As I have been fly fishing for about 5 years now, I look back on my growth and see small changes to my style, look, attitude and even ethical thoughts from the very beginning when I was given a 9 foot 5 weight Redington Classic trout rod and a Lampson speedster as a gift from my uncle! These tools started me down a path that I am so grateful for. The greatest leaps and bounds have come from my technique, rod and reel purchases. Over the years, I have used the weights, the thingamabobber, the triple surgeon knot for tag flies, the yarn indicator and everything else in between. Once I was given a european nymphing rod to try out, the light and delicate feel made me nervous at first but then I started to understand how easy it is to “map the riverbottom” in a way that made so much sense. Trout spend the majority of their lives in the slower areas of water and in between fast and slow currents to maximize their feeding opportunities and limit their energy expenditure. When my mind started to comprehend a lot of these details, the idea of Euronymphing made perfect sense. Aaron is one of those euro dorks (insert laugh) and I was hesitant at first but was quickly converted when I saw his bounty compared to my fish numbers even after I had sent giant streamers through a section and thought,…No Way! There cant be another fish in there. Sure enough, Aaron would come up after me and double my fish count with no trouble.
In recent years, I have upgraded to a Syndicate rod and a Redington Tilt reel and produced my own euro nymphing leader, sighter and bumped my tippet up to the delicate 7x and sometimes 8x when those really clear days are spooking the fish. I say delicate but when used with great rods and reels, I have been able to steer some of my biggest fish into my net! All in all, Euro Nymphing is by far and away the most effective style I have learned to date. No doubt, I still have a leg up when it comes to the streamer and dry-fly game comparatively, but more often than not, I may only enjoy a few fish to the net with those techniques.
Euronymphing : It works!
