By Tom Skyrud
Czech Nymph technique is so
effective that fly fishers taking part in competitions
cannot do without it. Maybe it's time for non-competitive
fly-fishers to learn this simple technique as well?
During an international competition between
Czechoslovakia, Poland and East Germany in 1984, the
Poles used a nymph technique that proved to be very efficient.
The Poles won and, evidently, the competitors became
interested in the new technique. |
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In
the time to come, the Czech further developed it and designed
new flies (see the previous article). That what they did was
right was confirmed two years later when Slavoj Svoboda won
the world championship. He only used what was, at the time,
still called Polish nymph technique.
 During
the world championship in Finland in 1989, I fished in a
zone just beside Svoboda and, for the first time, I could
see how effective this technique really was. He caught the
double amount of fish as no 2 in our group, and he strongly
contributed to securing the team victory for the Czech team.
The Pole Vladislav Trezbunia won the individual World Championship
title with Svoboda as no 2. Later the Czechs and the Poles
have won quite a few medals, both individual and team medals.
Today, the technique has become very popular and it is now
used by everybody involved in international competitions,
and ordinary sport fishers are also starting to discover
it.
The Czech technique is a close-up technique
for rapids. Normally, it will not be used for the smooth
and slow-moving dry-fly stretches of a river. In slow-running
water the fish can easily be scared because the technique
requires that the fisherman stands fairly close to where
the fish are. The technique was originally developed for
Grayling, but it functions well for trout in smaller rivers
as well. The Czech technique can be used whenever the river
is free of ice. The Norwegian fly fisher Snorre Grønnæss
caught many beautiful Graylings as late as December of
last year.
It’s a fact that trout and Grayling
find most of their food close to the bottom. This becomes
more prevalent the bigger the fish is. When it becomes really
big it only goes for “dry” food during extreme
hatching periods. This is also true when it comes to grayling,
even though it is more active at the surface than any other
salmonides in Norway. This explains why it’s much more
common to catch large grayling with Czech technique than
with traditional dry-fly technique. The secret behind the
technique is that it brings the nymphs down to fish that
hunt close to the bottom. This way the fish can take a nymph
without much effort. This may sound simple, but there are
a few details that a fly fisher must pay attention to.
Given the fact that about 10% of the river
holds about 90% of the fish, it is important to be able to “read" the
river, - to find the natural favourite spots of the fish. “Classical” fishing
spots for Czech nymphs are along rapids where the river goes
from shallow to deep, but also recesses in shallow stretches
of the river can be excellent. The Grayling is quite gregarious,
so if you have caught one you will often get more at the
same spot. More specifically, you can find ideal spots in
relatively fast flowing water with clearly defined currents
where the depth varies between half a metre down to one and
a half metres. In such stretches the fish will easily find
plenty of food. The surface should not be calm. A turbulent
surface makes it more difficult for the fish to discover
the fisher. Given the right conditions, you can actually
come surprisingly close to the fish without scaring it off.
For instance, last autumn I caught a one-kilo grayling in
the Rena River in Eastern Norway - just one metre from where
I was standing. Many people do get surprised about how close
you can get to really big fish when using this technique.
I have most experience with fishing grayling
from August to October. During this season it’s not
unusual to experience good dry-fly fishing when conditions
are right. But this isn’t always the case, and quite
a few fly fishers have experienced that fishing has been
bad due to high water level, cold water or too much wind.
However, the Czech technique will function irrespective of
the various conditions, and it can yield stunning catches
when all other techniques fail. Even “hardy” dry-fly
fishers should enjoy this kind of fishing as a good alternative
when conditions aren’t right for dry flies.
You may well use traditional equipment to
fish with Czech Nymphs, but my ideal rod is a 10-feet rod,
class 3-4. However, on the market today there are very few
10-feet rods in such low weight classes. But in order to
have good control over the line, the length is more important
than the weight category, but I cannot recommend a stiffer
rod than class 6. Soft and light rods are the best because
they are sensitive and take much of the load during a strike,
as well as when you are running a fish. In case the rod is
too stiff the leader may easily break. The casting properties
are not that important, but a high modulus carbon rod will
give the best sensitivity during the cast, which is important
in order to be able to distinguish between a real strike
and the fly getting caught at the bottom. I prefer fly lines
in colours that are clearly visible. There should be a plaited
transition between the mainline and the leader and on this
transition there should be a strike indicator in a strong
colour. I use a fluorocarbon leader, because it sinks more
quickly than ordinary monofilament, and the same diameter
throughout the leader: 0.12-0.18 mm. The weight of the nymphs
and the expected weight of the fish will decide the diameter
of the leader.
I always fish with three nymphs on the leader.
The nymphs are attached to the leader by means of a dropper
knot, such as the Uni-knot, with a distance of about half
a metre between the flies and a dropper length of about 10cm.
This will function most of the time. The heaviest fly is
attached in the middle, and the distance from the middle
fly to the fly line should be equal to one and a half times
the depth where you are fishing. For instance, if you are
fishing a depth of 1 metre, the total length of the leader
should be 2 metres. This is a little bit longer than what
has been recommended in many other articles I have read about
nymph fishing, but then the heaviest fly has been attached
at the end. This means that the distance to the heaviest
nymph will be the same. If the current is strong it can be
wise to reduce the distance between the nymphs in order to
make them sink more rapidly. In case the leader is too short
the strike indicator will be pulled down during the feeding
out of the cast. You can solve this by tying in a length
of fluorocarbon between the strike indicator and the leader.
Traditional Czech nymphs are weighted with
lead, but in strong-current areas it will be necessary to
use an additional tungsten bead in order to get down to the
bottom fast enough. The end fly should not be as heavy as
the middle one, but the idea is that both the middle and
the end fly should be fishing close to the bottom. The top
fly is the lightest, and from my experience, I will recommend
that you use a fairly light coloured fly in this position.
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