Don's Fly Tying - the Czech Nymph

Our 2015 summer was hot, hot, hot. If you believe Al Gore, it's Global Warming but I am not going to venture into that argument except that we did experience near record warm temperatures this past summer. In fact it was so warm and dry that streams in many parts of British Columbia were closed to fishing because of both low water levels and warm water temperatures! Because of this serious condition, I did not do any stream or river fishing this summer until a recent trip to the Fraser in mid September when the water temperatures were pretty well back to normal. On that trip I did luck out on some nice Spring Salmon but that is not the purpose of this discussion.

In recent years a nymph fly has been developed for fairly swift flowing streams in Europe, primarily for grayling but with proper presentation, trout will greedily succumb as well. The idea of this nymph was to cover shallow fast moving water that in the past yielded little to normal fly fishing methods. With this weighted nymph, one wades into the stream and literally bounces the fly along the bottom hardly a rod length away! Sweep the fly through a run, take a step, and bounce through the run again. In turbulent water of fast moving streams, careful wading will allow you to approach fish within a rod length or two so the flip and bounce technique does work. The fly we will look at this month is designed for this and is aptly named the Czech Nymph!

Materials

Hook--Klink-hammer 15 BN size 12 to 16
Tail--None
Body--Underlay thin layer of green wool followed by tan Hareline dubbing
Rib--Silver wire
Hackle--None
Thorax--Full top body pale green plastic strip
Head--Red bead
Thread--Fine monofilament .006

Instructions

First crimp the hook barb and slide a red bead to the hook eye. Then secure a length of silver wire to the hook shank projecting past the hook bend. Next make several wraps of fine lead wire to weight the fly. Now add a thin layer of pale green wool covering the lead wrap. For the overbody, I like the Hareline March Brown dubbing but any tan frizzy dubbing material will do. Try to space your dubbing wraps so just a hint of the green wool will show underneath. The next step is to make spaced turns of the silver wire hook bend to hook eye to form the rib. To complete the Czech Nymph, cut about a 1/8 inch wide strip of pale green plastic and tie it in with your clear monofilament both at the hook eye and hook bend with no worry about two or three wraps over the fly body. I had meant to try this fly and nymphing technique this summer while visiting our daughter in Vancouver Island but with my favourite streams closed, it will have to wait until next year!

Your comments are welcome at "dhaaheim at telus dot net"

[Canada Flag Icon] CANADA, a clean, spacious, scenic, fun place to visit!