On fishing day nr. 3 we planned to visit the Divoká Orlice river.
Intersting to know is that these parts used to be inhabited by German speakers so many towns and rivers in this area had also German names,
The Divoká Orlice also goes by the German name of “Wilde Adler” translated as Wild Eagle river.
The mountain range adaptly known as the Eagle mountains.
The area we where in was also known as Lower Silizia, nowadays part of Poland and the Czech republic.

On the road again.

When you drive through the Czech countryside you are bound to travel over many smaller streams
and when you are a fisherman you just have to stop and take a look from a bridge in order to spot fish.
We travel through the town of Vamberk and stopped at the bridge over the Zdobnice River.
An intersting bridge as it was dotted with religious statues with for me most notably that of St. John
Nepomuk which is also present at the local river I fish back home (Patron saint against floods).
Allthough we spotted a fish the the rather low and murky water in the middle of the town did not look
inviting enough to get into the waders and try to catch some fish.
Furthermore the section streamup from the bridge ran past an industrial complex where some
workers where digging and repairing one the banks, probably the reason for the murky water.
We made a short photostop and headed on to the main destination.

We eventually arrived at the Divoká Orlice in the village of Zamel, the water looked good to me
but some of my friends had a serious problem namely not being able to decide when to go fishing.
They looked at the river and thought it neccesary to travel further to look at other spots.

Divoká Orlice at Zamel

We eventually end up at the small village of Potštejn (In German Pottenstein).
A look at the brigde revealed one Czech angler who was tossing a small spinner amongst the ranunculus weeds – he instantly got a fish.
We had a coffeebreak at Potštejn but this would still not be a location to fish in.

Divoká Orlice at Potštejn

Somehow we ended up on a dirtroad through the settlement of Brna and while my buddy was cursing the road and my fellow
indecisive we eventually reached the main road at another bridge over the Divoká Orlice.
A look from the river revealed a nice spot of river with actually some deeper pools so I was ready to fish.
The other guys wanted to move on but I was at the “going postal stage” as it was well in the afternoon, I was on a fishing trip – not a sightseeing trip.
My buddy and I got into our fishing gear, the other guys moved on further upstream.

Divoká Orlice river, bridge on route 14

The location I choose looked promising but curiously yielded no fish.
The only thing I managed where some missed bites by tiny trout so I moved off downstream into the forest where I spotted some rising fish.
Eventually I did get something out of the water but it was all small stuff – where the heck had the Czechs hid their big fish.
With the absence of catch-and-release the most logical conclusion would be that all fish up to size had their head banged in and went home for dinner.
The second conclusion that we where bad fisherman seemed a bit too far fetched.

Divoká Orlice river, small grayling and brown trout – large mayflies.

The other guys had ended up not far from us and had appearantly hit the jackpot as they fished near an aera with small cottages that had just been visited by a stocking truck.
Someone had dumped the river there full of stockie rainbow trout and off course those where easy to catch.
We decided to join them to see if we would at least catch some fish that where of any size.

Divoká Orlice river.

Even though the spot at the cottages had been hammered by my friends I was still able to catch some small brownies on the segde and even two stockie rainbows on nymph and streamer.
The spot I fished had already yielded eight rainbows for one of my friends so you get the picture how many fish where dumped there.

During a break near sunset I noticed that my pants where now zipperless and somehow I did not find it a good idea to walk in this state into the restaurant for dinner later that evening.
All that wading was pretty tiring and a look at my buddy made it clear to me that a detour to the hotel for some new clothes would be a good idea.
The other guys still wanted to probe another spot so we agreed to meet up at the restaurant in Nové Město nad Metují later in the evening.
After a quick shower and new clothes we headed to the restaurant and as expected the other guys where late again, the plus side was that we could explore some of the old town – very beautifull surroundings.

Nové Město nad Metují

Out of pure convenience we ended up at the same restaurant again. Late opening hours, very affordable pricing and a perfect location- what else could you ask for.
The next day would be our last fishing day in the Czech republic when we would make another visit to the Úpa river (German: Aupa) hopefully with clear water this time.

To be continued …