Euro Nymph Techniques

[Dg_njfishing]

Hola,

So working from home and having the musky as part of my property got me into fishing again...I guess it didn't take much to convince me. I have been out of the game for about 4 years, fished the Rockaway in Dover water works and got really good at knowing all the nice spots. Now I live in Lebanon township. Decided to call Shannon's and ask about an Euro Nymph setup....great to say they treated me well, beat the online prices and I'm supporting my local shop.

Got the colored leader, 10ft rod and a reel just to hold the line, not hating on Jersey trout but they won't take 100 yard runs . Any tips, tricks, advice? I notice that the sun masks the leader, also I've been tying a heavy olive wooly on the bottom and one of Shannon's musky specials on top about 18 inches. First day had some takes but I didn't set the hook in time, maybe I had my rod behind the leader, lol. Eventually, I did land one on a nice fast run. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Tight lines!

[garden hackle]

Thanks for supporting local businesses, Shannon's is a great shop.

Sunny days are not the best fishing time, as someone once told me, trout don’t like to look into the sun. It is just a reminder the predators like the blue heron and others can see trout more easily on sunny days, so trout avoid being in the open. Fish the shadows if you can. On overcast days the trout may be more willing to come out and feed as they feel safer. Remember, to a trout, YOU are a predator, so move quietly and stealthily. No bright colorful hats, shirts, flash from license holder (wear on back).

Some of the more successful angler use more weight than I thought would be necessary, but maybe that is why they are more successful than I. You need to be bouncing off the bottom, that is where trout food become dislodge from the bottom and get caught in the current. You may lose a fly or two, but the rewards are worth it. When done move a step or two upstream and repeat.

Fish closer water first, you don’t need the hero cast. Then work the waters further away from you. Learn mending techniques to keep the line straight so you feel every hit and eliminate the slack that increases the chance of spitting the fly out.

There are better anglers than I on here, they can add or debunk my advice with their own, listen to them as some are more skilled than I am.

[cappy]

I don't euro nymph, however I do primarily use a tenkara rod in NJ and while using a nymph the technique is almost identical. Use flouro leader to help get the fly down, weight as needed, want to be sure your on the bottom, however not so much weight that your always getting stuck. You also want to keep a tight line to your fly and slightly lead your fly as it drifts downstream with the current. Tenkara rods cast dry flies perfectly, however if Shannon's set you up with a mono rig then you will have a hard time casting a dry if they start feeding on top.

[Rusty Spinner]

"Euro nymphing" has quickly become the most poorly understood form of fly fishing the world over because it means different things to different people in different countries. There is a growing movement to simplify all the craziness behind the so-called Euro nymphing. That said, I strongly recommend you either hire a guide to help you or read books about it. I think George Daniel's books are about the best out there:

https://www.alibris.com/search/books/is ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Rusty Spinner]

Some thoughts on your fly choices. A woolly bugger is a streamer, and it is mostly stripped in and not dead drifted (winter being an obvious exception). There are two main schools of thought with Euro nymphing. One is to use a very heavy weighted bottom fly to get the rig down and the other is to use tiny, barely weighted or unweighted flies and lighter leaders and tippet to get them down. Hatches this time of the year are mainly sulphurs, so I would stick with those imitations right now. The Musky Special is a scud and that can be a good fly year round, but trout are keyed to the mayflies right now. Good luck with it!

[Twism86]

Ahhh "Euro" nymphing! As Rusty said, its a jumbled style now because any form of nymphing without a traditional indicator pretty much gets thrown into this category. You essentially have four styles, Czech, Polish, French and Spanish. Czech and Polish are what most people are referring too when they say "Euro" nymphing, with both styles focused on fishing close to the run, with short leaders, barely any fly line out of the rod tip and leading your (weighted) flies through the run. Spanish and French nymphing focus on fishing long leaders (up to 30') and fishing for targets further away from you.

