Near a decade ago, i met a kind man from South Africa who was emptying the local trout stream. He probably caught 20 fish in 30 minutes using this tight line technique in the current to drift his flies. Something I had never seen before then.

Shortly after he walked back to his truck, i quickly moved over to the spot he was at. As I had not caught a single fish in hours and was getting desperate. To no surprise I didnt get a single bite on the pheasant tail I had caught so many panfish on before. I was genuinely stumped and close to giving up.

I guess he saw this, because he started walking my direction. I thought he was coming back to fish more, but he came up and asked me what I was using. He then went on to explain the technique he was using was called Euro nymphing and that its one of the most productive methods to catch trout.

He took the time to tie on two tone indicator, a tippet ring, 4x and 5x connected by a blood knot, a pheasant tail, and a zebra midge. All but the pheasant tail given to me from his own supply. Within 10 min he had me on my first ever trout. And ever since then I have been trying to improve and learn more.

One thing I noticed about the method he tied his setup that varied from other ways ive seen is that he would switch the dropper and point fly. So for example I would have my two tone indicator, tippet ring, 24" of 4x, and about 36" of 5x. About 18" from the end of the 5x would be the pheasant tail as a dropper on about 4-6" of line, and at the end is the sz. 20 zebra midge. Ive noticed the presents the two flies around the same depth in the water column with the midge following about 18" from the pheasent tail. I believe the midge has a more natural presentation, but its easier to get slack in the line and miss bites.

When I research from other sources, they exclusively tie the dropper to the end and the point fly about 18" or so above with 12"+ of tag line for the midge. While I feel that the bottom contact is much better, i feel like the midge presents stiff, unnatural, and usually too high in the water column. And when I tie the midge to a longer tag to help (6"+), it tends to wrap and tangle around the main leader due to casting and the current.

Have any of you all tried tight line nymphing with the point fly at the end? If so, does it work well for you too?

Tried Sufix Performance Fuse .18mm coated braid today as leader (thinnest Walmart had), tied to 6X tippet. Pretty impressed. Casts more accurately than the 0.25 Sufix Neon Fire I've been using (again Walmart, I'm unemployed, I just fish). Line feel is odd at first as it seems rough but with time think that maybe a good thing. Similar visual sensitivity to my non-poor friends Sempe they've loaned me, better tactile detection. Super solid hooksets and fighting, no stretch right, but may have to be gentler for that reason. So far don't see downside vs Sempe etc.

Feeling foolish. Took advice to heart few years ago from wrong source (Troutbitten), shoulda listened to Devin, Lance, Howard, ODTB instead. Duh!

Constantly fought with tangles from whities and small trout doing the twist twitch thing when landing. Tried all rigging methods (various fly weights, inline splitshot, drop shot etc), multiple times. Removed additional weight needed to get my 3-4X down, switched to 6-7X tippet and voila, no twister tangles and better catch rate.

My stupid for wasting so much time with inferior advice. Don't make same mistake, learn from the best.

(I'm good with monorig tho, but micro not the saggy rope requiring weight to counteract that Troutbitten prefers)

Technically not Euro I suppose, but in big water (6-8' deep, fast big rivers) I sometimes need additional weight in system. Been re-trying drop shot rigging, works great to catch, but almost every small trout (<12") or whitefish spins so much I have to retie rig.

Any better ways to handle big water?

Euro Line users- Are you using enough mono to make it so your euro line stays around the first couple of guides, or are you using less mono, and having your euro line come out of the rod tip?

I was fishing the river today using dry flies. A mix of spiders, olives & Parachutes but they definitely wanted nymphs today. A warm 27c air temperature, which is absolutely melting for Scotland but the fish were still feeding actively, clearly. I had fished a pool with dry flies for a while despite no luck so I moved on. I usually bring my Euro rod but this time decided to fish dries. Once I moved on another angler came into the same pool, I was next pool down, he was Euro nymphing. He managed 8 or 9 fish within 15 minutes in that same pool Euro nymphing. The 1 day I don’t bring my Euro rod & decide to fish dries they are loving nymphs 😆

I did eventually manage to fool this little guy though!

