Long line fly rod Euro Nymphing - ticking bottom every second

[netboy]

13 hours ago, tjm said:

Best dry fly tomorrow?

Size 18 BWO has been working in the afternoons lately. 

[Ryan Miloshewski]

I'm always partial to a #18 CDC caddis where applicable.

[Al Agnew]

On 1/28/2022 at 2:35 PM, fishinwrench said:

Traditional nymphing, the way I was taught, has no bobber involved.  

It's all about line control and line management.   Basically you are setting a trap with each drift.   Just enough slack so that the fly drifts with the current.....but just tight enough that if anything intercepts the fly then everything begins immediately tightening up.   As soon as you notice things tightening up.... sweep set immediately.   Usually the tightening line has already started the hook point into its jaw.  A 100% true "dead drift" is never necessary...... thankfully, because that's impossible anyway. The faster the water....the better the initial hookset.   

Takes practice but works flawlessly in everything except dead slow water.   Get it mastered and you'll consistently outfish the best indicator -nymphers in the world.  

It's harder for a fish to eject a hook that has tension on it.  👍

Well, I'll disagree with you in one situation, which is VERY common out here in Montana on big rivers like the Yellowstone...90% of my nymph fishing is casting to runs that I can't wade close to because of deep or heavy water.  So I'm nymphing 40-50 feet away from where I'm standing, often with a couple differential currents between me and the drift I'm making.  In that case, I'd like to see somebody nymph without an indicator.  I do really like fishing without one, and will often drift the fly with my indicator above the water when I'm fishing close, fast water.  I hardly ever use an indicator on the spring creeks here.  But it's a necessity when wade fishing the Yellowstone.

[Al Agnew]

On 1/28/2022 at 6:00 PM, fishinwrench said:

Any time you pinch an indicator on your leader it is as if your concentration stops THERE.   If all you care about is catching some fish then FINE it's plenty effective.  But there's something zen, magical, or whatever about allowing my concentration to go all the way to the point of the hook.    

It just makes the whole process immune from boredom.  🙂 

If I'm going to concentrate on something floating on the surface then I'd rather be trying to pull one up to kiss a dry fly.   

Very good point.  When I'm in the zone, I can watch the indicator AND watch the bottom where I think my nymphs are drifting for any movement or the flash of white of a jaw, if the water is clear.  And hook fish before I see the indicator pause.  But I'm not always, or even often, in that kind of zone.  My best fly fishing buddies can do it a lot better than I can.  Fact is, using an indicator, you are conceding that you're going to miss some takes completely.  The hinge between the indicator and the flies, the slant and/or bow of the line between them, having to make a decision when the indicator does something just a bit funny whether to set the hook or not...all conspire against you detecting strikes quickly enough, or at all. 

[laker67]

A great discussion going on here. Keep it up. I have always been a no bobber guy. I always say that bobbers were not invented yet when I started fly fishing. I see them being productive in tailwaters, but not enough to make me switch over. I will admit that I did use a lighted bobber sometimes while night fishing. It worked well.

[BilletHead]

38 minutes ago, laker67 said:

A great discussion going on here. Keep it up. I have always been a no bobber guy. I always say that bobbers were not invented yet when I started fly fishing. I see them being productive in tailwaters, but not enough to make me switch over. I will admit that I did use a lighted bobber sometimes while night fishing. It worked well.

  I just knew you were studying this. It is a good discussion. I have one. Set up with approate leaders with sighters in them. Just haven't tried it yet. Another tool in the arsenal.

[fshndoug]

Me and Laker don't need sighters to catch fish do we Laker67

[ColdWaterFshr]

The euro nymphing thing looks like an interesting technique for smaller to mid-size waters like Al says, but the smaller waters I fish have canopy of trees and the fish are spooky . . . so I just see it as a niche method for a certain type of water.  Maybe I'm wrong.

Related to this topic, what is everyone's favorite type of indicator?   I'm still on a quest to find the perfect one.  Thing-a-mabobbers - not happy with.  I've tried both the screw-top, the circle eyelet type, and circle eyelet with a peg.  Football indicators with the rubber gasket.  Yarn indicators.  Foam with tooth pick.  Rubber bandy loops hanging off the foam type.  What else is there?  There's gotta be a better way.

[snagged in outlet 3]

14 minutes ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

The euro nymphing thing looks like an interesting technique for smaller to mid-size waters like Al says, but the smaller waters I fish have canopy of trees and the fish are spooky . . . so I just see it as a niche method for a certain type of water.  Maybe I'm wrong.

Related to this topic, what is everyone's favorite type of indicator?   I'm still on a quest to find the perfect one.  Thing-a-mabobbers - not happy with.  I've tried both the screw-top, the circle eyelet type, and circle eyelet with a peg.  Football indicators with the rubber gasket.  Yarn indicators.  Foam with tooth pick.  Rubber bandy loops hanging off the foam type.  What else is there?  There's gotta be a better way.

I like palsa.  The football shaped ones.

[fishinwrench]

10 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Well, I'll disagree with you in one situation, which is VERY common out here in Montana on big rivers like the Yellowstone...90% of my nymph fishing is casting to runs that I can't wade close to because of deep or heavy water.  So I'm nymphing 40-50 feet away from where I'm standing, often with a couple differential currents between me and the drift I'm making.  In that case, I'd like to see somebody nymph without an indicator.  I do really like fishing without one, and will often drift the fly with my indicator above the water when I'm fishing close, fast water.  I hardly ever use an indicator on the spring creeks here.  But it's a necessity when wade fishing the Yellowstone.

Matt Tucker and Brian Wise said the exact same thing.   So I stood at the heavy run at Jack's on the NFOW and proved that it works just fine.   2 fish to hand, and another rolled to the surface in under 15 minutes.   45-55 feet away.

If your line crosses opposing currents then it gets harder to do......but it's still not impossible.   You just have to look for the best place to stand, and you might have to throw in an additional mend (which you'd have to do with an indicator also).

Honestly, the only place where I find it impossible to "set the trap" is in really slow water.