Tying a Czech nymph is very simple and no special or exotic materials are needed for it. Fot tying a standard Czech nymph we need to have the following items in our tying box:

• tying thread
• Gammarus hook
• lead wire
• natural or synthetic dubbing material in various colours (rabbit, hare, opossum, antron etc.)
• vinyl foil
• nylon

With these materials we will be amply supplied for the beginning. If we wish to experiment more with tying Czech nymphs, then it will be good to add the following to the above mentioned materials:

• gold tinsel
• synthetic mother-of-pearl dubbing
• metal beads
• various types of wire
• special foil for tying nymph backs
• alcohol felt tip pen

The basic tying procedure of tying a classical Czech nymph we will show in the folowing tying process:

1. We lay a foundation of lead wire in tight turns on the shank of a hook, fixed in the vice. Number of turns and diameter of the lead wire we choose according to the requisite weight of the fly. In flies, where we do not put much weight on, or none at all, we use copper wire, or we leave out this step entirely. We make the turns in the middle third, or two thirds of the shank. We leave some space at the hook eye for the head and at the end of the shank for tying in the material and tapering of the rear of the abdomen. (Ill. 3) 2. We fix the tying thread between the eye and lead and wind a few turns of the wire over it, so as they do not get loose and do not turn around the axis of the shank. It is advisable to put a drop of varnish over the lead on the turns. We leave the thread and bobbin hanging at the end of the shank (Ill. 4).

3. Here we tie in the material successively. We begin with that one, that we will use as the last and consecutively we tie further material in the reverse succession, than we will use it. We begin by tying in about 10 cm of nylon line of 0,10 – 0,15 mm diameter, that we will use for final ribbing and strengthening of the fly. We fix the end of nylon line behind the lead turns with the tying thread, the rest is directed to the rear and we proceed with several turns (3-5) to the end of the shank. It is good to flatten the end of the line a bit with help of a forceps. Then it holds better (Ill. 5) 4. Further on we tie in a 3-4 mm wide vinyl strip, the dim side up. There where it is tied in, we shape it into a point with help of scissors and this point we tie in to the back. We tie the whole length we have, we will shorten it to the proper length till before tying the head. Thus it is easier to work with and we spare the material (Ill. 6). 5. Now we tie in about 10 cm of a golden glossy tinsel. These are sold under various business names in various colour and iridescent shades. We are using them for various flies, especially in gold and silver (Ill. 7)

6. Now we come to dubbing. We make a 10 – 12 cm long dubbing loop from the tying thread and hang a twister in it. We fix the loop with a few turns and proceed with the thread to the hook eye, where we leave the bobbin hanging (Ill. 8)

7. By pulling the twister with the left hand we close and again open the loop a bit. We close the loop and smear it lightly with dubbing wax. With help of tweezers we choose small wisps of hair and insert them into the opened loop successively.We close and open the loop again. The wax should hold the hair, even when the loop is opened. First we must check, what amount of hair to put in. It is better less than more. When we have inserted the required amount of hair along the whole length of the loop, we spin the loop with the hair, producing a wick by means of the twister (Ill. 9 a, b)

8. We wind the wick in tight dextral turns towards the hook eye. At the eye we leave enough space for finishing the fly. We fix the wick with two turns of the thread and clip off the rest (Ill. 10) 9. We rib the body of the fly by 5 – 6 dextral turns of the tinsel and fix the ribbing with the thread (Ill. 11)

10. We put the slightly stretched vinyl stripe along the back of the body and fix it at the eye with the thread (Ill. 12) 11. We rib the whole fly with 6 – 8 tight sinistral turns of the nylon line. We must take care not to move the vinyl stripe to one side. Therefore we fix it with our left hand and keep straightening it during the process. Then we fix the line with the thread and clip off the rest (Ill. 13) 12. We form a tiny neat head from the thread and whip-finish in the least three times. We cut off the thread and varnish the head (Ill. 13) 13. With a brush from a dry zip fastener we comb out downward pointing legs from the body on both sides (Ill. 14)

Instead of a dubbed wick we can use a ready made wick twisted from copper wires, instead of nylon line we can use a thin copper or brass wire. We can dye the head and a small part of the hair adequately with some dark permanent felt-tip pen. In this way we also can darken the whole back of the body or its part. A darker back and lighter abdomen is sometimes very effective. A conspicuous colour dot, e.g. a red dot in the centre of the body can be also very effective. We must keep in mind the whole shape of the fly, that should be thickest in the center and gradually thinner towards the head and tail.