euro-nymphing in it's strictest sense, is/was never about casting size 20 dry flies but teams of very heavy tungsten-filled nymphs. it's much closer to lure/spinning/whatever where the the weight at the tip (flies) pulls the line. this doesn't leave much possibilities for loops, therefore the lobbing.
as far as nymphing is concerned, basically the confusion stems from many people hybridizing different methods while calling them french, czech or whatever. i of course have no problems with myself or others mixing methods, it's the spice of life but let's be real, we're not nymphing if we're casting dry flies...
cheers,
marc
Not sure I can let you get away with the term "Euro-nymphying" Marc. Thought that is a term only 'mericans use?
I understand the term "French nymphing" was introduced to the UK by competitors who had taken part in the CEFF World Flyfishing Championship, held in France in 2002. (The French won the World's in four consecutive years around that time.) It was the name given to the winning tactic for the French team that year: used for winkling super-spooky fish out of skinny, clear water.
It can be grouped with "Czech nymphing" (or Polish nymphing as the Poles would have it) only as a flyfishing technique, first observed in competition, and named (in English at least) after the team who won the competition using the tactic. You probably know the English love naming things after other nationalities, usually disparagingly e.g. Dutch courage; French letter. In the case of these nymphing techniques the English competitors were blown-away by the techniques they had witnessed.
As for the unchallenged statement about "lobbing". Like any other form of flycasting, casting a team of heavy nymphs it is all about maintaining tension throughout the system, and to do it well even involves fishing the drift to a downstream position where the current will establish tension (let's not mention water tension tho'). If the definition of casting a fly is: "casting an effectively weightless artificial fly using a weighted line", then heavy nymphing does not conform.
Well made long or French leaders can be "cast" ... and I've been out and done it this morning without any tungsten. Using 6 metre hand tied (not by me) leader on both my 6'6" #2 and 10'0" #4 with little or no flyline outside of the rod tip. Again it might confuse the definitions police, but whilst there was negligible weight, there was a loop ... of course, a well-controlled loop because I was behind it
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Enjoy Strathdon!
All the best, Andrew
