Nymph Training

[dgames]

You like that use a spinning rod with light line and you can really get looooooooggggggg drifts.

I don't understand what you are getting at with your "spinning rod" comment. Did I imply that I use a spinning rod?

[dennis boatman]

I may be wrong, but I believe he meant that a spinning rod with a bobber gives a long drift...

[Idylwilde]

I also use Tungsten beads on my nymphs. All of the info above is good info. Watch your indicator closely. It should move at about the same speed as the water around it. If it stops, bobbles, goes under, twitches or makes any other movement, set the hook. I tell all of my newbies that hook sets are cheap. They don't cost a thing.

The more you do this, the more you will recognize what movement of your indicator means. You'll know if it's a fish or if your just bumping the bottom.

Now, as far as keeping it on the bottom goes.... You'll just need to try different depths. Sometimes you'll have better luck with the fly within 6 or 8 inches of your indicator. Also, if you feel like you made a good drag free drift through a section of water, and you see fish holding in that water, make a couple of more drifts over them. If you don't get any looks or takes, change the fly. Maybe even put on a couple of different flies and see what they like.

Most of all, keep at it. Once you get the hang of it, you'll catch fish wherever you go. Good Luck.

They also have a Tungsten thread to tie with now great to add weight also the tungsten scud bodies are great to tie with. Gets the little stuff to depth quickly.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I may be wrong, but I believe he meant that a spinning rod with a bobber gives a long drift...

Exactly, if a long out of sight drift is the goal then a spinning rod would be a better choice.

[dgames]

Exactly, if a long out of sight drift is the goal then a spinning rod would be a better choice.

I understand now. Although, I think a spinning rod would actually be pretty bad for getting a drag free drift if you aren't just casting straight upstream or downstream. You would have zero ability to mend your way through varying current speeds.

I realize that probably wasn't really your point and you were probably being somewhat facetious. I take it your point is that exceptionally long drifts aren't necessarily the goal and quality of drift is more important. I would agree with that. I also take it that you feel you get a better drift without an indicator. I personally think that is probably a pretty high level skill that most of us don't have. While I have messed around a little bit over the years trying to dead drift nymph fish without an indicator and have caught some fish, it seems pretty difficult to me and I am much more proficient using some kind of floating indicator or dry fly to act as my bobber.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Nothing comes free, so practice helps immensely. If you think about it an indicator offers a controlled drift in an uncontrollable environment. I like being able to address my drift to the various changes in the stream. While fishing some waters that resemble a pond can make an indicator efficient, it's hard to impossible to work a changing current with lots of seams and still pick up every take.

The leader is an indicator and you just have to work at reading it.

[Al Agnew]

Nothing comes free, so practice helps immensely. If you think about it an indicator offers a controlled drift in an uncontrollable environment. I like being able to address my drift to the various changes in the stream. While fishing some waters that resemble a pond can make an indicator efficient, it's hard to impossible to work a changing current with lots of seams and still pick up every take.

The leader is an indicator and you just have to work at reading it.

Actually I've found the indicator works best in faster water.

As for adjusting your drift to changing current, I don't find that to be difficult with an indicator. You just have to read the currents and mend accordingly. I'll often do both upstream and downstream mends on a single drift, along with taking up line and throwing some slack in the line.

My hat is off to you for being able to fish efficiently without an indicator. It's something that not everyone can do. If you're using your fly line as an indicator, you have to VERY precise with mends. The indicator acts as a "shock absorber" which stops the energy coming down your line in a mend, energy which otherwise could be transmitted on down the leader to the flies.

[Wayne SW/MO]

When I fished the Deschutes, McKenzie and the Metolius rivers, which are fast and rocky, I found an indicator a real handicap. Trying to get a good drift into a lie was alsmost impossible with a float pulling the line and controlling the depth. I can see where a float on the Long hole at BSSP would work fine because the water is slow and maintaining a depth under those conditions is difficult.

The indicator acts as a "shock absorber" which stops the energy coming down your line in a mend, energy which otherwise could be transmitted on down the leader to the flies.

Or the energy from a take coming up the line and revealing itself.

[ozark trout fisher]

Okay....as I've said before in other posts, I've never had much luck nymphing. My set up seems fine. I use either the football indicators or the old-school teardrop/toothpick ones with a one or two nymph rig. I try to watch my line closely, but I never seem to be able to detect any action. Either (a) they don't like what I'm presenting (somewhat unlikely, but not impossible), or ( I just don't know when to catch the hook and fail to see the take (much more likely). Anyone out there have any pointers on learning to determine when to set the hook or how to detect strikes better when throwing nymph rigs? I want to improve, but I just find nymph fishing frustrating.

Also, maybe it's my eyes, but I truly don't see how people sight fish with nymphs the size of a 16-20 CJ or hare's ear. I lose sight of them in the water quick.

I think nymphing tactics completely depend on the sort of stream your fishing, the water type, etc. I do most of my trout fishing on small streams, creeks really, like the upper Current and the little wild trout creeks in the G'nade and Meramec basin. And I mostly concentrate on the riffles, not the really deep holes. This allows me to use relatively delicate nymphing techniques, as opposed to the chuck 'n duck methods you need somewhere like the NFoW or the Eleven Point. Neither method is superior overall, it just all depends on where you're fishing.

On medium sized streams like the upper Current, my preferred method is to use a fairly large, weighted nymph, sometimes with a smaller dropper with no split shot or other added weight. For an indicator, I use stick-on palsas. In my opinion, any nymph rig that allows you to use a stick-on indicator is ideal, because they will improve your strike detection incredibly over what you get using the big cork bobbers. And they won't work if you've got lead on your leader. One of my favorite Current River rigs is a beadhead egg pattern (or a big stonefly nymph, depending on the season) with a #16 Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail as a dropper. On the small wild trout streams, I'll use the same method, except the two fly rig is unnecessary, and one small beadhead, like a #16 Hare's Ear, is plenty to get down where it needs to be.

I really focus on getting good, long drifts, because it is absolutely critical for this method of nymphing. Instead of forcing the fly down by using a whole bunch of weight and ruining the casting motion, I just give the rig plenty of time to get down to where it needs to be. Most of the strikes come late in the drift, often as it swings directly downstream of me. Set up any time the indicator pauses, or goes under, or does anything funny. At first you'll set the hook on the bottom some, and you'll keep doing that occasionally, but you'll pretty quickly learn what is a strike and what isn't. Until then, my advice is to strike at anything and everything!