J.P. Newbury Angling

This sampler pack includes 30 of my top 10 nymphs. If you are a western slope or Roaring Form bound angler, this is every fly you will need to fish the freestones and lower tail waters (>= 1 mile from spillway).

Bank Maggot

Black & Tan Perdigone

F2 Caddis - Caddis Green

Glam Rocker - baetis

Green papaya

OG Crush Deluxe

OG Dirty Hipster - natural

Riffle Drifter Perdigone - bi-color olive

UV Sexy Betty

 The Czech nymph suffered a significant hit when the United States started to enter into the Tactical-Euro nymphing scene. One might think that an archetypical European style of fly such as the Czech Nymph would come along for the big European world tour, but it didn't. I believe it was a matter of market timing and the quality of hooks that killed the Czech Nymph. A few big names in manufacturing and distribution saw the trend coming in the mid to late-2000s and made nickel finished barbless grub and pupa hooks available on the United States market. Unfortunately, they did not have a proper point design for fish retention. They merely eliminated the barb on a classic straight point hook design, which resulted in a horrid retention rate. A barb serves a purpose on a barbed hook, to hold the fish. Without that barb, the classic hook has lost its hook holding power. I believe it was those early hook models available to us that couldn't hold a fish worth a darn and the simultaneous introduction of jig hooks on the U.S. market that caused anglers to shift attention to the new star of the show, the jig nymph.

I have been fishing the Czech nymph since the summer of 1993; perhaps earlier if we consider the earlier caddis larva designs from the Jack Dennis / Randall Kaufmann era.  As I was transitioning into Czech Nymphing, a curved shank, dubbed caddis larva was the most productive fly style in my box behind the Pheasant Tail Nymph, also tied in the same Dennis/Kaufmann method. I found that Czech Nymphing style of fly fishing with a weighted green rock worm and pheasant tail in tandem, to be the best combo for fishing the 1-3' deep walking speed riffles on the Deschutes River. I usually fished a golden stone as my anchor fly before June and then switched over to Czech Nymphs following the Stonefly hatches.

With the availability of European hook styles that have a proper rolled point, we can now bring Czech nymph hooked fish consistently to the net. I found one model of a hook to be particularly useful, are the Hanak model #333 and Fulling Mill Czech Hook. While I usually shy away from proposing such a specific recommendation on hooks, my daily fishing logs show a hook to landing ratio that is heavily biased in favor of the rolled point czech hooks.

What makes Czech Nymphs particularly useful is that they mimic the shape and posture of a vast array of aquatic food organisms that fish regularly see. I tend to think that the form and posture of the fly alone is the strike trigger. As such, we have the freedom to experiment with the colors and sizes that suit our reasonable whim. I tie and fish a size 8 heavily weighted Czech Nymph wearing golden stonefly colors and pair it with another smaller contrasting Czech nymph. The fun for me when landing a fish while fishing a tandem rig is to see what fly the fish took. Sometimes, I notice species-specific fly choices when brown trout may go for the golden stone Czech and the rainbows choosing an upper dropper. This could be due to many factors that are beyond the scope of this article but I suspect current speed and sink rate are a primary factors.

I tie my Czech nymphs bi-direction as a function of speed and quality control in my fly tying workflow. I dub my way forward rear to front and then reverse directions tying down the shellback from front to rear with a whip finish at the back. In this step-by-step tutorial, I show you my tying sequence for tying clean Czech Nymphs.

Anyone who knows me understand I am one difficult ***** to please. I’m picky. I’ve tried so many brands of fluorocarbon tippet over time with only a few brands making the grade. Last year my mates over at Fulling Mill handed me some spools of their new Master Class Fluorocarbon tippet. I must say I was impressed right out of the gate. You see, I am a 6x or smaller junkie rarely fishing anything heavier. In March of last year, I put two spools of Master Class, 5.5x & 6x onto my tippet keeper. I fished an entire year with many guide days only using the those two spools of Master Class. That’s over 100 days on the water with well over a thousand fish from my private fishing alone. As of May 21st, 2019, I STILL have plenty of tippet left. Why, because I am not changing the tippet out every half hour because it is turning de-laminating and becoming opaque. In fact, I had on several occasion where I used the same length of tippet for the duration of my days angling session of typically four hours.

The new Fulling Mill Masterclass Fluorocarbon has the lowest refractory index of any other fluoro on the market, making it the least visible in water to fish. It's also the densest allowing it to cut through the surface tension quicker than ever before. Masterclass has a superb Diameter to Strength ratio so you can rest assured that it's incredibly strong, ultra supple and has great knot strength. With interlocking spools and a tangle-free band, this revolutionary fluorocarbon will certainly help you catch more fish. Created with a premium grade Japanese raw material and produced with 21st Century German precision engineering, this is the most advanced fluorocarbon on the market today. The ideal fluorocarbon tippet for Trout, Grayling, Salmon, Sea Trout and Saltwater anglers.

You are tying your flies too fat!

As the euro-nymphing revolution sweeps across the landscape, a revolution in tactical fly design is taking a free ride. There will be a time of transition for fly tyers who are accustomed to attaching split shot to their tippets to get the fly into the zone will have a bit of a transition to make at the tying vice. Without split shot dragging your offerings into the abyss, you will need to re-think your fly tying designs.

I started my journey into the European nymphing scene back when I discovered Oliver Edwards Fly Tyers Masterclass and the Czech Nymph trend of the mid-1990s. Back then, we didn’t have the tungsten beads and new hook designs to design our imitation’s. Creativity was required to tie a fly that you could fish without weight attached to the tippet. Oliver used the leaded foil from wine bottles to build the weighted underbody on his nymphs. Czech nymphs do not require much weight to sink the fly if they were thinly dressed without bulk. If you do need weight, you can add a thin layer with flat lead-free wire at the tying vice.

Fly patterns designed for optimal sink rate and swimming action do not have too many soft buoyant materials added. if there are soft materials, they are used judiciously.

The Czech nymph has fallen to the wayside in favor of all the sexy new jig patterns we are tying. However, it was my experience tying and fishing Czech nymphs for so long that made me keenly aware that a well tied, thinly dressed fly pattern will outperform everything else in your box.

Overdressed flies will not sink as rapidly as a thinly dressed fly and tend to clumsily roll around in the current at less than optimal buoyancy. I am sure your overdressed Frenchie will catch many fish, as will your mop fly; however, you may never realize how many more fish you could catch simply by using much less material on your fly patterns. Let the weight of the bead and hooks do their job, to sink the fly. Let the dressing come along for the ride without slowing things down. Too much material on your fly can inhibit sink rate and action.

One DOZEN tactical combo pack for big water.

Includes: