Simplify Your Nymphs: Don't Change Flies, Change the Weight

[This story is an excerpt from the book Euro Nymphing: Tips, Tactics, and Techniques by Josh Miller. The Editor.]

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Some anglers put a lot of time and thought into finding the right fly patterns to fill their fly boxes. I was one of those anglers. I spent hours looking through books and searching the Internet for inspiration on new fly designs to use on my next fishing outing. But through my years of fishing, travel, and experiences, I have simplified the flies that I regularly use. I like to take the approach of using nymph patterns that should work 365 days a year instead of specific patterns for a certain day, river, or hatch. A simple fly selection has helped me build confidence on any trout watershed I come across.

Of course, there are times when fish can be selective and key in on specific bugs. The problem is there are countless varieties of insects and fly patterns tied to look like specific bugs throughout their life cycle. There are honestly too many fly patterns to pick from, so how do anglers narrow down their fly choices to a few patterns that will work?

As a young angler I always imagined there were top secret patterns that only elite anglers knew about and were sworn to keep secret. I regularly stopped into the fly shop near my house as a kid to talk with local fly-fishing legend Jim Hoey. I would try to persuade him to share one of these top secret fly patterns. Every time I would ask Jim, he would not budge. It was hard to get those secrets from him!

One special day he finally decided it was time to share. I was shocked and surprised. I was disappointed that the flies he thought were top secret looked like patterns I was already fishing and were quite simple. It was the first time that I heard someone say that the secret was the way he was fishing those flies. In other words, it was the technique not the flies. That statement stuck with me from that day on. He also said he was confident in those flies and would fish them intentionally, knowing he would catch fish. I was not looking for that answer. I was looking for a magic pattern that would help me catch more fish!

But now I get it.

The focus should not just be on finding the right pattern but on researching better or deeper techniques, mindset, or approach. A fly-based mindset can lead the angler to think the reason they are not catching fish is because of their fly, when there could be so many other reasons. These reasons can include drift, controlling speed, tension, slack, weight, and approach, which can all be improved with practice.

I think that a fly should be as natural as possible to what is normal to the fish.

A fly that is reasonable size, shape, and color presented with a good drift will catch fish in most situations.

Euro Flies

There are flies tied to look very realistic; they can look similar or even be mistaken for the actual bug. Euro nymph–style flies are simpler flies tied to replicate a broad spectrum of bugs. The biggest difference is that Euro flies rely on weight to help them sink to the appropriate depth, where the fish are feeding.

The weight added to the fly generally comes from tungsten beads in varied sizes and colors. The Euro nymph flies that I like to fish are on the smaller side, with an emphasis on shape. The size ranges from #16 to #20. How the fly is designed can dictate how fast or slow the fly sinks. Its shape, profile, and size will help either slow down or speed up how fast it sinks to the bottom.

Euro nymph–style flies are an essential part of fishing this way. A fast descent will lengthen our time in the zone where fish could be feeding. Weight that is built directly into the flies will help us stay in connection. Euro nymph flies will also give anglers the option to fish more water types, like skinny, shallow water or fast water. Weight is easily adjusted by changing the actual fly or can be adjusted by using a smaller or larger bead. I always carry the same fly patterns in an assortment of bead sizes to offer more weight adjustments while fishing.

During my first national championship in upstate New York, I remember struggling with over-choice during one of my last sessions. Halfway through the session I opened my fly box and found myself with too many fly options.

I remember slightly panicking, knowing I was racing the clock. I grabbed a fly and tied it on, only to realize it was the same fly I was just fishing. Having a pared-down selection makes it easy for me to pick a fly, and I can focus on making better drifts, approach, and reading the water.

Currently, the flies that fill my fly box are much simpler. I have narrowed my selection down to a few types of flies as well as a few of my favorite patterns. It is important because I try to rely less on a specific pattern and more on getting a better drift. Here is my point: If you only have a few flies, you learn to fish them better because you do not have a choice.

Nymph fishing success often comes from our flies spending a longer time near where fish are feeding, and that is usually close to the bottom. Although our technique while fishing can be adjusted to help the flies sink, we rely on weight to get the flies to depth. Competitive angling rules restrict all weight besides what is integrated into the flies. Although we are not talking about competitive angling here, there are still reasons to follow some of these rules while recreational fishing.

The elimination of split-shot can decrease accidental tangles. Split-shot can knot quickly during a cast or hook set, and tangling is especially bad when fishing multiple flies. The split-shot can also create a disconnect to the flies, making it more difficult to see soft bites when the split-shot is constantly rubbing the bottom. Maintaining a connection throughout the drift helps us understand what the fly is doing under the water. When a split-shot falls quickly to the bottom, it often bumps into rocks, which is detected as movement in our sighter.

