Karel Krivanec Shares His Experiences and Advice

One of our readers is Dr. Karel Krivanec, an avid fly fisher and member of the Czech World Fly Fishing Team (Czech Nymphs). He's been competing in fly fishing competitions for over 25 years. Dr. Karel Krivanec also authored the best selling book, Czech Nymph and Other Related Fishing Methods.

We recently had a chance to interview him and thought you might be interested to learn more about him.


What field is your doctoral degree in?

My doctoral degree is in biology - human parasitology. I have published many articles about biology of tick borne encephalitis virus in the hosts in different natural foci of the disease and my today’s specialty is human mycosis. Fish biology is my hobby as flyfishing.


How long have you been fly fishing?

My first experiments with flies were when I was about 15 years old. It was about 45 years ago.


What age did you start fly fishing?

I started flyfishing seriously when I was at the university. But at that time I was into casting. I competed in it for 10 years.


How long have you been competing in tournaments and when did you become interested in it?

I’ve been competing in regular flyfishing competitions for about 25 years in Czech Republic. I was active competitor in between 1985 - 1992. I became the first champion of South Bohemia and I was 2nd in another Czechoslovak Championship. It was right after the golden metal winner Slavoj Svoboda who was the world champion.

At this time I started to organize several flyfishing competitions. In 1990 I became the president of Czechoslovak National Flyfishing Committee and also Team Manager. (From 1993 until 2006 I was the Czech Team Manager).


Do you have a favorite memory from your years of fly fishing (personal or competition) that you’d like to share?

My best memory is winning team golden medal in Norway 1994. We won because we caught only one more fish then the French team.

In 1996 I was the international organizer of the 16th World Fly Fishing Championship in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic (South Bohemia) where our team also won the golden medal. In 1999 we won in Poland.


What advice do you have for youngsters wanting to compete in competitions?

Fly fishing is a sport like any other and you have to devote your free time to it. If you want to become the World Champion you have to use the best equipment and tackle, you also have to practice countless hours in the river or lake. And you also need luck.


We'd like to thank Dr. Karel Krivanec for taking time to share of his personal experiences and advice to anglers wishing to compete in flyfishing competitions. Be sure to check out Karel Krivanec's book, Czech Nymph and Other Related Fishing Methods for expert advice from a World Fly Fishing Champion!