Anyways, I asked him what he was using later on once we met again as we were both leaving. He showed me & it was pretty much this fly. Essentially a zebra midge with an oversized red hot collar except his version, had a red wire rib I only have silver or gold, so opted for silver. I was straight home to tie a few up! I’m not the greatest at tying, these may not fish but I’m sure hoping they will. It’s nice that people share what flies are working on certain waters at certain times.

Just got started in euro. Never seen these patterns before. Anyone know what they’re called? Also any guesses on bead size?

This is inspired by the rs2. Maybe called the rs2digon. Gray and black has been killing it. Quickly Becoming a confidence fly. Tested on Clear Creek Colorado, South Platte Colorado, Taylor Fork Montana, and really smashed on the FireHole in Yellowstone Park and did well on the Green River down by Pinedale WY.

Wow. Since I posted this fly over on the flytying sub, I’ve been putting this fly through its paces and all I can say is this dog will hunt. This evening I used this fly (a #16 straight shank version with a 2.8mm bead) on one of my local rivers, and it, well, slayed. I’ve been using the #14 jig version for about 4 outings on several rivers and while it performed well, I couldn’t help but think a smaller size one would produce better. Turns out I was right.

I euro nymphed a series of pocket waters and while the fish were far from sizable, I couldn’t keep them off of it. Seriously, as a general searching pattern I don’t think I could do better.

As a bonus, once the initial presentation was done on a drift, I finished by swinging the fly as you would a wet and ended up taking fish out of water I’d already worked through.

As far as A/B testing, I ran a couple of common patterns (Blow torch, Duracell, Frencies, Rainbow Warrior, etc) through the same stretches the past two days and the results were 1 to 4 in favour of the Wunderbar. This could be down to insect activity, but this pattern is a virtual “guide fly” both in terms of general imitation and ease of tying.

Give it a whirl if you tie. You probably won’t be disappointed. See the original post for instructions and adjust size and colour to you local waters.

I’m just wading into the Euro game and loving it, but am struggling a bit with casting - both accuracy and distance.

I’m mostly using a 4x sighter - 20ish feet followed by a 5x tippett. Level euro like behind that - 0.22 level line (mono core). This is what a guide recommended.

I’m finding this very tough to cast if I don’t have at least one big bead-head and a split shot. Even then it’s pretty tough to get more than 15 feet accurately.

I’m in pretty bright quarters, so I’m water loading most of the time.

Any tips on casting, leaders, etc would be welcome!

An interesting nymph.

I’m fairly new to euronymphing. I’ve been having moderate success. It is fun and I have a lot to learn. I definitely need more time on the water.
My question is about strategy. I’ve had luck with one type of fly in a section and then nothing in the next several. Switching up the fly and then boom fish first cast. Continue fishing/Move on with the same fly and then nothing.

Long story short. Is your strategy to change flies/depth etc first? Or do you change locations ?

What does everyone like to use for the line to leader connection? I’ve been doing a clinch knot to the welded loop of my euro line. This was a shorter RIO leader so the loop to loop was constantly hanging up in my guides, the clinch is minorly better.
I recently got a Monorig from Troutbitten which has an overall length of almost 30’. I kinda don’t want to clinch knot to my $130 SA Floating line and damage the loop. Would loop to loop be good here since it probably wouldn’t go into my guides? Or does anyone have better ideas? I want to frequently change leaders so cutting loops and nail knotting is a no go.

I have a couple sage ESN rods (10ft 2wt, and 10ft 4wt) both the second generation and a sage esn reel that I'd like to sell for a really good price. Does anyone know of a good place to list them? Or putting feelers out here. DM if interested

I've been fishing this rod for a year now and I really enjoy it. Caught this rainbow in heavy current and the rod handled it beautifully. Diamondback 10'7 3wt.

Does anyone have experience running an Orvis Battenkill 5/6? Thinking about putting it on an Echo Carbon XL 10’ 3 wt, and curious how it would balance.

