Euro Nymphing as explained by someone who can't by Ian Cox

Ian Cox

If I am perfectly honest, I think, one could Czech nymph with a surf rod, a half ounce sinker and a Penn 49 reel!

I first encountered Euro nymphing just over 9 years ago. That was at a clinic that was run by Xplorer and Bells at Nyala pans. It wasn’t called Euro nymphing back then. The Czechs were cleaning up the combination scene back there with something called Czech nymphing.

What I said in an article I wrote for the Bobbin back then bears repeating:

"The connection between Czech nymphing and fly fishing is that while both use flies, with Czech nymphing two of the flies (one fishes 3 up) are really disguised sinkers. One does not even need a fly line. In fact aficionados of the style eschew these for ordinary fishing line (mono for the cognoscenti) topped off with a length of very light dacron. (Explorer supply it in various weights as Rio Extreme) The reason for this is that one does not cast. One instead flicks the sinker assisted fly a short distance upstream and follows the drift down with the rod tip taking care to ensure that it is always in direct contact with the line."

The fly line seldom gets more than a meter from out of the rod tip. The trick is to be ready for the take as the scaly, which is a much more diffident feeder than its Free State cousin, gently mouths the fly rather than tears your arm out of its socket. Dacron and mono apparently give one a much better feel for what is happening that a fly line. Back then any reasonably soft rod would do. That is no longer the case. The nymph stick has now entered the scene. This is a 10ft 3 wt rod with a very flexible tip. I am told this is very important. So much so that my much-loved stealth Infiniti 3wt was judged to be no good by my fellow editors. I was sternly told that I could not be seen in public representing the magazine so improperly dressed.

So it was that I arrived at the recent Natal Fly Fishers Club Euro Nymphing clinic decked out with a Sage Nymph stick and the proper nymph line to boot. Now why you need a special line escapes me. You will see from what I wrote above that very little line leaves your rod. So why does having a special nymph line wrapped on your reel help you catch fish?

Apparently, it does. You see Euro nymphers (or is it nymphets) do occasionally allow more line out of the reel than Czech nymphers do. This is apparently one of the niceties that distinguishes the one from the other. Sometimes you may get beyond the 30 ft leader this technique requires and on those rare occasion it is terribly important that the fly line be very thin so as to minimize drag.

My suggestion that one simply turn your line around was not well received by my coeditors. The well-dressed angler must drop a grand to buy this specialist line, though apparently one could compromise and buy a 20ft extension nymph tip for your line for about half that price.

It does not end there. You also need tippet rings. Did I have tippet rings? Happily, I did and mine were supplied by Roman Moser so I thought that made them very special. Pity my editors did not know who he was.

Hot tip - Tippet rings are pretty cool especially if you are constantly replacing your tippet. The ring separated the leader from the tippet and provides a handy sacrificial point where the one can be separated from the other. They are handy in all types of flyfishing other than fishing dry.

So it was that I arrived well equipped at Nkonka Lodge on the Umkomaas in KZN to hear Shaun Dixon explain Euro Nymphing to what a fairly large assembly of eager acolytes. Sean knows his stuff and came equipped with a hand brochure he had prepared giving tips on leader design and how to Euro Nymph.

The trick he said was to always remain in contact with your fly. You should be able to feel it bouncing along the bottom. One had to be alert for the subtle difference between a bottom bounce and a fish picking up your fly. This is where that soft rod tip was so important. The rod must not mask the take. He put action to his words by pulling three scalie out of the tail of a rapid in as many casts.

Easy everyone thought but I was worried. You see the last time I felt anything bouncing along the bottom was when I dragged an anchor when fishing at sea, and even then, the boat had moved a while before I realise anything was happening. I don’t notice subtle takes. The fish has to be gaging for it for me to notice.

And so it turned out to be. The Euro rig is simpler that the Czech nymph rig in that only two flies are involved. But if fish were taking my flies, I was not noticing. And then there is the awful monotony of the flick and drift technique which apparently people use to catch scalies and yellows. Its damn boring especially when you are not catching fish.

Yup, I blanked the first day despite being one of the best equipped anglers on the river. “But Coxie”, said Rob Hibbert, “you have to fish to catch fish”. “I did” said I, “but a couple of hours of fishless flicking and drifting in 35 deg C heat was all I could take”.

I should mention that Nkonka Lodge which is just downstream from Nyala pans is very comfortable and that the catering that Tony Sharples had laid on courtesy of the NFFC was superb. There was thus a certain draw homewards given my lack of success on theriver.

Needless to say, my lack of success did not go unremarked, especially given the fact that most present, including absolute beginners, had caught heaps. Thoughts of doing better tomorrow began to grow, especially after the early birds, on that next morning, returned with tails of a dozen or more fish for half an hour or so of fishing.

Needless to say, my lack of success did not go unremarked, especially given the fact that most present, including absolute

beginners, had caught heaps. Thoughts of doing better tomorrow began to grow, especially after the early birds, on that next morning, returned with tails of a dozen or more fish for half an hour or so of fishing.

That I was not an early bird can be laid at the door of the excellent breakfast that was provided as well as a certain reluctance at making an idiot of myself again. People would be going home in the course of the morning so my failure would not be quite so public.

I got about two hours in that second morning and but for one riffle where I pulled out three it would have been another blank day. What changed was my fly. I did not bother too much about fly selection on either day. I thought getting the fly onto the bottom was more important than what it looked like. So, I had been fishing a fairly gaudy GUN and Zak rig up until then. Turns out that neither was working. The fish were going for drab brown and green nymphs. And that delicate take that Shaun had told us about turned out to be nothing of the sort. All three takes were on the strong side of positive.

Euro nymphing works if you work at it. The catch returns of my Zipper Mouth buddies is proof of this. But if you are not catching fish it is as boring as hell.

Photo: Tony Sharples