How do you nymph?
- This topic has 9 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated Oct 17, 2006 at 11:18 pm by
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I am 7 weeks out from my shoulder surgery and have started fishing again. We got a huge early run of fish in my local stream and I have hit it hard over the past week. Most of my fishing has been nymphing with an indicator because I can just flip it around and don’t really have to cast, or high stick. Several times over my 6 straight days out I have been not getting takes when I know there are fish there and took the indicator off and high sticked left handed and immediately started getting fish to take the same fly I had on with the indicator.
Here’s how I do it, for what it’s worth:
I start with a 9′ 5 weight rod and a 9′ mono leader tapering to 5x. I add two feet of 6x flourocarbon to the end of it. I very rarely vary from 6x tippet, as it will catch very large fish if you’re careful and why sacrifice hookups unless you’re breaking them off?
I tie my fly, typically something like a #20 Miracle Nymph or a #18 Trout Crack on the end of the tippet, then crimp on a split shot above the knot, so when it slides (which it will) it will hug the knot and stop.
I then guage the depth of my river and select a spot on the leader approximately 1.5 times the depth from the fly to my spot, or in very slow water I just use the absolute depth of the river. Make a half hitch knot by making one loop, then another just to the line-side of the first, and place the line-side loop through the fly-side loop.
Once you have a half hitch, cut a piece of pre-treated yarn (Gink works fine, keep it in a yarn tub you can buy once and use egg yarn to refill) about 3/4″ long, and put it through the lineside loop, now sticking out of the fly-side loop. Wet with spit and tighten.
For a heavy nymph use a balloon indicator made with a very minimally inflated child’s water balloon with the nipple cut off with scissors (use folding sewing scissors stream-side).
Once said rig is ready, get yourself to the river in as stealthy a location as you can manage with a drift lane running right by your side. Cast upriver, preferably to an area behind structure. Your splitshot will pull your fly taught quick enough for you to set a hook if you get an immediate strike, which happens quite a lot actually. Let the indicator drift back by you, stripping line into big loops in your off hand or into a stripping basket if you have one, then Czech nymph or highstick the nymph as it comes by your position.
When the fly is downstream of you, simply play line out with a light shake of the guides and mend frequently to maintain a drag free drift. It’s actually quite an elegant little way to fish, and it presents a lot of challenge. I’ve caught 90% of my trout to date using this method.
Zach
On the rivers I fish, Steve, if the shot hits the bottom it is likely to snag, so I usually try to set it just off the bottom and use a weighted nymph to get on down.
Zach
My nymphing method consists of two essentials:
1) nymph(s) should be on the bottom of the stream.
This means that most of my nymphs are weighted, 99% of them are beadheads.
Depending on the depth and/or current speed I’ll add more weight using split shots.
I’ll put a dropper (just tie a piece of tippet on the eye of the first nymph) which is usually unweighted.2) Indicator on leader length 1.5x the depth of the stream
Since the leader will decend slowly you will need a longer leader than you expect. Too short and the nymph will NOT go down and too long leader will not show the take.While fishing out in Montana this fall Kelly Gallop showed me how to nymph effectively with his setup. With whatever leader you use this is how the fly and weight is set. If you are fishing with just one fly, put your weight at the very bottom of your leader. We attached tippet with perfection loops to the leader, a small knot on the bottom and then the weight just above the knot. Then with your perfection loop being approximately 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet above the weight, tie in a with a slip loop above the perfection loops a strand of 8 inch tippet material. Tie your fly off of this “dropper”. It is very similiar to a salt water rig you buy for surf fishing. The other variation is to tie in a fly at the bottom of the leader with a spilit shot 8 inches above and then the dropper fly. This rig proved deadly. No lag time for the indicator to show any strikes. The indicator was the same, 1.5 time the depth of the water. The beauty of the this rig is you can set your fly on the dropper at different depths to see where the fish are taking. I used it exclusively on the Madison and had numerous more takes and hook ups!
Trooper, I have really wanted to try your method out. However, it is illegal on the streams I fish to have any weight below the fly. Regs to try to cut down on the snagging mentality left over from the bad old days of legal salmon snagging in the Great lakes tribs. I will give it a shot for inland trout fishing next spring.
Awww…give it a try Steve154…what is another charge now that you are living a life of crime…ha.
Since I’ve been using the short rods…in the seven to eight foot category…I’ve been using short leaders in the seven and a half foot length.
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