2025 World Fly Fishing Championships Review: Session 3 Lipno II Reservoir
Session 3 was my turn to head to Lipno II Reservoir for the loch style boat session. Lipno I Reservoir is the reservoir that lies upstream of the Devil’s Stones stretch of the Vltava River that I would be fishing in session 4. Lipno II is the small flow regulating reservoir that lies downstream of the Devil’s Stones and upstream of the Vyssi Brod and Rozmberk sections of the Vltava River which we were also fishing.
Lipno II Reservoir does not normally contain trout, other than some wild fish that would come from the river above. It mainly holds carp, pike, perch, roach and likely a few other warmwater species. However, they stocked it with a lot of rainbow trout specifically for the championship.
The freshly stocked trout produced a unique challenge for several of us on our team. Out West, where Cody, Jack, and I live, we rarely fish for freshly stocked trout. Most of the time our lakes get stocked once or twice a year and the fish tend to adjust or naturalize within a few weeks. Our lakes also rarely experience intense pressure shortly after stocking. As a result, we didn’t necessarily have a lot of data to inform us on how we should expect the fishing to change with each successive session in the championship.
Typically, freshly stocked trout respond well to bright or flashy “lure” patterns retrieved at high speed. Sometimes they continue to respond well to this strategy, but other times slower presentations and more imitative or muted flies are a better choice.
I expected aggressive stockie style presentations to be the best way to approach the first half of my session. I also expected the fish to get tougher after being reminded of what the armada of boats had done to them the previous couple of days. In the second half of the session, I figured some adjustments would need to be made to continue to catch fish.
Our team captain Glade Gunther and our reserve angler Austin Shoemaker had been watching the lake the previous two sessions. Their information combined with the information from my teammates Cody Burgdorff and Mike Komara helped provide a rough plan for my session. We had identified three main target areas based on the previous two days of fishing. My first plan of attack was to head to the upper part of the reservoir near where the river came in for the first half of the session. This was the area where the two most successful boats had focused during the previous session. I planned to fish this area for 45-60 minutes and then adjust based on my success and where other boats shifted their positions to.
During our setup time the wind was fairly calm. Large pods of fish were rising throughout the reservoir. I decided to start with a slow intermediate line with an orange marabou lure on the top dropper, a mop in the middle, and another brass bead orange marabou leech on the point. This rig would let me keep my flies high in the column, especially with a fast retrieve.
As we rowed toward the top of the lake during our row out time, I spotted a large pod of trout rising near the trees short of where I had planned to go. I asked the controller to stop and hold station. We still had 15 minutes to wait before the session started but I knew it would be crucial to get some fish on the board in the first 20 minutes. This pod had a lot of hopefully willing targets. Unfortunately, the controller of another boat rowed over and stopped right on top of the pod and put the fish down. This was obviously poor form but it’s hard to get mad at someone who doesn’t speak the same language and who is kind enough to be volunteering their time.
I waited in place and eventually that boat moved a few minutes before the session started. The pod of trout did not immediately materialize but then I saw a group of fish rising just up lake from our original spot before the session started. I asked the controller to reposition, and we were in place when the horn rang out.
Looking toward the upper end of the reservoir at the end of the session. Of course, the wind died with 5 minutes left in the session.
I started making casts to the rising trout and experimenting with different retrieves. My boat partner, Toth Tibor from Hungary, hooked up first only a minute or two into the session. It took me a couple of minutes more before I missed a fish on a fast roly poly retrieve. On the next cast one took to the top dropper, and I had my first fish of the session in the net. Several minutes later Toth hooked up again. It took me until 25 minutes into the session before I hooked my second fish on the same orange lure on the top dropper.
Toth was catching his fish with a fairly slow retrieve while I had caught both fish burning back a roly poly retrieve. I also had several more takes that locked up temporarily, but the trout spit the hook at distance. I hadn’t seen many fish caught around us at this point, so I didn’t feel like I was in much of a hole yet. I tried to keep experimenting with retrieves and switched out my middle dropper fly to a black leech similar to what Toth had caught his fish on.
A few minutes after my second fish I covered a rise. I stripped out the slack and then allowed my flies to fall. As they were descending, I watched the line tip move forward and the slack straightened from my line. I strip set and locked up solidly into my third fish. This fish caused me to experiment with countdowns and slower retrieves over the next 10 minutes. However, despite covering quite a few rises, I could not repeat the same success.
On a whim, I retrieved a cast with an extremely fast scissor strip. Three strips in I locked up into my fourth fish 40 minutes into the session.
You can see the details of this retrieve in my stillwater book, but the basic description is that you strip with your line hand while extending your rod arm. After your strip, you return the rod arm to a bent position while moving the line hand back to the line to start the next strip. This scissoring back and forth motion keeps the flies moving constantly. It also reduces the chance of a trout taking and spitting your flies during the pause in the strip portion of the retrieve because the rod hand can set the hook when it moves back toward your body. The issue is that it is a bit of a workout when done aggressively and it’s easy to break fish off if you aren’t careful.
