Dear Friends and Anglers,

After three years as a top event in the royal angling discipline, the World Fly Fishing Championship is coming back to South Bohemia – this time centred in Frymburk. We are very proud that the organization of this event was awarded to the South-Bohemian Regional Board of the Czech Anglers Union. It is in appreciation of the long-term active participation of Czech representatives in the international fly fishing sport, the annual successes of our competitors, the long-term care of our salmonid fisheries in South Bohemia and also the very successful organization of the European Championship in 2011.

Competitions will take place in the Vltava river, reservoir Lipno II in Vyšší Brod and on the Kvetonov reservoir near Kaplice between 27 May and 2 June 2014. The preparations for the event have already started. All important meetings have been held and in spring 2013 we stocked 60,000 pc of year-old grayling and 20,000 pc of year-old brown trout.

If I want to raise three topics which have influenced me the most during all three fly fishing championships in this year and which are important also for the organization of our championship then I must mention very good organization and fair-play, unpredictable weather and modern technologies.

Due to the implementation of the system of international judges for home teams we do not meet surprising results, organization of events is excellent and results are known very soon after the end of competition. The only problem is related to the marking of beats, which is not fair to all participants and thus the draw plays a big role. Competition venues in South Bohemia have been tested during many top-class contests and therefore we hope to guarantee the same conditions for all participants.

The weather significantly influenced all competitions in the year 2013. If the World Championship had taken place in the Czech Republic in 2013, we would have had to cancel it due to disastrous floods. The Senior World Championship in Norway and the Youth World Championship in Ireland were affected by draught and rivers without water and at the Senior European Championship in Slovakia the competitors met higher water levels. The Vltava river flows out of the Lipno reservoir and its flow can be regulated. We have had meetings with the river management company Vltava River Authority and if there is no disastrous event, the competitions should be done with regular flow.

Modern technologies rule the world and we will even have our own Facebook profile. In Norway, the organizers came up with a great „Live-centre“, where they published live reports from competitions and continuous results. We will try to do something similar and this will definitely involve friends of competitors from all over the world. However, it is necessary to consider that in one round we can expect the catch of about one thousand fish and thus online information about each fish caught is not possible even with the current technology.

For spectators and visitors we are preparing other follow-up events. At the occasion of the Championship we are preparing an exhibition about the history of fly fishing and fly fishing competitions in Bohemia in the museum at Chateau Ohrada in Hluboká nad Vltavou. Within the competition, there will be organised workshops on fly fishing issues and specialized lectures by interesting guests. I believe that you will take this opportunity to visit beautiful and interesting places in the neighbourhood of fly fishing competitions, because all South Bohemia is worth visiting.

On behalf of the Organizational Committee of the Championship I would like to invite all people interested in top fly fishing who are either in the area or participating via the Internet and I believe that we will manage to organize this event to all participants´ satisfaction.

Tight lines!

RNDr. Milan Hladík, PhD.
International organizer