** NOTE ** This is the fifth installment of the Troutbitten Short Series covering drop shot nymphing.

Find the full series HERE.

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How is casting any different with drop shot weight vs traditional split shot placement or weighted flies? And how is the drift on a drop shot rig different on a tight line system than on a standard fly line/leader rig?

Here in part of five of this Troutbitten Short Series about Drop Shot Nymphing, it’s time to consider the cast and the drift. Our leader is built to allow light weights to fall quickly. It’s built for accuracy and refinement in the cast, so we choose not just where the fly goes, but where and how the tippet enters. In this way, we take the tight line advantage over to a drop shot system, keeping all extra line up and out of the water, slicing the necessary tippet straight through one current seam. Because of this, we can use remarkably light weight for drop shot, even in deeper, heavier water.

In truth, the casting and the drifting doesn’t change much from a standard tight line nymphing approach. We want turnover and a fly first entry. We stick the landing, recover slack, find contact with the sighter, and then watch that sighter and feel contact with the riverbed through the fly rod. After that? Yes, a few things change about the drift.

But first, let’s address a couple specifics in the cast . . .

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing (a ten part series)
PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing (a ten part series)

Casting Changes

The danger of overweighting any nymphing rig with either beaded flies or added weight to the line is that anglers tend to lob weights around instead of casting the flies. I speak to this often, because it’s the number one thing that holds nymph fishermen back from moving forward. Lobbing is limiting. But casting opens up options that are unimaginable until you see them.

READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing the Mono Rig — It’s Casting, Not Lobbing

I’ll reiterate this important point. We are not overweighting the system by much here. In fact, the weight of the drop shot that I use most often is about the same as a #10 Stonefly in my box, with a 4mm tungsten bead. But drop shotting, with the weight at the end of the line, feels more direct. It simply feels heavier in the cast.

I’ve written many articles on Troutbitten regarding casting a tight line rig, and all of them apply to drop shotting. Nothing about the cast changes, so I’ll po only emphasize the following . . .

Think of all tight line rigs as contact casting systems. Any time we add weight to a fly fishing rig, we want to feel the weight load the rod. That happens on the back cast. Feel the weight tug on the rod tip and then go forward. And it happens on the forward cast too. The weight gets to the end of the line, the rod stops and the weight tucks down in. It’s a fly first entry. More accurately, in the case of drop shot, it’s a shot first entry, with the nymphs following immediately after.

With this contact casting approach, we gain full control over whatever weight we add to the system. Without it, the angler is lost, and we are hoping rather than fishing. We are guessing rather than target shooting. Use the weight of the shot, combined with the flex of the rod, to perform the cast. Keep the casting V tight. Use speed, and learn to love the feel of that contact on the end of the fly rod.

That’s good casting.

Photo by Josh Darling

Drifting — Perfecting the Bottom Ride

I grew into nymphing through the work of Joe Humphreys. And I had enough success to buy into Hump’s mantras: “If you aren’t hanging up, you won’t catch trout. You’ve got to touch that bottom to catch trout. Snagging is part of the game.” And I added my own. “Hanging up is a good thing, because wading to release it keeps you moving on to new water.”

VIDEO: Troutbitten | How to Release a Snag the Easy Way

Joe Humphreys’ point was this: The nymphs should be low — real low. And we should slow the drift to get the flies riding at the speed of the bottom current (the strike zone). Weight was necessary for this. And Humphreys often said that he added so many split shot on the tippet that it looked like a rosary.

That’s a good line. And it stuck in my mind. If I wasn’t getting down, if I wasn’t catching trout, I added weight. And I’ll be damned — it usually produced fish.

Unfortunately, it also produced a lot of snags. Humphreys wasn’t recommending drop shot. He advocated for split shot in between two flies. I still use this rig a fair amount, but I don’t use it for a bottom ride as much as I used to. Why? It hangs up about ten times as often as drop shot.

Years later, I added a sighter to my rig, I went longer on the leader and fished a Mono Rig. I also gained an understanding of the strike zone and became obsessed with getting clean strike zone rides rather than touching bottom very much. These are still my favorite nymphing dead drifts. But some days . . . it just doesn’t work as well as touching the bottom.

READ: Troutbitten | When Drifting Low Isn’t Low Enough

Photo by Josh Darling

I now use drop shot to tick, tap and touch the bottom. To slow the nymph rig, to subtly animate the nymphs with every tick, and to gain full control over the depth and speed of my rig in any water type.

That last point is the key. With a drop shot rig, by being even slightly overweighted, we are in control. But doing the right thing with that control is a big responsibility. It takes skill and refinement to feel the bottom current, to judge the speed and guide the flies naturally downstream to simulate a dead drifted nymph.

Too much bottom contact, and the drift suffers greatly. It looks fake, because real nymphs are not down there dragging, stuttering, lifting and falling dramatically. But, with too little bottom contact, the nymphs (tied above, on the line) might ride too high, up and out of the strike zone and too high to gain the trout’s interest.

In this way, guiding an overweighted system requires more skill than drifting an underweighted system. If we use less weight, we let the river decide the course of the flies. But with this drop shot system, or with a heavier tungsten point fly, for example, we have greater contact, greater control and greater responsibility.

It’s a fun challenge.

READ: Troutbitten | Over or Under — Your Best Bet on Weight

There, but Not Quite — Okay, Right There

Gaining the bottom, feeling that contact with the riverbed and then gliding over it, tap, ta-tap, tap-a-tap, maybe five to ten times throughout the drift, is success. But I’ve noticed that anglers tend to get complacent. Tickling the bottom is only half of the job. And that’s not good enough. We still need to find the right speed for a drift and keep everything in one seam.

Again, with any overweighted system, the angler is in control, and we must make these decisions.

So experiment with rates of bottom contact. Maybe less than five times each drift wil be better — maybe more than ten. Think about what looks most natural to the trout?

Remember that every time the shot touches the bottom, the nymphs jiggle above. That can be a fantastic trigger for trout. But too much of a good thing can turn them off. Aim for something natural. Aim for gliding nymphs. Practice by getting a few drifts that never touch. And then get lower. Experiment and find your way of using the riverbed and the drop shot to slow the drift and give the trout a convincing look on the flies.

And, as always, focus on keeping everything in one seam. All good nymphing starts and ends here. It’s a rare day when trout are willing to chase a nymph that is dragging across seams. They don’t eat dry flies presented that way very much, and their response on a dragging nymph is usually the same — refusal. Hold your seam. And only deviate from that baseline if the trout say no.

Final Thoughts

Remember, this is a finesse drop shot system. Yes, we are overweighted, but not a lot — not all the time.

So try to do more with less weight, and do not rely on the weight to get you down. Cast with the purpose of dropping the flies quickly and learn to let the nymphs and the weight fall efficiently.

READ: Troutbitten | Six Ways to Get Your Fly Deeper

Drop shotting puts the angler in ultimate control. Be aware of every element of the drift, and make good choices, because all of them are yours. Control is the advantage of a drop shot rig. Remember this always — your rod tip controls everything.

Fish hard, friends.

Next up in this Troutbitten Short Series on Drop Shot Nymphing, Part 6: Mysteries and Misunderstandings. 

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Enjoy the day
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com