By: Jeff Perin

Several years ago I began following the fly fishing team competitions out of curiosity, having previously thought what could be worse than making fly fishing a competition sport? Putting that aside, what I learned is these anglers are some of the best in the world and also have some of the most innovative techniques. While I am pretty sure I will never enter a competitive fly fishing event, I have become a better fly angler by studying the techniques these competitors use around the world with great success.

I was really excited to learn a few new methods, especially those coming from the European teams to catch fish on a nymph in different ways than how we typically set it up here in the USA with a strike indicator, 2 nymphs and some split shot.

While there are many ways to catch a fish on a nymph, there are 2 methods that have become my favorites when I decide to go without a strike indicator and go Euro style.

I’d like to share those with you here and talk about the equipment choices to add to the experience so you can be ready to go try this on your own.

It is fun, and above all you won’t believe how effective it can be to be totally in touch with the drift of your nymphs fishing this way, compared to slack line techniques.

Since this is a lengthy topic (that has numerous books written about it) – I divided up this primer into these sections: RIGGING, CASTING, GEAR, HELP