Paradoxically the history of the Czech nymph  has its beginning in Poland, where during the international fly fishing competition in 1984 the Czech competitors got acquainted with the method of fishing at short distance, used by local competitors. Most of the Polish competitors were forced to fish short, because they had no fishing lines at disposal and had to substitute them with thick nylon monofilament. Flies used by Poles were imitations of Sedges Hydropsyche and Rhyacophila.

Czech competitors got acguainted with the method of short nymph very quickly and already next year they used it during the World Championship, that took place on the Polish river San and where Czech team won the second place – just behind the Poles. In 1986 method of short nymph has brought the first gold medal for the Czech team, when the Czech Slavoj Svoboda won the title of world champion in Belgium.

First Czech nymphs were tied from materials, that would bring smiles to faces of today´s fly tyers. Imagine a plastic foam body from a washing sponge, ribbing from horse hair and back from a mackintosh or bast. Use of gammarus hooks gave the Czech nymph its characteristic shape and the at first thick patterns changed into thinner ones with coming up of new tying materials of higher quality.

At the beginning of this history imitative patterns were preferred, like scuds and caddis larvae. The originally monotonous bodies of these flies were consecutively enriched by various colour spots and the evolution went so far, that today in fly boxes we can find nymphs of various colour combinations not having anything in common with natural patterns.

Development of Czech nymphs proceeded quickly and the original patterns together with technique of the short nymph brought regular success to Czech competitors at competitions. After World Championship in 1996, that took place in the Czech Republic, especially thanks to publication activities of the Englishman Oliver Edwards the technique of short nymph has been brought to attention to broader European fishing public.

Evolution of the Czech nymph is going on and by no means it is a finished chapter. After the time, when Czech producers were coming to the market with offer of special tying materials for Czech nymphs ( foils for backs, dubbing materials), recently we can see another step forward in development of special weighted hooks. There is also an evident trend to using lighter rods or nymph micropatterns. And nobody doubts, that development of the Czech nymph is by no means at its end.