Here is a great trip report from Dan Staggenborg who is getting into the Euro-Style of nymphing. Read and learn from his report.

Euro nymphing on the Current river below Montauk:

After all the interest in Euro Style nymphing, I decided to jump in and give it a try. For me it made sense. I’d spent years catching stocker trout in Montauk either drifting with a toothpick float (mostly) or dry fly fishing (which is a blast when it’s on). To be honest I was getting a little bored with it though.

  A couple of aspects I brought with me to the new style were the understanding that to be effective, a clean drift (via mending) is critical. The second thing I learned is that tight lining heavier jigs in fast water often works well. It’s fun to feel the take directly and a quick wrist set rarely ever misses.
So between the attention to drag and the direct feel of the fish, and watching a ton of YouTube videos I felt this Euro style is in my wheelhouse.

 I met a friend who had also been trying to learn Euro nymphing and we went to Baptist Camp to fish. He rigged up one of his rods Lance Egan style and loaned it to me. Not knowing much of anything, I put on a rather heavy gold headed hare’s ear nymph as an upper point fly and a zebra midge as a true dropper (on the bottom fly).  I wanted to try point fly both upper and lower.
On the second cast in fast water below the parking lot, POW!  I hooked a rather nice rainbow, thinking “gee this is easy.” Not being familiar with the rod or the drag on the rig I played the fish for minute and it broke off after getting a look at it. In retrospect my mistake was in not guiding it out of the fast water into a slower current where the advantage was mine, not his. (You were spot on, Kenny!)

Of course, I fished the next couple of hours with barely a strike, thinking my beginners’ luck had run out. I was ready to quit and was waiting for my buddy, so I decided to try the stream farther above Baptist Camp parking lot. The steam is wide there and the water is a bit slower there. I tried to fish near cover and got hung up and broke off. I tied on a heavy fly lower, to be my point fly and a rainbow warrior above. 

It was a red fly with a silver bead, I had never seen before, so I don’t know its name. The closet thing I found is a fly called the Atomic fly. It looks like a large zebra midge with red wire. I don’t even know if I tied it, bought it or somebody gave it to me. Since I was waiting for my friend I decided to mess around in the fast water above the riffles, just slightly above the parking lot.

Third or fourth cast, I hooked something very big and played it to the slower water where I landed a very nice brownie. Judging by the length alongside the rod, it was somewhere between 18”-20”. Finally smartening up, I took a picture of both the fly and the fish which I nursed back to good health and released. (the picture of the fly was way more important).

After my heart stopped racing, I went looking for my buddy, who was a couple hundred yards downstream. As I approached, I saw him hook a very large brown trout also. He got it in fast water under a cut bank and played it into a pool below. After he got it in and settled down, we took pictures, and I told him about my fish. (Mine was bigger. But as he reminded me, “this ain’t no competition, man” which is true.) So that was my very first day Euro nymphing. Liked it so much I bought a Moonshine 10-foot 3wt rod, and a Lamson reel, both of which I love. $300 well spent. I bought the cheapest floating fly line I could find (Under $20) since it rarely touches the water.

 Some takeaways about my first day:

Cons:
1) You DO get hung up a lot. The idea is to raise your rod as you drift until you only feel a single tick on the bottom to get in the zone 6” or so above bottom. No ticks and you probably are too high. More than one tick you are too low and liable to get snagged. Hint: If you get hung up while drifting, gently pull your rod and line upstream from the direction you have just come. Most often you get undone. Sometimes you catch an underwater branch and can break it free pulling slowly and steadily. I’m still learning to tell the difference between a take and a snag, so I’m avoiding trigger wrist (for now).

2) I refuse to fish in an area where there are branches overhead or where I think I’ll get snagged. The tying on process to get back going again is not worth a chance for a fish. If you do get hung up in a tree, slowly and gently but firmly pull your line straight toward you. Again, often the hook will come off or pull a few leaves with it. At worst you lose a fly. DO NOT WHIP YOUR ROD TIP BACK AND FORTH which firmly tangles the fly in the tree.   (Many, many thanks to the estimable Jim Craig for that lifesaving tip).

3) Holding one’s arm out straight for extended periods hurts one’s shoulder.

(Hmmm…Will my trout fishing buddies come visit me in the hospital after my shoulder surgery?) I advise keeping your elbow close to your hip as much as possible and extending the arm fully for short periods and only when needed. If you need to get farther out, wade out a step or two. But be careful of slippery rocks and fast water. I always bring and use a wading staff, which I didn’t use before.

4) The rigging of the tapering leaders is a pain. I’m lousy with knots and tying on the stream is difficult and time-consuming. Having a long leader under a sighter just doesn’t work for me. I usually am in water that is no more than waist deep and my sighter is sometimes 5-6 feet out of the water. To fix this I found some 1” long green crappie mono that I tie on above my swivel (or tippet ring if you choose). I position that “mini-sighter” waist deep from my bottom fly. I can judge if the water I’m drifting is more or less waist deep by where I’m standing and raise/lower my fly accordingly.

5) For me so far, as I’m learning, I’ll have days or stretches where I get nothing; no bites/no fish. I think as I learn to adjust to smaller and different flies, I’ll be able to overcome this.

Now the PRO’s:
1) It’s really exciting to fish in the faster water where the fish only has a split second to make the decision or lose a snack.

2) The hits are often aggressive. No thrill can compare to getting a nice fish on that 10 foot 3 weight rod and gingerly but firmly guiding them to gentler water before bringing them to the net.

3) There is always the opportunity for a very nice fish, even in places where you might not suspect fish to be. I do think the chances are better in water that is moving along and, in a seam, either closer or farther than the fastest water. You get good quickly at reading currents.

4) Sometimes you’ll pick up a few small trout in the 6”-10” range which make it fun and keeps one’s interest. Once in a while you get two at once!

5) In ripple-type water there isn’t much opportunity to see the fish (sight fishing is out!), but sometimes you’ll see a flash of a trout as they turn sideways to take a morsel off the bottom as it floats by. Kind of cool to see. I’d like to figure out some kind of cheap, small, collapsible periscope I can put in the water to see what’s in there.

6) There are new flies to learn to tie, and personal variations to try.

7) Lastly, you can hook really big, wilder fish. If they are living in the stream outside the park, chances are they are a few years old and have reverted to pretty much back to wildness. These are stunningly gorgeous fish.

Personally I’m hooked. I hope you’ll give it a try. A 9-foot 5 weight rod with a longer leader can be used and can be effective and fun. We are lucky to have such fine trout fishing here in the Midwest only a few hours’ drive away. Enjoy it!

Comments, (wise and otherwise) are invited. Tips and experiences are appreciated even more.

-danstag