Euro Nymphing (Beginner)

[Bendix]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the tip about using large pans with water! However, it turned out not to be necessary, as my idea of tying a small, heavy practice fly with a visible tail of fluorescent pink yarn worked perfectly.

I had a short practice session today (it was short because of heavy wind), and I had a few eye openers. It turns out, that making a single false cast with the nymph, greatly improves both accuracy and distance. And I could even do two or three false casts without any issues, however a single false cast was typically enough to get the cast done. I now feel a lot more confident when it’s time to hit the river.

And I was a bit surprised when you said I was the first one you heard of practicing this cast… I mean, why wouldn’t you practice this?

Thanks a lot for all your help so far!

Cheers
Bendix

[Paul Arden]

Hi Bendix, it’s also possible to double haul! As always line management becomes difficult for longer casts especially when wading or for that matter fishing overgrown banks. I do like the climber’s rope coiling method that was posted on the Board sometime back.

A cast I often train is the bow and arrow cast. Here in the jungle rivers it’s a very important one to have.

Cheers, Paul

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Just out of curiosity...

If you are going that mono to heavy nymph route.. why not just go all the way to Tenkara?

Being maybe a once or twice a year backpacker/hiker/camper, and seeing how compact and minimal Tenkara equipment is, I'm thinking I might just give that a try!

If its just about putting a few trout in the frying pan, why bother with a reel, "flyline", 4 piece rod, and all that?

Have you seen how long but compact some of the new Tenkara "equipment" is??? The rods collapse down to smaller than my water bottle!

Just asking!

[Bendix]

Hi

I have checked out Tenkara equipment in the past, but I don’t think that it will be very useful for my home waters, and the type of rivers and fishing style that I do.

First off, I like the idea of being able to retrieve line so I can control the drift of the fly, and I like that I can cast various distances with the Euro Nymphing setup. Whereas with Tenkara, I can only use a fixed length of line, which is not very versatile in my opinion. And I think that this fixed line length and the long rods will make it difficult to control the heavy flies that are used. I also think that these very long Tenkara rods will be difficult to use and handle in the overgrown areas of my local rivers.

Regarding the lack of a fly reel in the Tenkara setup, I think that it will make it too difficult to fight and land the fish properly. It seems that with a fixed length of line, you need relatively open water and spaces, so you can follow the fish around during the fight, which is not always possible in the small streams I will be fishing. There’s also lots of snags in the water, that you need to keep the fish away from, which will be difficult without the ability to reel in line.
Although most of the Trout in the streams are small and easy to handle, there is a real chance of big Trout (and even large Seatrout), that need a regular reel to handle. As far as I could research, Tenkara was originally intended for very, very small Trout, and NOT a 20 inch plus trophy in an overgrown stream… And my fishing will be pure Catch and Release.

Anyway, that’s both my personal opinion, and what I have been able to figure out in my research.

Hope this answers your questions?

Cheers
Bendix

[Paul Arden]

It’s not only the Japanese who used to fish with a fixed length of line of course. This was how flyfishing was done in Europe from about 200AD to ~1700. ” A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle”, first published in 1496, included descriptions of fishing flies. Fishing reels in the UK first appeared around 1650 but the first advertisement appeared in 1768. That’s about 1500 years of fixed line length fly fishing. I’ve read that the first fully dressed silk lines appeared in 1880’s but have also seen references to them earlier that century. So… point of this

“Modern” fly fishing goes back only about 150-200 years. Personally I think that the popularising of the reel was an extremely good idea. Hooking a big fish on a fixed line length must have been very challenging indeed – great fun though!

The other point is that anyone who says that fly fishing requires a fly line doesn’t know the long history of our sport!

Cheers, Paul

[Mika]

Hi Bendix,
I have been fishing trout (and grayling)with Euro nymphing in Finland, Sweden and Russia. I have rod for that only and still I prefer my HT4 with long leader with normal flyline. As Paul mentioned I want to keep option open which means that just chance of fly I can do dries or anything.

I have used indicators, don't like them. I learned nymphing without those. I don't really see why to use them, those are helpful of course, but you will get same results without. When you don't have indicators you have to concentrate more about feeling the line and it will be what you want. You will feel when it is rock and when it is a fish. It is quite simple to watch leader just when it going in the water and read that, I make leaders by myself mostly and have blood knot as connection, those you can use as indicators as well about depth.

Can you use dropper, that could help to get depth and also reduce loosing flies.

So here are some thoughts from me. Enjoy your fishing when it comes to time.

Mika from Finland

[Boisker]

Hi Bendix
Don’t write off the option of fishing your nymph rod with a fly line, it’s not as good a feeling for me, but it does work fine... and if there’s no wind you can cast a dry fly with just the ‘euro’ 30’ nylon leader. Takes a bit of practice, or more accurately it did for me, but when conditions allow it is deadly. Presentation with just a nylon leader is amazing, you can keep pretty much all the leader off the water right up to the fly.

Not sure what was posted on leaders earlier, I may have missed it.... but I found 20lb chameleon a great starting point. I do use a sighter... so my standard leader is usually along the lines off: 25’ of 20lb chameleon, 5’ of 12 or 15 lb chameleon, then 18”-2’ of red 10- 8 lb amnesia, followed by 18”-2’ yellow or black 6lb amnesia, finishing at a 2mm tippet ring. Obviously, tippet length added to the tippet ring to suit water depth... for me usually 5’ 6x fluorocarbon.
The slight taper definitely helps casting lighter nymphs and pretty essential for casting dry flies.

I had been working at reducing the main ‘butt’ leader strength / diameter, and was fishing with the main length being 8lb, but that does mean it didn’t work as well for dry flies... at least for me.

Have you tried using a steamer yet with your nymph set up.... the 20lb chameleon leader above works great with jig streamers... I haven’t done much fishing yet with jig streamers (just tried it a few times), but have tied a range of jigs up for early season this year; it’s my focus for early season, whilst waiting for the dry fly action to kick in in a month or so.