I refer to my style of nymphing as simply "tight line nymphing" but it is essentially a Czech/Polish style. I fish a 10ft 4wt rod and constructed my leader myself using various sections of mono, backing and fluoro. As mentioned in another thread, tippet rings are a big help! I will attach a picture below of my leader setup. I use a weighted fly as my first fly and then a lighter fly as my trailing fly. I put weight above my first fly. This is a little backwards compared to Euro methods but I catch fish so im not changing it up. I did try to fish other methods with a weighted fly down low and your lighter flies hanging from dropper tags but that always got messy. The second and lighter fly is what the fish will see first, followed by your first and more weighted fly. A #12 BHFB Hares Ear is my go to first fly. The second fly I like smaller pheasant tails, zug bugs or if the hares ear is doing the trick, a #14 hares ear. Scuds are also big producers, copper johns and eggs.

As for fishing it, the length of the sections in the image are obviously adjustable based on the water you are fishing. You need to be on the bottom!! After you cast and let it sink you want to feel you weight or beadhead fly ticking along the bottom. If you arent setting the hook on every "extra" bump you feel, you are doing it wrong. Not a violent set but a small blimp to lift the flies and check for contact with a fish. You will learn to feel what normal ticking along the bottom is. Once you get that down, anything that doesn't feel like bottom, especially a brief pause, you set the hook! The pause in your line movement is the biggest indicator that a trout took your fly. There is a bit of a 6th sense to good nymphing and with time, it will come. If you have a good, sensitive rod you feel many takes as well. The most important elements are getting your flies down with just enough weight to skip along the bottom slightly slower than the current but not so much that you get snagged constantly. Not using enough weight is the problem I see most often. If you arent hitting fish, more weight. As you follow your line at the surface is should be moving along slightly slower than the bubbles at the surface. Watch that line! If it pauses, jerks or does anything odd, set! Slack is your enemy as well, keep it tight!

[lightenup]

Ahhh "Euro" nymphing! As Rusty said, its a jumbled style now because any form of nymphing without a traditional indicator pretty much gets thrown into this category. You essentially have four styles, Czech, Polish, French and Spanish. Czech and Polish are what most people are referring too when they say "Euro" nymphing, with both styles focused on fishing close to the run, with short leaders, barely any fly line out of the rod tip and leading your (weighted) flies through the run. Spanish and French nymphing focus on fishing long leaders (up to 30') and fishing for targets further away from you.

I refer to my style of nymphing as simply "tight line nymphing" but it is essentially a Czech/Polish style. I fish a 10ft 4wt rod and constructed my leader myself using various sections of mono, backing and fluoro. As mentioned in another thread, tippet rings are a big help! I will attach a picture below of my leader setup. I use a weighted fly as my first fly and then a lighter fly as my trailing fly. I put weight above my first fly. This is a little backwards compared to Euro methods but I catch fish so im not changing it up. I did try to fish other methods with a weighted fly down low and your lighter flies hanging from dropper tags but that always got messy. The second and lighter fly is what the fish will see first, followed by your first and more weighted fly. A #12 BHFB Hares Ear is my go to first fly. The second fly I like smaller pheasant tails, zug bugs or if the hares ear is doing the trick, a #14 hares ear. Scuds are also big producers, copper johns and eggs.

As for fishing it, the length of the sections in the image are obviously adjustable based on the water you are fishing. You need to be on the bottom!! After you cast and let it sink you want to feel you weight or beadhead fly ticking along the bottom. If you arent setting the hook on every "extra" bump you feel, you are doing it wrong. Not a violent set but a small blimp to lift the flies and check for contact with a fish. You will learn to feel what normal ticking along the bottom is. Once you get that down, anything that doesn't feel like bottom, especially a brief pause, you set the hook! The pause in your line movement is the biggest indicator that a trout took your fly. There is a bit of a 6th sense to good nymphing and with time, it will come. If you have a good, sensitive rod you feel many takes as well. The most important elements are getting your flies down with just enough weight to skip along the bottom slightly slower than the current but not so much that you get snagged constantly. Not using enough weight is the problem I see most often. If you arent hitting fish, more weight. As you follow your line at the surface is should be moving along slightly slower than the bubbles at the surface. Watch that line! If it pauses, jerks or does anything odd, set! Slack is your enemy as well, keep it tight!