By this point, a lot of boats were making a move from the middle of the lake toward our position. I decided I didn’t want to get caught up in a game of bumper boats for the rest of the session. The wind had also started to blow from the top of the reservoir toward the dam. I made the decision to follow the wind and drift past the alternate locations the team had identified to fish over the previous sessions.
As we were rowing, I found another pod of fish rising on the opposite side of the lake not quite halfway to the dam. We stopped and set up a drift through these fish and I got one on a scissor strip that followed my flies all the way to the boat. It swirled on the hang, and I slapped my flies back on top of the swirl. Thankfully it came back and took my point fly.
We spent roughly the next 45 minutes working this area. I switched to a coral blob on the top dropper to create more commotion during my fast retrieves. After that change, there were quite a few fish that followed with exciting bow wakes tracking my blob during the retrieve. Unfortunately, most of these fish did not commit and they would disappear instead of taking on the hang as I hoped. I did manage to convince one of these fish to take my middle dropper after it followed the blob near the surface for almost 50 feet. I also had a couple more short strikes that didn’t lock up or vaulted from the water instantly and spat the hook.
Eventually this pod stopped rising and it was time to move on again. We let the wind carry us down the lake and tracked several more pods along the way. There were a lot of rising fish on this end of the lake, and we were one of only a couple of boats in the area.
I decided to make a gamble. I switched leaders from a 3x diameter lure pulling leader to a 5x diameter nymph leader. I hoped I could crawl nymphs past some of the rising fish and get them to take. The wind was picking up though and the boats did not have drogues. This resulted in the boat drifting very fast and swinging back and forth constantly. Instead of being able to crawl my nymphs past rising fish, I was hand twisting or stripping fast just to try and keep contact. I only missed one fish on this rig in about 15 minutes of fishing.
I decided to make one last gamble. I switched to a floating line and put a washing line rig on with a dry fly on the top and point positions and a nymph in the middle. I hoped that I could cast to rising fish out ahead of the boat and just take up the slack as the boat flew toward them. After 10 minutes, it was clear that this was a fool’s errand. The wind had started gusting even more and the boat was on top of each fish I cast to before I had a chance to let the flies sit long enough for each fish to find them.
I had wasted 30 minutes of my session on these gambles. I had hoped it was a technique change that might convert rising fish to my flies. Unfortunately, I made the change just before the wind was at its worst. If I had stuck with my previous program, I’m pretty confident I could have added another fish or two to the card which would have made a big difference in my score at the end of the session.
Looking past my boat partner Toth toward the dam end of the reservoir. I wish the wind had been similarly calm when we were fishing there.
I swapped rigs again and went to a midge tip line to keep my lure patterns as high as possible through the pods of rising fish. On my very first cast, I locked into a fish on my third scissor strip. We drifted repeatedly through the area as the wind continued to push the boat around. I thought for sure I would pick up some more fish, but my 7th fish ended up being the last.
A map of Lipno II Reservoir with the main locations where my boat partner Toth and I fished.
During the last 45 minutes I had the gut feeling that we should have returned to the upper end of the reservoir and piled in with the other boats up there. They were stacked in the upper end and hadn’t moved. However, with the pace my controller rowed and a headwind to battle, it likely would have been a 15-20 minute commitment. It’s hard to give that time away when your flies can be in the water and I decided we should stay on the dam side of the reservoir.
Sure enough, when we returned to the boat ramp, the best scores had come from the boats who had gone to and stayed in the upper end of the reservoir. It’s possible there were more fish or more willing fish here. It’s also possible the trees sheltered this end of the lake enough to make the boats drift slower, which allowed more control of retrieves and presentations. Seven fish earned me a 9th place in the session since I had shorter fish than Daniel Factor who also had 7 fish in 8th place. There were four separate anglers with 8 fish and one angler with 9. Another fish on my card could have made a massive difference.
In hindsight, the gambles I made on location and techniques didn’t pay off. I wish I had stayed in the upper end of the reservoir and tried to dial in a few more fish by varying my retrieve, line, and flies a bit more. But that’s why they call it hindsight. I’ve made similar gambles before that made all the difference. Sadly, that wasn’t the case this time. Luckily, the information Austin and I gathered helped Jack and Michael in the last two sessions.
The worst part of the day was that most of the team had drawn tough beats, and we had a nightmare session. Cody Burgdorff finished 29th on the Devil’s Stones, Jack Arnot Finished 15th on the Otava, Michael Bradley finished 10th on the Rozmberk stretch of the Vltava, and Mike Komara finished 29th on the Vyssi Brod section of the Vltava.
It was hard not to hang our heads that night as we had tumbled from 1st to 5th place. However, we always win together as a team, and we lose together as a team. We were still only two points behind Italy in 3rd place and France in 4th place. I always believe times like this are when you show the kind of people and team that you are made of. We could lose our cool and capitulate under the disappointment. Or, we could wipe the previous session from our minds and tackle the next one as a new day. Tune in for my session 4 review to see what happened next.
