Another type of Slovak heavy nymphs that are useful not only on the Váh river in Slovakia, but wherever there are deep places where we do not get the classic weighted tungsten nymphs.
We have written on one of the patterns of Slovak Super Heavy Nymphs on our website and now allow a few words about similar heavy bombs, which are sometimes used during fly fishing. Maybe not in our domestic waters in the Czech Republic, but certainly in our neighbours in Slovakia, during fishing on the large rivers in Scandinavia, or even in the fast flowing alpine rivers if there is allowed fly fishing with more than one artificial fly.
The Sand Peeping Caddis Bombs first saw the world, thanks to the Fly Fishing World Championship in 2006 in Slovakia, because the Slovak competitors needed a real load patterns for deep streams and pools in the Váh river at which the Championship was held at that time (along with the Belá river). This kind of heavy weighted nymph is inspired by the caddis larva or rather caddis larva sand case (Peeping Caddis), which has been imitated really perfectly. Only we can not find a live larva in this "sand case", but a good dose of lead. Heavy nymph bodies are produced in 10 weights from 1.2 g to 12 g.
Primarily, the flies are designed as a load that allows fly fishing with other smaller flies in deep water, so there is no need to engage your fly tying skills on those. With smaller sizes (lower weights) however, we can catch fish on those as well so here we can play a bit with fly tying creativity and try to tie something on the bare lead roller. As with any other weighted flies, the Slovak Sand Peeping Caddis Bomb is most often found at the end of the tippet (point fly), but it is also possible to put it on the first dropper, which means that we get the other two flies in the right depth, but at the cost of losing good contact with the point fly. We keep the flies 50 cm apart to keep distances between them as the international competition rules request.
When fly fishing classic nymph method with a fly line - then our leader will be about 250 cm long, if we decide to practice French Nymphing (Euro Nymphing), then we can extend the leader up to 280 cm.
In the Slovak Váh, this method works perfectly for fly fishing for rainbow trout, and we can also catch Danube salmon (Hucho hucho) or barbel with this method. Flies up to 2.2 g of weight are well accepted by graylings as well.
I had the opportunity to see in action the local guide on river Váh - Peter Ďurišík and I have to confirm that the method is really successful when mastered, especially when there is more water in the river or when fly fishing in deep pools where classically weighted nymphs (tungsten nymphs or tungsten jigs) are just not heavy enough. Peter puts the Sand Peeping Caddis Bomb on the point, cast the flies upstream, and at the first touch of the fly with the bottom he begins to lift the whole set up slightly so that the point fly goes just above the river bottom and also he deliberately slows the movement of the flies.
Of course, fly fishing with Sand Peeping Caddis Bombs is at risk. In addition to frequent snags from the bottom or obstacles in the water (until you can learn how to control the whole set up well), it is a great risk to hit with the heavy fly on your delicate fly fishing rod and the possibility of destroying your precious fly fishing toy. However as some people say: No risk, no fun...
It is interesting that more than 12 years after the first experiments with sand heavy nymphs by Slovak competitors, information on the Internet is woefully low and even Google was unable to find anything for the term "Pieskove zatazovky" - original Slovak name for the Sand Peeping Caddis Bombs... This is the past now, and besides information in this article you can easily gets couple of those Slovak bombs for your own experiments in our eShop.
