Czech Nymphing

Today there are many schools of nymphing such as the French Nymphing, Polish Nymphing etc, and all are very effective in their own right but for now lets take a look at this method. The "Czech Nymph" is a term now known throughout the whole flyfishing world. The term itself has two elements. Firstly the actual nymphs which are quite slim, weighted, tied on gammarus hooks with bent shanks. Secondly is the actual technique, when these flies are led, short under the rod. Virtually no actual fly line is used outside the top ring and the assistance of a spiral indacator helps the angler to identify the fish takes. By this method it is possible to lead a much broader scale of weighted flies and many different nymphs in this way. It is generally effective in waters depths ranging from 18inches or less and up to 6ft. When you get deeper than 6ft, you are at a point where you need to lengthen the leader and begin loosing contact with the flies which will not allow you to detect takes or strikes effectively. 

Generally though, if the water is 6ft deep it is probably not moving that fast and is better suited for a more stealthier long line method like the Spanish nymphing. I find that when i an fishing effective Czech Nymphing the nymphs are on the bottom of the river and not in mid rift.
The first great success of the short line nymph technique was recorded at the World Championships in Belgium in 1986, where it brought a gold medal and the World Champion trophy for Slavoj Svoboda. Even though his winning fly at that time was the Hare's Ear Nymph in sizes between 10 - 12. Czech Nymphs as a global pattern of the fly then broke through at the World Championships in Wales in 1990 for the first time. Here it brought the title of World Champions for the Czech Team.

But for short line nymphing it all began in 1984 on the Dunajec river in Poland, where the flyfishing tournament between teams of Poland and the team of Czechoslovakia was held. The Polish fishermen were fishing a short line technique, which was surprisingly easy. At that time most of them did not have a flyfishing line. They substituted a thick nylon line of about 0.5 mm in diameter, which they bound to the tip. The flies they used were imitations of the caddis larvae. Hydropsyche a body made from natural hare fur and Rhyacophylia which had a green body and green tail. The backs were bound from peacock fibers on both patterns. Straight hooks were used, possibly with a gentle bend.
The flies moved on over this period as more fly tyers strived to design new tying products and patterns and the the big emphasis was on the development of the back, and it started being bound from the sausage skin, later the skin of the catfish or the eel were used. These first fat nymphs were called ""Bobesh""and they belonged to the bugs category.

Radical changes occurred in the appearance of the nymph were brought about by the use of ultra thin leaded wire, which led to a massive slimming of the nymphs. They also started to use the Gammarus hooks called Admiral (=Kamasan B100). The next improvement was the use of thin rubber on the back of the nymph and its advantage was durability, transparency and easy tying. Firstly they used rubber strips cut from surgical gloves. Later directly prepared vinyl strips in different colours. Special plastic foil backs were the next innovation, with different printing strong colours or glitter.

Next the Hares Ear fur, even the rabbit fur in many colourful variations started to be used. By using seals fur a further new innovation started, and it has brought experiments with many different furs of exotic animals. Originally monotonously dyed bodies started being enlivened by red spots. One of the first who tried this was way the competitor Lukas Pazdernik. The real innovation the use of the craziest of colours was brought about by Pavel Machan (European Champion 2002) and also Tomas Starychfojtu (Holder of three different individual medals from the World Championships) who used many new and nontraditional materials in his nymphs. Today many new and exciting dubbings are ready available online and the choice of colors grow day by day.

Remarkable improvements in these flies required innovations in gammarus hooks. Nowadays people demand chemically sharpened hooks from companies Hayabusa, Kamasan, Mustad, Tiemco, VMC. Competition rules require barbless hooks and it has given the stimulus for local manufacturers, where hooks from Mr. Skalka or Mr. Knapek are highly appreciated.

Even the leader material for this type of Nymphing technique has made big progress. At the beginning it was bound as tapered, when it was assembled from several parts of nylon line from 0.40 mm, through 0.30mm, 0.20mm, 0.16mm, possibly to 0.14mm in diameter. Most finished at 0.18mm and it was fished with two nymphs. Leaders tapered in this way sink badly. When the next new invention came to the world, which was a one-diameter leader, which was down to a contemporary diameter of 0.10-0.08mm. Of course these modifications were made possible because of the creation of completely new fishing rods as well, without these it would not have been possible.

Czech nymphs are today a real term. In magazines there is always some information on them. They are becoming the property of the World flyfishing family. I do not think that their development will stop, but on the contrary I would say that we will witness their next improvements and surprises of which we have no idea so far (Karel Krivanec).
When you are starting out or going Czech Nymphing it works best in fast moving water that is not to deep and where there is pockets or rocks, broken water allows you to fish under the rod tip and you wont spoke fish. allow the nymphs to trot down stream from you upwards cast till they are in line or slightly below you standing position, then with one movement strike the nymphs ad drive them upriver into the water hard to help them get to the bottom as fast as possible. it is preferred that the heavier fly goes on the point of the leader and in deeper water use large anchor flies to get to the bottom and also drag down the smaller nymphs to where the trout are feeding and lying.

The leader setup best used is as follows, the leader overall length is 2/3rds the length of the rod and the fluorocarbon tippet is usually 4 or 5X, 4X would be used in heavy water, 5X in normal conditions. If the water is really clear and fish are easily spooked then use 6X. So the leader is made up of a 50inch butt section of either 4,5 or 6X, then 20inches of 5X, and another 20inches of 5X and the dropper lengths are normally 7-9 inches in length. some anglers use the rollers to stop the leaders and droppers wrapping around each other when constantly rolling the nymphs up stream.