Euro Rods-Do I need one?

For the first 20 years of my fly fishing career, I had a total of 3 different fly rods. The first was a Pflueger 8’ 5 weight combination kit that my parents got me from the local K-Mart when I was 13 years old. My second rod was purchased a few years later and was a 7’6” 3 weight that I upgraded to from the Pflueger. My third rod was a sage Z-Axis 8’6” 5 weight that I purchased when I was in graduate school at Penn State. Prior to going to graduate school, I was working as an engineer in Pittsburgh and used my federal tax return to purchase that rod. To this day, that is still one of my favorite fly rods!

State College 19 years ago…

Whichever rod I had in my hand was used for everything, streamers, dry flies, tight lining, or indicator fishing, it didn’t matter, that was the only rod I had. If I wanted to switch from streamers to dry flies, I’d make a few adjustments to the leaders if necessary, but that was about it. After taking the fly fishing class at Penn State during my undergrad years, I learned a lot about tight line nymphing. We did this with standard fly rods and lines and it worked, which is why I was so reluctant on purchasing any tactic specific fly rods. In my mind, I could do anything with a fast action rod and some leader adjustments, why would I waste my money on a new rod that can only nymph? Given the outdoor industry’s over marketing of everything from clothes to equipment, I just assumed these rods were more of the same.

Sage Z-Axis

As time went on, I recognized that the vast majority of my fly fishing revolved around nymphing. Where I live, we don’t get crazy hatches outside of a few short weeks and most of my free time to fish was in the winter. So eventually, I caved to the hype and decided to purchase a Thomas and Thomas contact II, 10’9” 3 weight. I’m not trying to promote this rod or brand, just letting you know what I ended up with. The feel of the rod is extremely different if you are switching over from a fast action rod. Going from a Sage to a Contact II was quite an adjustment at first, but once you learn to slow everything down, it all comes together nicely.

Efficiency

I think the main difference between a good angler and a great angler is the amount of time they keep their flies in the zone. I love watching great anglers fish, they are so efficient with every movement and cast, little time is wasted with their flies out of the water or snagged in a tree. For me, using the euro nymph rod definitely made me more efficient. Because the rods have a slower action and are softer, they are so much easier to load with a micro leader and small nymph, this improved my casting accuracy right out of the box. I want to be clear, you absolutely can cast small nymphs with micro leaders and mono rigs on a fast action rod and it can be done very effectively, I just found it easier with the euro rod. Also, the added length of the euro rod at 10’9” allows me to cover more water and get slightly longer drifts without having to change positions. Overall, my casting accuracy improved and I’m covering more water each drift, making for less casts and more efficient fishing.

Versatility

I hate carrying multiple rods on the water and my main concern with the euro rod was the lack of versatility. Recently, I was on a trip to Pennsylvania and got into a nice sulphur hatch with multiple fish rising. I removed the nymphs and tied on a single sulphur in size 16. I didn’t change a thing, my leader was nothing more than 6x tippet attached to 40 feet of 4x sighter and I was able to cast the dry fly and land 2 fish. This was only possible because I was able to get close to the fish, this central PA stream is not very wide. If I was on a different stream where I had to make a long cast and feed line, it was not happening with my euro rod and micro leader.

I do have a separate spool with 3 weight tapered fly line that I use with the rod when I want to fish indicators or cast a dry fly a little farther. For most streams that I fish, this combination has plenty of range and is very effective. I would argue that line control and mending with indicators is even easier on this rod because of the added length. Again, this isn’t ideal for long distance presentations on big water, the rod is slow action and not made for sending line a long way. Last fall in the Catskills I specifically recall not being able to reach my target with any type of line control, it was just too far and I had the rod loaded as much as I could with my casting ability. There are pros and cons to every set up!

Streamers are a totally different game so lets start with some general comments. As mentioned, the rod has a soft tip, it’s made to load easy (bend) without a lot of weight. Typically, streamers have much larger and thicker hooks than the nymphs we commonly fish, so you need to set the hook with a little more muscle. On a soft action rod, a lot of the energy in the hookset gets absorbed as the rod bends, instead of transferring down the line and penetrating the hook into the fish. If you’re fishing a nylon sighter or mono that has some stretch, the problem only gets worse. The more line you have out, the more stretch you will have in the system. You need to be very calculated in your hookset when streamer fishing using a euro rod. Other than that, you can be very effective fishing streamers on a euro set up. Most of the time, we think of jigging streamers with a euro rod, but you can also fish standard and articulating streamers on this set up. It’s all very situational on the water type and how you like to fish. I landed my biggest wild brown trout (Not Lake Run)using a streamer on a euro-rod last summer in Montana.

Montana brown streamer fishing on a Contact II 10’9” 3 weight

Conclusion

You don’t need a Ferrari to drive fast, but I’m sure it would be nice. You don’t need a euro rod either, you can use a standard rod, adjust your line and leader and get pretty effective at fishing multiple styles. However, if you spend most of your time nymphing, you might want to consider getting one. I’ve had this exact conversation with a few friends and not a single one that bought a euro rod had anything but positive comments after fishing with it. Like me, most of them use it as their primary rod as well.

It’s Friday night as I’m writing this article and my drift boat is hooked up to my truck, heading out to do a night float and fish into the next morning. My euro rod is not in my truck, I have a 9’ 7 weight with a sink tip line and a 9’ 5 weight with a floating line rigged up. After all of the positives I just told you about fishing with a euro rod, I just love casting fly line. Tonight, I plan on throwing streamers in the rain and hopefully have some bug activity in the morning where I can make some long presentations with a dry fly. That’s why I chose those two rods, it doesn’t always have to be about catching as many fish as you can, it’s also about how you like to fish and what you enjoy doing.