The tuck cast presents a fly-first entry, from very steep and vertical with extra slack, to almost flat, with immediate contact. That’s how flexible the tuck cast is. It’s useful. In fact, it’s critical to how I present nymphs and streamers.

Continue reading Land With Contact or Without, When Using a Tuck Cast — Tight Line and Euro Nymphing at Troutbitten.

Choosing the right indicator is the first step to setting up and effective system. Balance between indy and weight is the key.

Continue reading Your Indicator Is Too Big at Troutbitten.

We mend to prevent tension on the dry fly or the indicator. All flies could drift drag free in the current if not for tension from the attached leader. So it’s our job to eliminate or at least limit that tension on the tippet and to the fly.

This Hop Mend is an arch. It's a steep and quick half-oval. It’s a fast motion up, over and down with the fly rod. It’s powerful and swift, but not overdone . . .

Continue reading The Hop Mend (with VIDEO) at Troutbitten.

When it’s the best tool for the job, then putting an indy on a tight line rig is a deadly variation to a contact nymphing system. I build my leader to be ready for it. The rod I carry is designed for it. Because tight line to the indicator is a problem solving approach that gets the job done when pure tight lining simply cannot . . .

Continue reading Podcast Ep 12: Nymphing Tight Line to the Indicator Style — Contact Nymphing Principles with an Indy at Troutbitten.

Don't be a bobber lobber. Bobbers are an amazing tool in certain situations. But learn to cast it with turnover first. Avoid the lob.

Instead of using the bobber as a shortcut to getting the line out there, first learn a good casting stroke — with speed, crisp stops and turnover. Then, attach the bobber and see the supreme advantage gained when the fly hits first and the bobber comes in downstream, with the fly and indy both in the same current seam. Oh, hello dead drift. Nice to see you . . .

Continue reading How the Bobber Hurts a Fly Fisher at Troutbitten.

After the nymph falls into position, we want it to spend some time there. But if we constantly set at the end of the fall, the nymph never has the chance to drift, and the trout don’t get an opportunity to eat on anything but the drop.

A good drift should follow the drop. The free fall and the drift are a successful pair. And they work best together . . .

Continue reading Nymphing — Free Fall and the Drift at Troutbitten.

Smith and I found ourselves on another late December, post-Christmas fishing trip. But Smith was fishing and coming up empty, while I was catching trout . . .

. . . “Alright, Dom. What the hell are you doing?” he demanded boldly. Smith takes pride in finding his own path and solving his own puzzles. But like every good angler I know, he’s humble enough to ask the right questions at the right times . . .

The predictability of the winter egg bite can be excellent — if you’re nymphing skills are tuned up. It also takes some extra refinement . . .

. . . So here's what I told Smith . . .

Continue reading Fly Fishing in the Winter — Egg Tips at Troutbitten.

The biggest misconception in nymphing is that our flies should bump along the bottom. Get it down where the trout are, they say. Bounce the nymph along the riverbed, because that’s the only way to catch trout. We’re told to feel the nymph tick, tick, tick across the rocks, and then set the hook when a trout eats. With apologies to all who have uttered these sentiments and given them useless ink, that is pure bullshit.

Here's how and why to avoid the bottom, fish more effectively and catch more trout with a top down approach . . .

Continue reading Nymphing: The Top Down Approach at Troutbitten.

. . . Think of it like this: Tight line anglers should stick the landing at the end of the cast. Only the line that must enter the water should go under, while everything else remains above the surface and in the air. The leader should be tight, from the water’s surface to the rod tip, in a leading angle almost immediately. Stick the landing! Learn what angle the sighter eventually takes through the drift, and that’s the angle you should start with . . .

Continue reading Stick the Landing While Tight Lining at Troutbitten.

The best nymphing leaders incorporate a key principle -- limit the diameters of leader material under the surface. But sometimes, two is better than one.

Here's how and why it's done . . .

Continue reading Nymphing: A two diameter solution to a one diameter problem at Troutbitten.