Whilst Czech nymphing, I generally tend to concentrate on fast, poppily water with a fair depth. This distinguishes quite easily where the fish (you'd think!) would be lying up. Any little crease in a run, boulder with a back eddy or where two currents meet, should hold a fish or three.

Making sure your flies travel downstream at the same pace of the river is crucial, this is called dead drift. If a nymph is moving faster than the current, it becomes unnatural and most educated fish would leave it alone. But, sometimes, if there are stockies in the river, or its a hard days fishing, leading your flies downstream a faster than the current can sometimes provoke a take depending on the situation.

'Jigging' is one of my favourite ways to induce a take. By casting the flies upstream, and leaving them trundle along the bottom downstream can become pretty repetitious, to you and the fish. If there's a fish in the run your fishing that's already seen or had a go at your flies, it can become put off. By jigging the flies, lifting the rod tip a few inches, causing the flies to come up from the bottom to about mid level, and allowing them to drop back to the bottom can provoke the fish into taking again. There has been many a time where I have been fishing the river Rhymney and caught the same fish in the same pool, on the same fly, twice! Just simply by changing the behaviour of the flies.

Czech Nymphing is a generally a sight fishing method, so casting short and keeping the rod high, at about a 45o angle, will give you a good view on your fly line. Each take you have whether fishing dries or nymphs, you will always certainly see before you feel as most takes by the time they are felt, they are missed. This is why I think this method is so effective. If the fly line does anything - pull, flick, stop, dart or delays, LIFT. Any movement on the end of the fly line could mean fish! Eight out of Ten times, its probably the bottom, but the other two times, it will probably be a fish.

A Typical set up for Czech Nymphing is a long fly rod – the ideal being up to 10 feet in length. Rod weight should be around a 4 or 5 weight although for smaller rivers a lighter and shorter rod may be more appropriate for this method. Czech Nymphing is quite intensive work, the physically lighter the rod the better. Personally I use Airflo Streamtec 10ft 4-5 weight fly rod. A good sight indicator will also help, be it braid or a Czech nymphing leader.

Leader setup is also crucial. Having your flies too far apart, or too close could mean the difference between a few fish or a bag full. I tend to have my droppers around 16-20 inches apart. This means that I can fish shallow runs and also deep pools without changing the length of the leader, only the weight of the flies. By keeping the rod high and the fly line out of the water, having a considerably longer distance between flies could mean that in shallow water the top dropper could evidently be out of the water and not fishing.

Czech nymphs

Czech nymphs are probably one of the most varied flies available. They come in many different sizes and colours. But most czech nymphs seem to all have one similarity, its shape. Their shapes all tend follow one trend, thin at the ends and fat in the middle. Profile is everything with Czech nymphs. The thin profile helps the fly cut through the water layers, sink fast and smoothly to get to where the fish are lying.

Below is one of my favourite and easiest Czech nymphs to tie.

Fly Tying materials

• Hook: Kamasan B110 Grub hook
• Silk: UTC shell pink
• Under body: Small Lead
• Rib: Airflo Sightfree G3 3lb + UTC copper wire Small
• Shell Back: Body Stretch Pink
• Back Strip: Pearl Opel Med
• Body: Pink Marabou
• Head: Clear Varnish

Mount A hook in the vice and run one wrap of thread down the shank. This acts as a base for the glue to set and lead to be wrapped onto without slipping.
Apply a drop of super glue to the hook, and wind an under-body of Lead wire. Taper each end by building up layers of thread, Just to give it that "grubby" shape.

Tie in all the essentials. Firstly the 3lb G3, the shell back, copper wire, pearl tinsel and finally the marabou for the body.

The order in which the materials are tied in will help here and in the further steps as you will see.

Wind the Marabou up the body in touching turns, covering the lead and tie off.

Apply a small amount of varnish along the underside of the pearl (the side that touches the back of the fly), pull over and tie off. (The varnish helps secure the pearl in place so it doesn't twist/turn when you wind the rib). Wind the copper rib, the opposite way to the body as it aids its durability.

Pull and stretch the shellback over the back of the fly. Try and judge so that the shellback sits evenly on each side of the fly. Tie in, cut off and do a small half-hitch at the head to avoid any unwanted accidents and the whole fly unravelling.
Finally wind the nylon through the fly in touching turns with the (underneath) copper rib, tie in, whip finish and varnish.

 

The colour intensity of the marabou does not fade, wash out or get water logged and loose its colour like some dubbing does. Of course, tying with the appropriate colour thread as a base beneath any of the materials used for a body will have a massive impact on its colour once wet.

Marabou is strong and very mobile. The ‘legs’ created by its herls give great movement and also give it a very lifelike look, albeit pink.

This fly works extremely well fished on the point of a team of three flies. If I was Czech Nymphing, I'd generally have three Czech Nymphs on my cast, the middle dropper being the heaviest, to get all flies as deep as possible without causing too many snag ups.

Written by Kieron Jenkins