Kelly Galloup of The Slide Inn recently posted a video that has created quite a stir. He asks if Euronymphing is really fly fishing, among other things.
I agree with a lot of what he says, though I don’t think he realizes that Euro can involve streamers and dries, as we have documented on this blog.
I do agree with his view that being a well-rounded angler is a good thing. More important, it is more fun. After tightlining a ton, I eventually became bored. One season, I decided to do only wet flies. One year, all I did was throw articulated streamers. In the summer, I often only do dries-or-die. Since I only fish flies that I’ve made, I found those dedicated periods to be fun: they forced me to learn new fly-tying techniques, as well as try to improve my game, which I feel is still nascent and needs much work.
Fly fishing offers lifelong learning. We all are free to choose our own adventure. Personally, I nearly always bring two rods with me: my Euro rod and a dry-fly rod that can also swing wets if needed. But, you get to decide what works for you.
Kelly’s video is below, in case you’re interested.
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It’s just about catching fish, especially early in the year when there fewer hatches. Once the bugs get going it’d dry flies for me. He also seems to be confused, he did a nymph fishing video last fall and posted on YouTube. He ran a tightline rig first before John went indicator. I am not fond of competitive fly fishing.
Kelly always has a POV!
I think Kelley is correct about not becoming a one-trick pony. To me the most important considerations about whatever method you fish are: is it legal and are you having fun.
I started tightline fishing as a way to access fish between hatches. Still do. But I will admit that since its a relatively short distance technique, and I am getting on in years, the wading can be tiring.
Lately I have gravitated towards carrying one longish 4wt (9’9″) that I can tightline, or use a long belly 2wt fly line to effectively fish drys and soft hackles or swing wets. Works with streamers too!
This year I am leaning towards focusing on drop-shot nymphing (another heretical method) with unweighted imitative nymphs as I leave far too many beadheads on the stream bottoms!
I agree!
Jo, sometimes I wonder if the industry vets like Kelly Galloup or even Tom Rosenbauer branch out much with euro (all love). Most people seasoned in the mono rig do all of the things the industry vets say you can’t do with it. Fly style casts up around 35 feet and soulful flies are part of our day-to-day… I just don’t see it being very different but decent discussion fodder.
Kyle, it’s a great point: the best Euro anglers do long casts (to avoid spooking fish), do not dredge the bottom, fish “soulful” flies, and can easily switch from nymphs to dries or streamers, particularly with the Euro-style fly lines.
I think most of vets equate “Euronymphing” with the short-cast, Czech-style of tightlining. The cynical part of me thought that Kelly definitely had a POV, but he’s also great at marketing (e.g., the names he gives to some of his streamer ties to make them memorable).
As for me, I’m happy for people to do whatever they want, as long as it’s illegal and they know how to quickly land fish and release them properly.
I’m also OK if people want to throw bobbers at the same, crowded glides and leave the Euro runs to me, lol!
I listened to Kelly’s video and he was really saying that the World Competitions should involve all forms of fly fishing and not just euro.
A real world champion should excel in all methods
That’s definitely the bulk of the video in spite of the headline. Also I just added you manually to the subscription list.