I wish I could really hit the point home to everyone reading this on how soft a fish takes the fly sometimes. If anglers can just see more bites, they have more opportunities to catch more fish. It takes a trained eye to see the softest takes.

Weight built directly into the fly will help us stay connected. Connection between the angler and the flies is a vital part of Euro nymphing. We now can read our drift better and detect when the flies encounter anything while fishing.

Not all water and fishing spots require the same weight, so it is important to have multiple weight options.

Weight is important to a good drift and should be easily adjustable. A heavier-weighted fly can help us slow down the presentation when needed.

Sometimes a slower drift is what the fish seem to prefer. Switching to a lighter fly can help slow down the sink rate if the fish are eating higher in the column.

Adjustments are important and need to be accurate. Knowing what weight of fly you are using and keeping the flies organized will allow you to be more efficient and understand the drift better. Weighted flies help us adjust depth and speed of the drift with a simple fly change.

The weight of a fly comes from either the bead or lead wrapped around the shank of the hook as it is being created. The weight in most of my fly patterns comes solely from a tungsten bead. I use tungsten beads of varied sizes for an assortment of weight options. Larger bead sizes equal more weight added to the fly. The material in tungsten beads is more dense and heavier than brass beads. Brass bead-heads do not give a fly much weight at all. One problem is that not all tungsten beads of the same size will be the same weight. Beads from different manufacturers and even the same company with a different batch can vary in weight. For this reason, I rely on my adjustments in weight by the diameter of the bead.

The second option for weight is adding lead when the fly is being tied. Tiers will wrap varied sizes of lead wire around the shank of the hook to make it heavier. Tying your own flies makes it possible to create micro weight adjustments.

For example, you could tie a fly with a 3 mm bead with no wraps of lead, 5 wraps of lead, or 10 wraps of lead. This would give a single fly three weight options. I have limited the use of lead for a few reasons in most of my flies, and instead rely on the tungsten bead and my technique to get the fly to depth.

Weighted flies open more places that we can effectively fish. For example, when fishing an indicator setup with split-shot, it is hard to make a quick connection in fast, shallow water. There would be a delay in connection until the indicator and flies catch up with the current. When using weighted flies, the angler is in more direct contact with the fly. If anything contacts the fly, the tension will be quickly detected. A weighted fly fished under a dry dropper can be super effective.

Although some assortments in weights are available, it is difficult for non-tying anglers to find fly patterns tied in every weight. Anglers who tie their own flies are at an advantage because they can tie a greater variety of weights. Having the ability to tie and adjust the pattern and weight as needed can be so beneficial.

There are some situations where I will use a heavier fly called an anchor fly. The word anchor might be misleading to some extent. Rarely for me is the goal to have the flies hit or anchor on the bottom; usually it is to get near the bottom.

It can be challenging to get flies quickly to the bottom to where the fish are feeding; the anchor fly could help. Anchor flies can be any fly pattern tied in a heavier weight to help get deeper quickly.

Anchor flies weigh heavier than the flies I regularly use. The word anchor might also make an angler visualize a large fly, but it does not need to be. Large or small, the point is they are sometimes needed, for instance when water is deep and fast. A small-profile fly with a larger bead can sometimes be all you need to get down to the strike zone. This is one reason Perdigon flies have become a staple for Euro nymphing. A thin fly with an oversize bead will sink very quickly.

Teammate and friend Sean Crocker shared with me a trick while using anchor flies. We were fishing a beautiful small river winding through a little canyon in north Georgia. The water was cold, and most of the fish were not biting. The fish that were in the deeper, slow-moving pools were easy to catch. This was because it was easy to get a slow drift in water that was already slow. A slow drift gave the fish a chance to move to eat the fly. But the mountain stream consisted mostly of swift water. Sean showed me a way to get the flies to go really slow—actually not move at all—which gave the fish loads of time to move over to get the fly.

What Sean would do is use an overweight anchor fly to quickly get to the bottom. His goal was to have that heavy anchor fly sit in place on the bottom.

He was using a two-fly setup with a small dropper fly attached to the tag end of a blood knot. The fly was around 20 inches up the tippet from the point fly. The point fly at the bottom was the heavy anchor fly wrapped in a lot of lead. These flies he called a throwaway fly, and he quickly tied it with simple materials. When the anchor fly stopped on the bottom,

the tag fly that was suspended above the anchored fly would hold in the current. He would strategically cast the setup slightly upstream of where he thought the fish were holding. The dangling tag fly hanging in the current would entice the pickiest fish at times. He created a way to get flies to move very slowly toward the fish that were sitting underneath fast water. This is one unique situation that does not often happen, but a good angler needs to have an open mindset to be flexible and prepared to adjust.

