Czech Nymphing

Dave LaCourse wrote:
On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 14:40:07 GMT, rw wrote:

That sounds like plain old ordinary nymphing to me.

Yep, except the true Czech nympher uses three flies and no weight. He
gets the three flies down by using a heavily weighted fly in the
middle, while the other two are unweighted. I find that method
cumbersome, at best, and tried to advise the man to use but one nymph.
"Ordinary" nymphing includes casting a good distance and mending your
line, unlike the short (length of your leader) Czech nymphing.

It most resembles short-line, high-stick nymphing, EXCEPT that you don't
really raise the rod that high (because you don't have that much line
out). It is really only well suited to particular types of water:
smaller, riffly, fairly fast high-gradient streams. For that kind of
water, though, it's a killer technique. You can work through and cover
a lot of water quite quickly. I use it, where appropriate, but with
only two nymphs; three I have trouble keeping untangled, even with the
very short line.

http://www.fishandfly.co.uk/tledit0500a.html

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 09:05:23 -0800, JR wrote:

It most resembles short-line, high-stick nymphing, EXCEPT that you don't
really raise the rod that high (because you don't have that much line
out). It is really only well suited to particular types of water:
smaller, riffly, fairly fast high-gradient streams. For that kind of
water, though, it's a killer technique. You can work through and cover
a lot of water quite quickly. I use it, where appropriate, but with
only two nymphs; three I have trouble keeping untangled, even with the
very short line.

Exactly. Raising the rod can also help with the depth of the nymphs.
I've fished water using a strike indicator for about 5 feet of water,
but when I move on to shallower water, I simply lift the strike
indicator out of the water and set my depth that way. WFM.

"JR" wrote

It most resembles short-line, high-stick nymphing, EXCEPT that you don't
really raise the rod that high (because you don't have that much line
out). It is really only well suited to particular types of water:
smaller, riffly, fairly fast high-gradient streams. For that kind of
water, though, it's a killer technique.
hmm... sounds like i should give it a try this spring in the smokies.
would a longer rod (8-9') be preferred to our typical 7-7.5 dry fly rigs?

yfitons
wayno

Dave LaCourse wrote in article

Yep, except the true Czech nympher uses three flies and no weight. He
gets the three flies down by using a heavily weighted fly in the
middle, while the other two are unweighted. I find that method
cumbersome, at best, and tried to advise the man to use but one nymph.

Yeah - the 3 nymph method - especially any directions or techniques for
tying. The weighted center fly (as opposed to lead) looks like a good
alternative ... less hardware to snag ... but we're talking a hefty fly
here to substitute for 3 BB's (which is the approximate weight we needed
for the Kern's flow rate) ... I do remember that flies are tied off the
tag ends of the surgeon's knots used to connect the sections of the rig.
The whole rig's kind of time-consuming for me to tie ... it almost seems
like you'd want to make up a couple in advance for when you eventually lose
a whole rig on a bottom snag.

Instead of using the tag ends of a surgeon's knot to set the flies out from
the main leader, I wonder if there is a knot to tie in an auxilliary tag
that can be trimmed to the desired length ... would help if one of the tags
gets too short after changing or losing a fly.
--

-dnc-

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 12:52:56 -0600, "Fiddleaway"
wrote:

The weighted center fly (as opposed to lead) looks like a good
alternative ... less hardware to snag ... but we're talking a hefty fly
here to substitute for 3 BB's (which is the approximate weight we needed
for the Kern's flow rate)

Let's start with the tag end fly (from the surgeons knot) and call
that fly #1

The second fly, which will be in the middle of the rig, and is the
hefty one used to get the rig down, is tied to the end of that tippet.

The third fly is ties from the bend of the hook of the 2nd fly. Take
a piece of tippet and tie it to the bend of the heavy (2nd) fly. At
the end of that tippet you tie fly #3.

l
l
l\
l \O
l
l
6
l
l
lF
Where l\ is your surgeon knot
O is your first fly
6 is your weighted fly
F is your third fly tied to the bend of 6

Dave

Sounds a lot like the way I nymph, with a heavily weighted
bonefish fly and a smaller unweighted one.

