** This Troutbitten article was originally published to Hatch magazine. ** Floating a couple of nymphs under an indicator is undeniably effective. In the right place and with the right conditions, flies under an indicator will outperform a tight line presentation all...
Mending is a skill unique to fly fishing. And good mending seems to elude all but the best anglers. Bad mending is hard to watch, because it does more harm than good — actually introducing drag and hurting the natural drift of a fly. But skillful mending extends...
The Troutbitten Podcast, Episode 12, is now available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts. ** Note ** The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below. In Episode 12, my friends and I talk about nymphing tactics — specifically, how we...
Let me start with this: I use bobbers on a regular basis. They’re a wonderful tool in certain nymphing situations, and I would never be without them. There’s no pretense here at Troutbitten. I use whatever rigs, flies and methods get the job done. For me, it’s about...
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 . . .
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 . . .
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 . . .
. . . 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 . . .
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 . . .
It’s the effectiveness of a nymphing rig and the excitement of a dry fly rig, with boosted catch rates.
In this four part series covering dry dropper styles, I’ve saved the best for last.
I prefer methods that lend excellent control to the angler. And tight line rigs, with direct contact as the primary feature, are built for just that. Add a dry fly to the rig and tight line dry dropper is the best of all possible worlds . . .