The Polish nymphing technique is used extensively in Eastern Europe where fast mountain streams hold grayling and trout. The Polish have consistently won the international fly fishing tournaments using this method.
No, Polish Nymphing is not a joke like Polish air conditioning. It is a specialized technique developed to catch trout and grayling in the deeper, fast riffles common in the mountains of southeastern Europe. The method consists of two key elements, the fly and the rod handling.
Look in many of the fly catalogs and you will usually see a Czech nymph or Polish nymph. Though the flies were originally introduced to the US in the 90's, the technique was not widely publicized. As a result, the nymphs have appeared like any other 'hot new fly' fad. The reality is that this fly is the cornerstone of the method and for this article, I will refer to the fly as the Czech nymph since it is usually found in catalogs by this name.
A Czech nymph is a VERY heavy, low drag nymph tied on a scud hook. It is usally tied to look like a caddis nymph and lends itself well to woven body tying techiques. It was developed in response to fishing competition rules prohibiting split shot or other weight applied to the leader. To get the fly down and keep it down it must be both heavy and resistant to drag. Increasing the amount of weight is the easy part; where you would use thin wire, use heavy wire. Go up one size in bead or switch to tungsten.
Minimizing the drag requires that the body be dubbed tightly and any legs and tails be sparse and short. Any bulk required to profile the body correctly must be built up using the wire underbody.
(There is a collection of pictures in the Polish Nymph album in Darrin's gallery)
By themselves, these flies should be fairly productive but their heavy weight limits their usefulness in "non-fast water" situations. However, if the Polish rod handling technique is used as well, then they can be just as productive in slower waters.
First I'll describe the rig and then how the rod is handled. In Europe, it is legal to use three flies on the leader and the typical rig has a heavy point fly (the fly att he end of the tippet) and one or two more typical hatch matching flies on 4x or smaller tippet material. The rig allows you to cover serveral levels of the water column at once and tailor the fly choice to what might typically be found in that level of the water column. The smaller diameter tippet used significantly reduces drag and lets the flies get to the bottom more quickly.
In Iowa, we are limited to two flies, however, the concepr of the heavy point fly can still be useful. A second emerger or pupa pattern would work as the second fly. Note that, unlike our typical rig, the heavy fly is at the end of the tippet, not closer to the leader.
Now, once you are rigged, you are ready to fish. You will be fishing relatively close so you will only need about two feet of line out past the quide and a standard 9 ft leader. Since false casting with such heavy fly at the end can result in tangled flies, the actual cast will be more of a flip than a cast. (Note, this can also be used when you need to use a heavy streamer on a relatively light rod.)
With the flip cast, start with the rod tip and line extended down stream fully and begin moving the rod upstream. Then using the arm and rod together, accelerate and flip the flies upstream ending with both arm and rod fully extended level and pointed upstream. This should give you about 10' of line on hte water past your rod tip.
Now pause to let the point fly sink to near the bottom. This takes practice to know when to stop before hitting bottom. With the rod tip held just above the water, begin to sweep downstream a bit faster than the current. Do not stop until the rod is pointed down stream. Then wait to let the flies and line continue to drift past the rod tip until the extend straight off the tip of the rod Now repreat the flip by starting with a short hook setting motion. This is an important step as with the Leisenring Lift, the sudden rising of the nymphs at the end of the drift may trigger a strike. The hook set motion will either get you into the fish you didn't even know was their or it will get your nymphs moving quickly to make your next flip easier.
Since you are pulling the flies downstream, the tension on the line will allow an immediate hook set when the nymph is taken no matter how soft the take. This is why a strike indicator is not needed.
If your flies are hitting bottom too often, you are not moving your rod tip fast enough. However, if you aren't hitting the bottom at least occasionally, you are moving the rod too fast. This is the hardest part to learn because ever since we first picked the fly rod, we have been preached to about the drag free drift. Since this technique resulted in countless USA Team losses in the World Fly Fishing Championships, we might be taking the concept to an extreme. But that's another article.
In any case, it does take practice to get proficient at it but what doesn't?
The most common variation I employ is to use a heavier stonefly nymph instead of a typical Czech nymph as the point fly.
You might also consider using it with a weighted wolly bugger on the end and an unweighted one as a dropper. This will allow you to fish the many pools on several of the Iowa streams.
You can find more information by searching the web or try one of these links:
