Euro- Czech nymphing my new favorite

mike_richardson

mike_richardson

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Mar 29, 2010
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Just started reading up on this fishing style. WHat can I say, I don't know why I ever used an indicator. I will be getting a longer rod for this technique becaue my arm gets a little tired with a 9' rod. The fish in the net hit my anchor fly, a size 6 heavy weighted stone fly.

The second, larger trout, hit my "Twisted Caddis" larva patern. I believe i had posted it earlier this month. I love this patern! Simply put, IT WORKS. The fish like it and thats all that matters to me. An added bonus is that it only takes about 2 min to tie. This was one of my hardest fighting fish of the year.

With keeping your line high above the water, you reduce drag and detect a strike very quickly. You want to use the water tension and slowly guide your flies with the current. Your set up shold be a standard nymph with a heavy "anchor fly" below. I did not get to order and tungsten yet but believe me it will be filling up my arnsenal. I have attached a few of the anchor flies i had done up. I will be getting some embroidery thread to start weaving as awell.

I did not tie up any Euro leaders yet but the concept is to have a short leader with a bright section of monofilament line to increase visibility. I had only used the end of my fly line this day. I think this will be the most productive way to catch fish in fast water.

I had also just got my reel from Risen Fly. I caught the smaller rainbow on the first cast. The drag on the reel is perfect. My instincts took over and I had fought this fish by palming and feeding him line. The second trout I relied totally on the drag system. I set the drag after judging how the fish would fight. I did not touch the reel or drag the entire fight, only to reel after the fish had made his runs and was taking a break. This reel blew my Okuma SLV out of the water.

IF anyone has any tips on this type of fishing please let me know. Special thanks to beadhead2 for sending me the euro-nymphing dvd. You got me hooked on this and without this video i would still be crankin out the old thingamabobber. ;)

Thanks for looking,
 

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That's sweet. Nice photos maybe ill look into the DVD what's it called
 
I think it is the aaron jaspers dvd. I will let you know for sure.
 
Blow my brains out.
 
not quite sure what you meant by that becker but OK?
 
This style of fishing has been beaten to death on this board for the past 3 yrs, glad you're finally discovering it. How much do you charge to guide?
 
Sorry i did not descover it sooner, i don't post much on this site any more because every time that I put something up at least half of the replies are negativity directed at me.
 
In regards to the post, I just started fooling around with it too. I think it's fun and I feel like there is more skill required than bobber/indicator fishing (although that's primarily how I fish).
 
Coiled mono sighter FTW
 
gaeronf wrote:
SBecker wrote:
Blow my brains out.

...yeah Becker, what do you mean? lol

Haha, you know.

Tight line techniques work great....I have a 10'6 echo Shadow 3wt if you are looking to purchase a rod.
 
Been Check nymphing for years and never knew it. But for me a short rod works best, it's what I'm used to and the water around here is small anyway.
 
thinking of going with a 7'-0" 10 wt, you know because i have no clue how to pick out a rod ;)
 
Tightline/Euronymphing is a pretty effective way to fish and I much prefer it to fishing with "bobbers". For me, it keeps me more engaged than just flinging indicators.

You can have your heavy fly at the point (at the end) or in the middle. Both ways have their pluses and minuses. If you want both flies on the bottom I think the heavy fly in the middle works better - the ehavy fly on the end allows you to raise the smaller fly off the bottom. In an extreme case (borrowed from old wet fly guys) you can anchor your set up with a heavy fly on the end and fish you highest fly (usually a third fly) right inn the surface as an emerger.

Most "Czech" patterns are slim and heavy so they sink well. You can adapt this style to many of your favorite nymphs. For example, one of my favorite heavy nymphs is a Bob Jacklin style March Brown, only tied slimmer and heavier. Stoneflies are a common large, heavy fly in PA, but in Nevada I got introduced to using a baby crayfish pattern for the heavy fly and it works well. Also, a deadly PMD (something like a sulphur) nymph pattern I learned out there is a mallard flank tail and a tapered hares ear body tied with orange thread. A simple one, but it works well. Can tie a darker version for some places.

Something else I am doing more is tying nymphs on jig hooks since they hang up less. Always did it for buggers and crayfish patterns since I could always get larger jig hooks, but now there are jig hooks down to size 16 for smaller nymphs.

 
Thanks for the great advice Jeff. Not sure i can handle 3 flies ;)

What method works best for you.
 
3 flies isn't that bad when all your doing is water hauling for the most part. The coiled sighters are fairly easy to make. made a few a couple years ago and only used them a few times. I need to revisit that this year.

To make the coil, just wrap a high viz piece of mono on a pencil, pen, etc and boil it for a few minutes. Take it out and instantly put it in an ice bath. Tie a perfection loop on either end (probably best before you boil). There ya go.

 
Thanks ryguy
 
I love czech/polish/euro/tightline nymph tactics. They work great.

The do not however, completely replace indicator rigs, not by a long shot.

What i've found is that by working an area with both techniques allows me to catch fish i've been passing up. For instance, I can nymph deeper parts of a run with an indicator rig, then switch to a tight line rig and effectively cover the shallower and faster water at the head of the run or the riffles leading into a run. I've found that if i get at least a few fish out of the obvious areas in a particular run, i can ussually hook a few more by switching rigs and fishing the water leading into the run.

Kev
 
I agree with Kev, the water will determine what style of fishing you should be doing, and don't be afraid to just do what it takes to get the fly to the fish, because the bottom line is to catch the fish, regardless if the way you did it is stylish at the moment or not.
 
The thing I find interesting is beginners who bypass all the fundamentals of flyfishing to "euronymph." Best way to learn how to nymph is shorten up your casts and highstick or tightline... also the most effective in my opinion.
 
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