Anglers often get stuck casting the same weight over and over. At first, it is hard to know when to change weight—do I go lighter or go heavier? Are we looking for the flies to crawl slowly near the bottom? Do we need the flies to sink slowly because the fish are sitting higher in the water column?

I think for most anglers, including myself at times, it is difficult to tell the size of a bead by just looking at it—especially because the bead sizes are close in diameter. A cool trick to keep bead sizes organized so we can distinguish the size is to put a stripe across the back of the beads with a Sharpie marker. I put a black or different-colored stripe on every other bead size. For example, 2.3 mm gets a black Sharpie, 2.5 mm I do not mark, 2.8 mm gets a red Sharpie, and so on. That trick can help you know what bead sizes you have.

There are many reasons to tie flies, but having the ability to change fly weight while using the same pattern can be a crucial one. Weight changes put the responsibility on the angler to adjust to changing conditions or circumstances. In turn these weight adjustments relay valuable feedback to the angler through fly connection and drift correction. It is important to strike a balance with weight—too much and the fly drags on bottom, too little and the fly never sinks to the fish.

Confidence Flies

What flies should an angler use when they start their fishing day on the water? Hard fishing conditions, new water, or just generally a new angler can make it hard to pick what fly they should be using. Here are the fly choices I always start with, which I call confidence flies. Luckily, it has become a simple and easy choice for me. I always start with my confidence flies.

A confidence fly is not a specific fly; it can be any pattern that you enjoy fishing and believe in. There are many ways to gain confidence in your flies.

Sometimes confidence in a fly can come from a local fishing legend sharing his favorite pattern, an article you read online or a YouTube video, or it could be your friend’s choice. If World Angler Pat Weiss told me to fish a fly that I have never fished before during a national championship, I would without hesitation because I trust his expertise and ability.

For some anglers, gaining confidence can take years of practice catching fish and other times coming home empty-handed.

Catching fish on a pattern is sometimes all it takes, but that can take time. Your confidence patterns might also change or evolve over the years. The flies I had confidence in five years ago look different from the flies I am confident in today. I now tie some of the flies in thinner profiles, or with a different goal in mind. As our fishing progresses, our fly patterns evolve.

Every time you are out on the water is a new opportunity to gain confidence in specific patterns for different situations. If I am fishing a stream filled with pocketwater holding wild browns, I will fish a size 16 Walt’s Worm with confidence.

Trust in the Walt’s Worm was built from many positive past experiences fishing similar water types for wild trout.

Having confidence is important while fishing (obviously, confidence is important in anything you do). The longer a fly is fished, the more fish it will pass. That fly will produce more fish. What I am trying to say is, the more you use a fly and catch fish, the more confidence you will have in that fly.

I believe a good presentation in most situations is just as important as the fly you are using. Getting good drifts is what we are after, and having confidence while fishing will help bring fish to the net. Cam Chioffi, a world-class angler, told me to always be confident in every cast. He told me that he expects to get a bite on every drift. Isn’t that the point of making a drift, to catch a fish? I translated his comment to mean that you should believe in what you are doing on every cast, and that having confidence is more important than having the best fly. A fly might not be the right pattern, but fished with confidence it can outfish the perfect fly fished with no confidence.

My confidence flies while Euro nymphing are smaller-size nymphs. If I had to pick one size to use forever it would be size 18. A smaller nymph drifting past a fish is less intrusive than a large fly. Larger-profile flies will often catch more current than a fly that is skinnier, which will cause the fly to speed up through the drift. A faster-drifted fly might drift past the fish faster than a natural bug, spooking the fish.

I have boiled my fly choices down to three confidence patterns that have helped me produce trout in most situations. The same three patterns have been productive throughout the world, from the spring creeks of central Pennsylvania to the mountain streams of southern Chile to the waters of Eastern Europe. My search for the perfect fly is slowly fading away. I will always keep an open mind as new patterns surface and techniques evolve, but as of now a well-drifted fly is slightly more important than the pattern.

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Josh Miller was a member of Fly Fishing Team USA from 2016 to 2020. He coached the USA Fly Fishing Youth Team to a gold medal in the 2023 world championship and more recently, a gold medal at the 2024 FIPS-Mouche World Youth Fly Fishing Championship in the Czech Republic. Miller is a full-time guide and traveling instructor, and lives with his wife, Sarah, and his son, Jonah, in western Pennsylvania. Website: joshmillerflyfishing.com | Instagram: @joshpgh

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