Martyn White | Thursday, 12 February 2026
Something that happened much longer ago than it now feels to me was the Czech nymph bursting onto the UK river scene. I can’t remember exactly when it was, but I remember eagerly tying some up and going down the burn to terrorise some brown trout as I tried to figure out this new short line nymphing technique. Given how things have progressed it's easy to forget just how big a deal these flies and techniques were at the time.
For many, they’ve probably now been superseded more modern flies with tungsten beads, which have their advantages. But I still have something of a soft spot for the Czech nymph. I find it very hard to look at one and not want to tie it on, they just look so caddisy. Of course they have the beautiful property of being a bit prototypical so they don’t HAVE to be caddisy; you can tie them to look cranefly-y or shrimpy, or even just attractory. The only drawback, I suppose, is that you can’t tell at a glance which weight they are in the way you can with a beaded fly and there will inevitably be less consistency in weights depending on how you lead the hook before tying. This probably doesn’t really matter to all but the most hardcore of competition anglers. I’m happy enough to just try and judge it and then switch if I’ve gone too light or too heavy.
Here's a couple of patterns
Hook: Scud of your choice 6-14
Thread: 8/0 uni
Weight: Lead tape or wire
Rib1: Flat tinsel
Rib 2: 4lb mono
Back: Scud back or strip from a latex glove
Abdomen: Tan or olive dubbing
Hot spot: Fluo dubbing
Thorax: Spikey hare’s ear or squirrel
Hook: Scud of your choice 6-14
Thread: 8/0 uni
Weight: Lead tape or wire
Rib: 4lb mono
Back: Scud back or strip from a latex glove
Abdomen: Tan or olive micro straggle
Thorax: Black or brown micro straggle
The first one is more traditional, the second is a quicker tie that offers no reduction in imitative fidelity.
Obviously they don’t need to be fished in the “classic” Czech nymph style (here’s an old video of Ollies that shows it nicely), put them under an indicator or a dry, fish them old-fashioned upstream style when spooky fish and slower water mean you can’t have the fly plopping in so close to the fish. And of course, put them on a modern mono leader system for excellent results.