European or Czech Nymphing Glossary

[alanb_ct]

Some time ago, I started working on a glossary of terms we use at TPO that pertain to the Euro nymphing methods. Here is the glossary and some illustrative pictures. Please add other glossary terms here, or ask what others mean. If you take Aaron's class, he will go through these terms and their practical significance in great detail.

Sighter - Brightly colored length of monofilament or dacron backing used in-line with leader
Contact - No slack between rod tip and flies; may require slight pull
Leading - Pulling flies along slightly faster than the drift current to maintain contact
Anchor fly - Heavy fly used to sink rig without added split shot
Dropper fly - Fly tied on short leader tag
Tippet ring - Used in terminal tackle dropper rigging (not legal for competition)
Rollers - Used in terminal tackle dropper rigging to mitigate tangles (not competition legal)
Tungsten - 40% heavier (more dense) than lead, non-toxic, expensive machined beads

Some materials for leader construction:


Sighter construction (I also use braided mono now):


Helpful gadgets:


My typical Connecticut flybox:


and finally, the goal, or "the boss" long-line nymphed from the Hous

[Flyfisher]

Nice work!!

Alan,

What is the pattern for those huge cased caddis nymphs? they look great in the pick.

[alanb_ct]

Flyfisher:
I call that fly the "Woody Cased Caddis" or the "Aaron Bomb." Here's the recipe:

TMC 5263 Size 10 (or bigger)
0.025 lead wire
5/32in black tungsten bead
small copper brown wire rib
chocolate brown acrylic yarn
white or cream superfine for the head

In '08, I went really big with this fly, up to size 4. It almost seems like you can't make it too big, but size 8 or 10 is probably the best median. It is a streamlined, super fast sinking fly that I use predominantly for short line Euro nymphing. Fished under an indicator, this fly will snag the bottom like no other, so be careful how you get it just off the bottom. There are many versions of this fly, including ones tied with the brown deer hair brush, chocolate brown Hare dubbing or the way it was first shown to me by Torrey, using a rubberized dubbing like Swisher's Gen X.

[Nymphmeister]

My favorite dubbing material for the case portion of the fly is Swisher's Peacock Plus dubbing in brown- it is a "spectrumized" dubbing with various peacock highlights in the backround, I like the brown color for an all-around cased caddis. The rough, spiky dubbing with micro rubber legs mixed in gives you both a rough appearance like a natural stick cased caddis, and also some movement to create a "trigger" for the trout. Use whatever color is most imitative of the caddis where you fish. Winter & early Spring is prime-time to fish cased caddis, especially during higher flows when the larva get knocked loose into the flow, look in the slower stream margins on top of rocks and in back eddies to see what they look like. Cased caddis prefer slow to moderate water for habitat.

As Alain mentioned, #8-10 are good sizes, and if you want they will accommodate plenty of weight (tungsten beads & lead wire) to get you down to the bottom. If you are going to primarily indicator fish (as opposed to "Euro style" with weighted flies & no split shot) then I would weight them lightly, using either a black glass or brass bead, and tin wire for the underbody- use enough split shot to get the fly down near the bottom. I've tied these from #6 down to #18, and I most commonly fish them from #8-14, my favorite two sizes are #10 & 14. I like to use Ice Dub behind the bead for the peeking portion, with UV light yellow and caddis green being my 2 best colors. I usually use the lt. yellow on the bigger ones and the green on the smaller ones (#12 and smaller). You can tie these on anywhere from a 1x-3xl hook, I tend to use a 2xl hook like the Tiemco 5262, but feel free to use whatever suits you. Some cased caddis get gigantic, you could easily tie them up to a #2 3-4xl hook and not be out of line with the naturals.

[Flyfisher]

Thanks guys ill give these a good test run. Most of the local rivers and streams i fish close to home a slow moving and loaded with cased caddis. The green that imitates the Grammon has been a great pattern but i think the rubberized dubbing might work well on to get something close to the october caddis cased (Stick Worm).

[z.bearden]

So, considering "sighters", is a backing sighter legal in the FIPS Mouche regulations? How would one attatch this? Also, how are you guys making the Chartruse braided leaders?

Excellent site you guys have here.

[alanb_ct]

Welcome to the site.

A sighter is legal for competition, as long as your total leader construction maintains its taper down to the fly. So, the inline sighter has to be the same as or smaller as the monofilament leader above it (closer to the fly rod). Below the sighter (towards the fly), the monofilament has to be the same as or smaller than the sighter diameter.

Sighters are attached with clinch knots, tied to their loops. There are other methods.

The Chartreuse braid is only used for the sighter, not the whole leader. It is harder to work with than dacron.

[z.bearden]

Okay, thanks for clearing it up for me.