You forgot to tell him to flatten his barbs!

[Fishybig]

Great info and illustration!!!, but you lost me at "eggs"

[Twism86]

Great info and illustration!!!, but you lost me at "eggs"

Egg flies. I like a small sucker spawn/ blood dot pattern in a light color. Like I said, my method isnt truly "Euro" but I dont complain when I catch fish.

[Fishybig]

Great info and illustration!!!, but you lost me at "eggs"

Egg flies. I like a small sucker spawn/ blood dot pattern in a light color. Like I said, my method isnt truly "Euro" but I dont complain when I catch fish.

While I understand their use in the great lakes tribs, away from that it's one step away from a worm on ur hook with the fly rod....no offense

[BiggerThomas]

Great info and illustration!!!, but you lost me at "eggs"

Egg flies. I like a small sucker spawn/ blood dot pattern in a light color. Like I said, my method isnt truly "Euro" but I dont complain when I catch fish.

While I understand their use in the great lakes tribs, away from that it's one step away from a worm on ur hook with the fly rod....no offense

Right. But Tom knows that. Heck, I've seen him fish an Ugly Stik with a dry fly

[SBR Guy]

Great info and illustration!!!, but you lost me at "eggs"

Egg flies. I like a small sucker spawn/ blood dot pattern in a light color. Like I said, my method isnt truly "Euro" but I dont complain when I catch fish.

While I understand their use in the great lakes tribs, away from that it's one step away from a worm on ur hook with the fly rod....no offense

this is true, fish dont spawn in any other rivers. suckers are all stocked too so dont bother imitating their eggs either. trout never see a natural egg in nj so why use those flies?

[Twism86]

Great info and illustration!!!, but you lost me at "eggs"

Egg flies. I like a small sucker spawn/ blood dot pattern in a light color. Like I said, my method isnt truly "Euro" but I dont complain when I catch fish.

While I understand their use in the great lakes tribs, away from that it's one step away from a worm on ur hook with the fly rod....no offense

Eggs, at a certain time of year, are a natural item present in the stream that fish feed on. How is fishing them any different than fishing a March Brown pattern when they are hatching??

[Fishybig]

Egg flies. I like a small sucker spawn/ blood dot pattern in a light color. Like I said, my method isnt truly "Euro" but I dont complain when I catch fish.

While I understand their use in the great lakes tribs, away from that it's one step away from a worm on ur hook with the fly rod....no offense

Eggs, at a certain time of year, are a natural item present in the stream that fish feed on. How is fishing them any different than fishing a March Brown pattern when they are hatching??

When put that way , it's not a lot different....but.but.but fish will eat eggs yr round....if we could throw March brown patterns yr round ? sign me up....sounds as if you took offense, which was not my intention.....all I'm saying is, is that it's a crutch and slowing your evolution as a fly fisherman....I'm sure ur not only using egg patterns when eggs are present and available to the fish?are you? It's nice to have in the arsenal, when needed.....which is never

[Twism86]

When put that way , it's not a lot different....but.but.but fish will eat eggs yr round....if we could throw March brown patterns yr round ? sign me up....sounds as if you took offense, which was not my intention.....all I'm saying is, is that it's a crutch and slowing your evolution as a fly fisherman....I'm sure ur not only using egg patterns when eggs are present and available to the fish?are you? It's nice to have in the arsenal, when needed.....which is never

No offense taken, my skin is way thicker than that. I just don’t see a hierarchy in the type of flies that you choose to use. They are all natural representations and some tend to work better or more year round that others. I also stick to a few specific patterns. The fly you fish matters about 10% of the time, how well you fish it is the other 90%. Im not a match the hatch kind of guy.