How Bait Fishing Helped Me Get Better at Euro Nymphing

For decades I wallowed in fly fishing mediocrity. Despite many trips to Fly Fisher’s Paradise and other premier destinations in Central Pennsylvania, my mediocre catch totals made me feel trapped in Fly Fisher’s Purgatory. I just wasn’t catching as many trout as I knew to be possible. To solve this problem, I went back to my roots as a bait fisherman. I was shocked to learn how much I learned about bait fishing as a kid transferred to helping me improve my tight lining and euro nymphing skills.

My Dad Taught Me About Euro Nymphing and Didn’t Know It

I credit my father for instilling my love of trout. He was, and probably still is, the best corn fisherman to ever don a pair of Red Ball hip boots. To this day, I can’t get the smell of canned corn cooking inside a Ziploc bag on a hot day out of my nose.

Getting the Right (Dead) Drift

Aside from “chumming them up a little,” my dad taught me the most important part of catching a trout was getting the right drift. What he didn’t know was that he was really teaching me the most fundamental concept of euro nymphing and tight lining-dead drifting. To get the right (dead) drift, he taught me to always use light line, add and remove split shots depending on the speed and depth of the water, and to feel for the hit by using my free hand to gently pull the line away from the rod just below the first eyelet. I’ll never forget the jolt of excitement that would come from the pulsing on my fingers of my line hand when a stocked trout would begin eagerly eating the corn I was dealing-tap tap tap.

Set the hook too early, and the trout would be gone. If you set it too late, the trout would surely swallow the hook. But time it just right, and that Eagle Claw size 12 bait hook would set firmly in the soft mouth of an eager, stocked rainbow. 

So Many Trout

Fish after fish. It never got old. My dad, along with my brother and I would spend entire days fishing the fast currents of Tohickon Creek. It was just a few miles from my childhood home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. We knew every pocket, seam, riffle and chute from Ralph Stover State Park all the way down stream to the Tohickon Campgrounds.

My dad, along with my brother and I caught trout on the Tohickon well into June. This was long after the “meat hunters” filled their stringers on Opening Day. In our minds, the remaining trout belonged to us. 

From Bait Fishing to Fly Fishing

I stopped fishing with corn many years ago. Since that time, I like to think my approach to catching trout has become a bit more refined. As a teenager, I began to experiment with fly fishing. I still have the 8 foot 5 weight Fenwick my parents got me for Christmas one year. My son actually used that rod to learn to fly fish. I never did teach him to fish with corn, but I fear he may have missed out on some valuable lessons. 

Strike Detection Without Feeling the Hit

So many bait fishing principles transfer to tight line or euro nymphing–a technique that fundamentally changed me as an angler. But long before that, when first learning to fly fish, the biggest transition I had to make was detecting a strike without the benefit of “feeling the hit.” Unlike corn, trout will not come back for more when eating a prince nymph. They spit it out as fast as they eat it. There was no more feeling for that tap, tap tap. 

In the early days of my transition to fly fishing, my fish counts dropped dramatically. Sometimes I longed for the weight of a trout on my line so much that I would add a kernel of corn to the back of a stonefly just to get some action. My dad got a big kick out of this and would ask me if the corn flies were hatching. He still jokes about it today. 

Not long into my fly fishing tenure, I was introduced to indicator fishing. This did wonders for my strike detection and brought my fish totals back to respectability but still nowhere near my Tohickon days.  

Transition to Euro Nymphing

Making the transition to Euro Nymphing started me on a path in which fly fishing changed from an interest to an obsession. Shortly after implementing the concepts I learned from the video, I began to catch trout more consistently.

Simplify Your Fly Selection

My first step in this transition was to stop obsessing over fly choice. Trout care more about how the fly is drifting than what it actually represents. This was why, even after chumming, trout would only eat my corn if I presented it the right way. When I started to focus more on my presentation and less on the actual fly I was using, I immediately started to catch more trout.

In the video, Tom Rosenbauer explains that euro nymphing is really just about, “trying to get something that looks tasty in front of a trout.” (I don’t think he was talking about corn). George Daniel goes on to explain that he really only uses about a dozen patterns. He explains he is much more concerned with the weight of the flies he’s fishing than the overall pattern. Having weight in the flies helps them cut through the water column and drift in the strike zone where trout eat most of the time.

For years, I blamed my inconsistent fish totals on using the wrong pattern. By simplifying my fly box and focusing more on the weight of the beads, I freed myself from solving the impossible mystery of matching the hatch underneath. Trout are opportunists. Like my dad used to tell me, “getting the right drift” was the most important part (but the corn did make it easier). 

Start By Making Small Changes

I did not start this journey by dropping thousands of dollars on a new Euro Nymphing set up. In fact, I would not recommend doing that even if you can afford it. I started tight line nymphing with the same fly rod, reel and line I had been using for years. My advice is to not change too much at once.

Start With a Simple Leader Change

I made one simple adjustment to my leader set up that made all the difference! All I needed to make this change was some sighter material and tippet rings. I followed George Daniel’s instruction by clipping my store bought leader at the end of the butt section. I tied on about two feet of sighter material and added a tippet ring. (Learning the blood knot helped with this). From there I added a straight section of 5X nylon tippet and instantly began presenting nymphs to trout in a way I had never done before. I soon learned how Fluorocarbon tippet material made this technique much more effective. Fluorocarbon has a better sink rate than nylon and is a lot more durable. So when I started using it, I did not have to re-rig as often, and I lost a lot fewer flies.

Immediate Results

I had immediate results because I started using weighted flies and incorporated sighter material into my leader. My fish totals quickly began rivaling, and often exceeding, those of my corn fishing days. More importantly, this new technique started giving me the confidence I needed to fish during times of the year I never had before. Armed with this tactic and several orange egg patterns tied with heavy tungsten beads, I began catching trout in December, January, and yes, even February. In 2021, I set a goal to catch a trout in all twelve months. By year’s end, I had tripled my previous annual high and was able to put trout in the net in every month. I never did that with corn!

Get Started With Just a Few Basic Tactics

While I have to admit, over the course of the past two years, I have overhauled all of my gear and completely transitioned into a full Euro Nymphing setup. However, nothing elevated my fishing more than a few basic tactics :

• Stop obsessing over fly choice and focus more on your presentation.
• Get weight into your files (tungsten beads in sizes ranging from 2.0 mm – 4.0 mm).
• Add sighter material to your existing leader and add a tippet ring.
• Present the files to the trout using 3 to 6 feet of straight fluorocarbon tippet tied off of the tippet ring (4x, 5x or 6 x).  
• Stay in contact with your nymphs.
• Focus on your sighter to detect strikes.
• As my dad would say, “Get the right drift.”

Start with small changes and build your skills over time. Your time on the water will be more successful. If from time to time, you need to use a “corn fly,” your secret is safe with me.