Euro-Nymphing

...is fishing, but is it fly fishing???


I know this has been thrown around before but I still don't get it. I won't even get on a rant about competitive trout fly fishing because I hate the whole idea. I know that the Polish, Czech, Spanish, French, etc techniques stem from the international competition side. Even so, how is dredging a trotline of flys fly fishing? I can't even imagine this being enjoyable. If I wanted to "chuck and duck", I would just assume pick up the spin fishing gear again.

Discuss...

appalachian angler,

I do believe that the original fly fishers of many thousands of years ago tied some yarn on a hook, which was tied to a very short line which was tied to a short stick and they nymphed or dabbed that fly in the water. Kind of like high sticking it with either a dry fly or a nymph.

Davy Wotton, originally from Scotland but now living in Arkansas has a very good DVD out called Wet Fly Ways. In that he teaches a three fly method of fishing nymphs or wet flies in both a high stickng (very short cast) method and a longer casting method. Both are excellent ways to nymph or wet fly (but also can be used with dry flies) in smaller streams and rivers.

These are all variations of a form of fly fishing. Like all types of fly fishing they are techniqes that you can learn and apply when the conditions are right and some of the other methods of fly fishing are not producing any results. Dry fly fishing is fun, I love it. But, there are times when the fish will not take a dry. So you either catch nothing or switch to a different method, like streamers or wet flies or deep nymphing. Something that will produce fish and give you a very enjoyable day when out on the water.

I just plain love to fly fish, no matter the method.

Larry ---sagefisher---

If I am on the water with a rod in my hand I am a happy boy, with extreme exceptions. Competitive fishing has never appealed to me, unless you want to count the competition with the fish itself. I have become proficient enough in untangling lines, unwanted knots and snagged hooks, fishing multiple flies is something I typically do, which has lead me to come up with Jesse's Corollary which states "problems with the fly line leader will be proportional to the square of the number of flies connected to the leader."

Euro-nymphing doesn't seem all that appealing too me, as well. Yes, it's an effective way of catching fish, but it seems to take much of the challenge out of fly fishing. To me, the more challenge the better.

Am I wrong about taking much of the challenge out? A "Euro" angler doesn't need any casting, mending, presenting or reading the water skills

Randy

I strongly suspect that the "Euro nymphing" techniques would be instantly recognizable by Messrs. Cotton and Walton.
I would call it a form of fly angling and not argue against their method of fun.
(Now where did I put my 5/16" tung-head Pine Squirrel Cheaters?)

Ed

I hazard a guess that those who nymph without an indicator could say that watching an indicator all day is neither challenging or fly fishing. However, we know that there is more to indicator nymphing than watching the indicator.

Perspective is a funny thing. I propose that that same lack of understanding is prevalent in this discussion.

My definition of a challenge is doing something out of my comfort zone and not fishing the same way all the time. Fishing the same way is the antithesis of the definition of "challenge". The first definition of challenge is "a call or summons to engage in any contest, as of skill". Sounds like competitive fly fishing to me.

I have never competitively fished, but I have no doubt that it is more challenging that my usual day on the river.

Secondly, to say a form of fly fishing is not challenging implies that that person has completely mastered that form of fly fishing. In my experience, one cannot say any sport is not challenging until and unless one has completely mastered it. I think there is a fundamental lack of understanding of the skills necessary to euronymph.

Replace nymphing with euro nymphing and nymphing with fly fishing and you have the, "Is 'nymphing' really 'fly fishing', question of Halford & Skues. Gentlemen, we should be well past that era.

To say that there is no fishing, casting or water reading skill in Euronymphing is simply wrong. If you doubt that, see if you can cast a 30 foot leader accurately and then detect the strike at the end of that leader during the drift. The same skills of stalking, reading the water to locating fish, choosing flies, following the drift, identifying the take, striking, and fighting and netting the fish come into play.

We are better than trying to decide what is or is not fly fishing. We are better than having say, because we don't get "it", that means "it" is somehow a lesser form of fly fishing. As for chucking and ducking, there is less of that in euronymphing than in other forms of fly fishing such as streamer fishing.

Nor should we denigrate spin fishers. Most of us, including myself, started that way. There are very, very, few fly fishers that have not used a spinning rod before we transitioned to fly fishing. Were we lesser then than we are now?