The Diary of a World Champion

Individual and team gold medal at the 2024 Masters World Championships held in Rozmberk from 19.- 25.05.2024.

We arrived in Rozmberk on 05/14/2024 after 10 hours by car, leaving at 6.30 in the morning from Milan after loading the two minibuses to capacity.
The next day we met the professional fishing guide Filip Apiar, a person who was in the Czech Republic national team for many years and who now works as a full-time guide and has a shop selling fishing products - The name of the shop is Flyfishing Mania.
He immediately tells us the bad news that the conditions of the Vltava River is very high and that the release of water from the two upstream lakes will go on until Friday. For the  championship, the Vltava will be a third of what it is now. However, we are not discouraged, and we go and try the permitted section of Devil Stone, a stretch of the Vltava between the two lakes (Lipno 1 and Lipno 2), this stretch is called Devil Stone because it is not possible to stand on the stones and wade in the water they are frequent and very dangerous.

The next day we go fishing in a test lake, but when we arrive, we find several teams from other nations with the same intent on fishing and unfortunately there is no place to try, so we also try in two other lakes but with the same outcome, too many people. 

We fall back on a stretch of the Vltava in front of our hotel, a No Kill stretch, it is practically a tug of war, there is an incredible concentration of fish, we spend 3 hours with continuous catches of brown trout, char, rainbows and white fish.

The last day of practise is the part of the upper Vltava, above the two lakes, since the river is small in that area, we divide into pairs and go up fishing with small nymphs, we catch several sizeable trout and grayling, but also many small fish, then they warn us that they are closing the water from the dams and the river begins to take shape.  The quantity of water for the competition starts to arrive so we finally went fishing in a stretch of the Vyssi Brod Vltava.The river is beautiful woth a brown but quite clear color. 

After these 3 days of testing, it is time to organize the ideas and use Saturday to prepare the strategy and check all the equipment, leaders and flies. The world championship takes place in 5 sessions, one per day, given that two world championships are taking place at the same time (Masters and Ladies), the masters will compete in the morning and the Ladies in the afternoon.
It begins on Sunday with the official registration of the Teams, then a meeting of the captains to draw the competitors groups and match them in the sectors, around 7 p.m. in Rozmberk the presentation ceremony of all the Teams opens and then with the speech of the President of FIPS-MOUCHE and the declaration that the world championship is officially opened.

For our world championship we have five sessions, three in the Vltava River, one boat test in Lake Lipno II and the other test in the bank of the lake Kvetonov. 
After the draws,  our captain informs us of the sectors we have to start at and the following ones.
My starting sector is Lake Lipno II from the boat, then Devil Stone, Upper Vlatava, Lower Vlatava, and finally the lake from the bank -  Kvetonov.

1st session -  Lake Lipno II
When we arrive at the lake we are surprised by the level, almost two meters lower than before, I have never seen this lake so low. In the draws I get to go with Tom, an Australian competitor in the boat. We agree where to go, who is the captain and we settle on the boat , all very easy because being left-handed and he being right-handed we can arrange ourselves to both cast from outside the boat. 

My strategy is to start with an intermediate fast and two streamers, being the first fish caught on recently released fish I try to start with two flies instead of three. When they give the start signal to take up position with the boat, we decide to go upstream of the lake and not in front of the dam like all the other boats did. Our choice is rewarded, we find the trout almost immediately and all the other boats do not find the trout. After I lost 5 fish in a row - this is a indication that you need to change your strategy - and I decided to  put a sinking number 3 and the choice supports me, because after a while I start to consistently catch fish! 

This sesion lasted 4 hours and when you are in a boat fishing and catching fish, the hours pass with
impressive speed. At the end of the session, I reached 30 fish with a second place in my sector, my boatmate at 14, hearing from around then there is a 29 and finally the other competitors quite far behind.

I wrote a journal of session 2-5 as well - If you would like to know how i planned and fished the other beats in the World Championship - leave your name and e-mail and I will send it to you as soon as possible! 

Until next time - Tight Lines!