When it's windy I put the heavy fly at the end.
When it's not blowing boats out of the water, I put
the itty bitty fly out at the end.

An extra-big barbell Crazy Charlie gets the little one
down. At the end of the day, the little nymph will out
catch the big one in terms of numbers. But the 2-3 biggest
fish of the day will (almost) always be taken
by the bonefish fly.

I started doing that on the North Platte in Wyoming.
But it works everywhere. Especially on large tail water
rivers: Big Horn, Missouri, North Platte, etc.

there was quite a discussion on this on a regional board. It seems to be the
latest "cool" thing. It uses a heavily weighted fly a long rod, a light line
( #2 lines on a #6 10' rod are typical) and a length of light non-tapered
leader. Casts are short.

here's a "primer": http://www.fishandfly.co.uk/tledit0500a.html

Jiri Klima the supposed "originator" of the technique offers courses on it
in the Czech Repuplic fr $500 a pop
Often not mentioned is that the "technique" involves wading as close as
possible to fish lies and wading the entire stream a la the San Juan
shuffle. This part of Czech Nymphing is being criticized by some in Europe
as it is potentially harmful to stream environments.


"Fiddleaway" wrote in message
news:01c64faf$80e992a0$c2ff1345@micron...
Anyone here tried it? A guide on the Kern river introduced it to me and
it
seemed to work pretty well...while he watched. When I tried it on my own
at the Owens all I did was get hung up and lose gear. It's kind of the
antithesis of the dead drift - you literally drag a heavily weighted,
3-fly
rig along the bottom.

Anyone out there done this and have any tips they'd like to share?
--

-dnc-

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 20:06:51 GMT, "Shining Path Gorilla"
wrote:

Often not mentioned is that the "technique" involves wading as close as
possible to fish lies and wading the entire stream a la the San Juan
shuffle. This part of Czech Nymphing is being criticized by some in Europe
as it is potentially harmful to stream environments.

Well, since you only cast 10 - 15 feet, you *have* to get close to the
fish. However, I have never seen a nympher using this method and use
the San Juan Shuffle, *except* on the San Juan and the Big Horn. I
saw nymphers on a sand bar on the Big Horn take turns doing the
shuffle, with their partner....errrr...... friend down-stream from the
shuffle point. I wade the entire stream, but I don't do the shuffle.
Besides, the shuffle will do no good if you are fishing up-stream from
your feet.

Dave

Shining Path Gorilla wrote

...there was quite a discussion on this on a regional board..

...here's a "primer": http://www.fishandfly.co.uk/tledit0500a.html

Good ref. Is the regional board in the public domain? In the cited
article, he says,

"Take your first length of mono and attach another length to it using a
Surgeon's knot. The dropper must be on the parent leg and pointing
downwards"

I'm having trouble visualizing what he means ... not sure about the "parent
leg" terminology

Anyone have a ref to a diagram of the whole rig?

Jiri Klima the supposed "originator" of the technique offers courses on
it
in the Czech Repuplic fr $500 a pop

Now that's what I call Czech nymphing!
--

-dnc-

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:02:55 -0600, "Fiddleaway"
wrote:

"Take your first length of mono and attach another length to it using a
Surgeon's knot. The dropper must be on the parent leg and pointing
downwards"

A surgeon's knot is going to leave four ends: 1 is your leader or
"first length of mono", the 2nd is the long piece which will be your
tippet, and 3 the tag end of your leader, 4 tag end of your tippet.
If I use this method (and I have and don't like it), I tie the
dropper on the tag end of the leader (first length of mono) which is
"pointing downwards," and parallel to your long pice of tippet
material.

When I nymph, I use only one fly. While Czech nymphing includes three
flies, I find it cumbersome and especially subject to tangles. The
only *good* thing about it is you can "test" two flies. The few times
I have used this method, I have taken fish off of one of the droppers.
At that point I re-rig and use only the fly that the fish are
attracted to. Works well for me.

Dave