The Euro Nymph fishing style is a combination of techniques from the Czech Republic, Spain and France, the principle of which is to use attractant nymphs weighted at the head with brass or tungsten beads, tied on classic or jig hooks, to seduce fish when they are not actively rising to the surface.
The playground is mainly medium to strong, even very strong current zones, areas in which trout and grayling most often feed near the bottom, on the lower level below the surface layer, where the drift is the fastest and the current the strongest.
When the flow is strong, or on the contrary the water is low and warm, trout, grayling and other bottom-dwelling fish such as barbel prefer to stay close to the bottom, where the flow is disrupted by the substrate, thus saving energy, and where the temperature is lower and the oxygen level higher in summer.
In areas with strong surface currents, it is more ‘profitable’, less random and less risky for a trout or grayling to grab dozens or even hundreds of larvae, nymphs and other pupae of aquatic insects in the process of metamorphosis that have just left their life supports on the bottom (rocks, mosses, aquatic plants, dead wood, etc.) or edges (rocks, roots, trunks, obstructions, etc.) than to venture to the surface to swallow a mobile insect.
With the scarcity of massive emergences of aquatic insects (mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies and diptera), the trend is clearly towards feeding underwater, even in the middle of summer.
If you don't want to be limited to the few glorious moments at dawn or at the end of the day (evening birise), which are increasingly unpredictable due to multiple factors (climate change, anarchic hydrology, flooding, etc.), you often have to fish underwater to bend your fly rod and have fun.
Euro Nymph has become a discipline in its own right, much more subtle than its detractors would have us believe.
Manufacturers and specialists, competitors or otherwise, have put their heads together and collaborated to adapt the equipment to make this exciting form of fishing as comfortable as possible, because fishing with a rod held high for several hours with a rod that is too heavy is exhausting.
The specific rods are light and long to increase the fishing range and save the angler, 10'2' to 10'8’, with very fine and sensitive tips and specific adaptations to the fishing technique in terms of the placement of the guides, reel seat, etc.
These rods are designed to support light lines (#2 to #4), which are rarely cast since fishing is done almost without taking the line out, to limit the loss of sensitivity caused by a possible line banner between the reel and the shooting ring, but also between the body rings (snake or single foot)
Special Euro Nymph lines are floating, parallel and very fine.
Reels specifically designed for the European nymph have an extra-wide shaft and a narrow profile, micrometric drag and a stealthy finish. The monofilament or fluorocarbon lines and/or fine lines are fully contained in full frame spools.
On some models, such as the Lamson Euro Nymph Guru E-Series, a streamlined weight system with three weight options allows you to precisely weight your reel according to the length of your fly rod, for ideal balance and fishing comfort.
Very long leaders reduce the amount of slack of a conventional fly line, allowing better control and feeling of the drift of one or more nymphs and better detection of bites, either tactilely, by intuition, by a subtle ‘tap’ or visually, by the movement or stopping of the leader drift.
To facilitate the visual detection of the bite, two- or three-coloured tippet materials section are used, which are integrated into the leader at the desired distance from the tip fly, the weight of which varies according to the depth of the strokes prospected and the speed of the current.
The most effective method is to use a heavy jig-type nymph at the point to limit snagging, and one (or even two) lighter nymphs as droppers. These dropper nymphs can be classic nymphs or perdigones.
For medium-sized rivers with fast to semi-fast currents but shallow (less than 80 cm), you may find that tungsten bead-imitating or -inciting beads or small nymphs are effective.
The choice of nymph colour depends on the clarity and temperature of the water and the specific tastes of the fish.
With the Euro Nymph, you can fly fish as soon as the season opens, even if the water is strong and muddy, and you can catch some nice fish.
A whole new world of subtleties has opened up for fly fishermen, and the Euro Nymph is effective on the vast majority of rivers populated by salmonids on our planet, or at least on specific sectors.
It is a fishing technique with a future in our rivers where trout and grayling rise less and less and prefer the safety of the depths for feeding.
It can be practised in all types of rivers and streams as long as the flow of water is strong enough to drift the flies naturally.
So, get your rods out...
