Czech or Polish Nymphing

I was almost shocked when he started coming in and showing me nymphs he had tied for his own use! His buddy Davy McPhail is a famous tyer in Scotland, and Davy showed me some cool nymphs he uses for trout. Harry's nymphs were mostly sorta Czech style, but with his own unique flair. He had some great looking Caddis pupa too, and even a couple different Steelhead nymphs. He may be tying at the Somerset NJ show in January. I really like his tying style, all his flies have that buggy, fish catching look to them. Aaron would probably love to raid his fly boxes.

Czech/Polish nymphing can be done with standard nymph patterns- albeit usually with the addition of tungsten beads to get them down.

Interesting piece of info regarding the weight of the flies used for this technique- those overseas who do it seriously not only tie the same patterns in several different weight, but they often know the exact weight in grains of the flies. Almost scientific. The one thing that perplexes me is that the flies are constructed with a definite back and belly on them and tied weighted on a curved hook. This almost guarantees they will ride upside down. Why go to the length to make a contrasting back & belly when it won't ride hook point down? Speaking of hook point down, Arkansas guide Fox Statler, aka "Mr. Sow Bug", has a very interesting article about using different knotting methods to force your nymph to ride different ways- vertical, hook point down, and hook point up. Check it out at willowford.net. He also has some cool flies he does- he is a very "out of the box" thinking kinda guy. I like that.

To learn a great deal about this technique from Jack Dennis and a member of the US fly-fishing team Lance Egan, listen to this podcast:
http://www.flyfishradio.com/2006/03/...on-us-fly.html
It really sounds like a killer method to vacuum big numbers of fish out of the stream really quickly.

I bookmarked that one and some others but I haven't listened to them yet. I get impatient listening to audio podcasts.

That one lasts about 45 minutes, and gets really good towards the end. Near the end, Lance discusses Czech nymphing in detail. It sounds like that method of fishing evolved because of the fishing competition; they only fish in 3 hour intervals, so quick hooking and landing is essential. One benefit of that method is that you are always fishing a short line, so you can quickly bring in the fish.

Interesting point to note: usually those competitions are won by catching a bunch of small fish. Simon Gawesworth of Rio said they refer to them as "skimmers", cuz you can just immediately skim them in as soon as you hook them. Big fish take too long to play and may break your line and force you to re-rig. Catching many dinks scores higher than a modest number of big ones. So yes, the method is ideally suited to that scenario, esp. since smaller trout can be approached more closely (on average) than bigger ones.

I'd be VERY curious to hear what someone who is very well versed in both Czech & indicator nymphing thinks of the 2 methods. Maybe Davy Wotton will comment on this for us, detailing the pros & cons of each in relation to each other. He used to compete and is adept at both. I know it is particularly effective on Grayling, a species that often bunch up together in shallow water & tolerate a very close approach.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is whether or not the method lives up to the hype, and whether or not I should take the time to perfect it & tie the flies necessary to execute it.

guys,

If you go to Wilsons board l have just posted a bunch of material there related to this topic also some pictures of Polish style nymphs l tie.

I was in fact the Team USA international coach when we won silver and gold medals back in the 90s. John Wilson was the manager at that time. I also fished at international level myself for some 15 years, whne l lived in the UK. Competitive fly fishing is a kick l can tell you, but it will also cost you a great deal money and time wise.

Davy.

Torrey,

Skimmers,,,,,I like that name,,,,that would be the next larger size after "tree fish" (the trout are soo small, when you set the hook they launch into the trees over your shoulder).

I had the impression from listening to that podcast, they also count Whitefish landed in the Western USA competitions?


Regards,
FK

It varies, but depending on the venue, they count all sorts of fish other than trout & grayling, including some species we would consider to be in the minnow family. I'm sure they did probably score Whitefish. Aaron loves to catch Whitiefish, dontcha Aaron?

It's interesting about the whitefish. The podcast mentions that those fish tend to grab the fly then drift downstream with the fly in their mouth. This makes strike detection with an indicator impossible. This might help explain the efficacy of the method on species like whitefish or grayling. I wonder how often trout do the same thing?