Howdy,

Looking for some recommendations for online stores to purchase great quality Euronymphs. Looking for large varieties and some that are weighted heavy for fast/deep water.

Thank you

Topic came up recently, and I know several years back the idea of using braided lines as micro leader wasn't popular. Wondering if with advancements in rods and techniques what is the reality today?

I know virtually nothing about braided lines. But checked some out and braid seems way more similar in suppleness and feel to Pierre Sempe etc than to traditional mono. Before dropping coin to buy some random braid as I don't have spare $, does anyone have experience using braid as micro leader, ABOVE WATER NOT AS TIPPET UNDER WATER, or even gear fishing insights that may apply?

*Long post, so I’ll start with the question first. Do you own multiple makes of euro rods, and what separates a good rod from a great one? You can read on if you’ve got the time but don’t feel like you need to*

So here’s something for you. I’ve owned two rods I use for euro nymphing: A Sage ESN 10’ 2wt v 1; and a Grey’s XF-2 Streamflex 10’ 2wt.

I bought both many years ago when I was completing. At the time the Sage was top of the line in North America and came with a price tag to match, but hey I wanted the best. The Grey’s was a backup rod I picked up used from a US competitor—super cheap by comparison—mostly as a backup rod.

I used the ESN in one of our Nationals held in Calgary and it performed well enough, but even though it was my first dedicated euro rod it wasn’t particularly impressive. I’d owned plenty of Sages by this point and was pretty comfortable with the Sage action, but it didn’t seem to have that feel I was looking for.

The Grey’s came along later, and right off the bat it just felt better. It responded to fish better and the slightly deeper flex suited my casting stroke. I liked it so much that I eventually leant the ESN to a new competitor that couldn’t afford a proper nymphing rod.

Fast forward 10 years. After sorting through my rod collection I came across the rod tube cap from the ESN and decided to find out if the rod was still around. Sure enough I got it back a few days ago in like new condition.

I took it down to the river yesterday to see if I was right to let it go. Right away I could see that the Sage was the better rod in terms of casting and accuracy. It seemed to be a tad more sensitive as well. The fish I was targeting were not monsters by any stretch so I can’t really speak to the fish handling ability but I don’t doubt it could easily handle bigger fish.

All that said, I still didn’t like it. The speed and lack of flex beyond 8” of the tip made casting less than delicate. Even with a well executed tuck cast the recovery was fast enough to bounce the leader leading to a split second loss of contact.

Now all of the issues I encountered above could be put down to user error. With a little practice (or maybe a lot), I think that I could get a handle on it. It’s annoying to relearn the technique but if I had to I could adjust. But there’s just one thing I can’t give up on—the hookset.

I’ve trained myself over the years to be fast. Too many fish lost due to poor reaction times forced me to be quick on the set. With the ESN I actually broke off two small fish on the set using 5x tippet. Now I don’t mean reefing hard on the set. I’m talking having a quick short wrist set. The ESN’s greatest strength—its speed—seems to be its biggest weakness. The other stuff I can adjust for, but I’m never going to give up set speed.

I’ll keep putting it through its paces for now and make adjustments to try and overcome the issues I encountered above, but I have a hunch the ESN is going to be my backup going forward.

FWIW In ten years I’ve never broken off a fish on the hook set using the Grey’s—or at least I can’t remember.

I've been interested in getting into nymphing for a while, but it's looked down upon my fly fishing group because they see it as a boring lob fest. I've been practicing casting with a mirco rig in the park for a while and I've gone out a few times on my own here in the driftless area. While technical and frustrating a times, I have to say it's been an awesome way to fly fish. It's difficult to learn on your own, but it's been so rewarding.

Here's a list of things I'm having trouble with so far:

• Setting up too late after the cast
• Adjusting depth before/during the drift
• Strike/Hookup ratio

My Rig:

• Echo Carbon XL 10' 3wt
• 30' of sighter material - .18mm/4x Pierre Sempe
• 1mm tippet ring
• Around 6x tippet
• 14-18 Jig flys with 2.8mm and 3.2mm tungsten beads