with the River Keeper, Membership in a club with a 120 year waiting list, and then a gilley to tie on your flies, unhook your fish, an tell you precisely where to cast.
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| A very nice grayling |
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| Browns and Grayling all on dries. A gray cdc emerger about size 16. |
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| Sumava River |
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| Here is Jan's ingenious fly dryer, more commonly known as an elastic band. |
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| Sumava River |
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| Sumava River |
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| Otava River |
We fished Sumava Rivers in August 26-27. The Otava on the 27th.
John Davenport from USA-CO. Sumava rivers, August 2015. Photos Jan Siman.
Dinner stop at Chata Rovina so we could go back and fish the evening hatch.
Nice $30 room in a new hotel obviously set up for the cross country and biking trade.
and an easy 2.5 hour bus ride through the Czech countryside from Prague to Susice. This area is called Southern Bohemia and is very close to the German and Austrian border.
According to Jan, three time member of the Czech National Fly Fishing Team, the term Czech nymphing was invented by Orvis or some other American to explain the technique used by the Europeans that was cleaning the clock of the US Team in every championship. They are actually a little insulted that now the world thinks they invented it and don't know how to do anything else.
The licenses, permits, access, and training needed to actually get on the river is daunting. You'd never be able to do it yourself. It is nothing like public waters in any state in the US. It's more like fishing on the Wigwam club property, e.g. State License, Local Permit, Personal Relationship with the River Keeper, Membership in a club with a 120 year waiting list, and then a gilley to tie on your flies, unhook your fish, an tell you precisely where to cast.
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