Articles in the Category Nymphing

Fish and Film — Tight Line Nymphing and Tight Line to the Indicator (VIDEO)

This third installment of the Fish and Film series highlights the technical aspects of good, adaptive nymphing. It’s a look at a full morning of fishing riffles, runs and flats, while making the necessary and natural changes to find fish.

There are many adjustments along the way. And I comfortably switch between pure tight line tactics and tight line to the indicator style, along with weight adjustments, using both beadhead flies and additional split shot . . .

Troutbitten Shop Summer Sale ’24 — All Leaders, Hats, Stickers and Two New Leader Designs

The Troutbitten Shop Summer Sale ’24 is here, with all leaders, hats and stickers back in stock, along with two new leader designs.

VIDEO: Mono Rig Mods — All the Adjustment for a Versatile, Hybrid System

My friends and I don’t go fishing with our mind set on a certain tactic. We let the trout make those decisions, and we’re ready for anything. The Troutbitten Standard Mono Rig is the perfect tool for such an approach.

. . . It’s a versatile tool. It’s a hybrid system. And to maximize those options, simple adjustments are necessary. This video shows those adjustments in detail . . .

Q&A: How does weight choice change with tight line nymphing vs indicator?

There is no good argument for exclusively using split shot under an indicator. There’s also no good argument for exclusively using weighted flies on a tight line rig. I simply fish whatever weight suits the moment. Here’s why . . .

Beyond Euro Nymphing

May 17, 2020 | Nymphing, Tactics, The Mono Rig

Euro nymphing is an elegant, tight line solution. But don’t limit yourself. Why not use the tight line tools (leaders and tactics) for more than just euro nymphing?

Use it for fishing a tight-line style of indicators. Use it for dry dropper or even straight dries. And use it for streamers, both big and small.

Refining these tactics is the natural progression of anglers who fish hard, are thoughtful about the tactics and don’t like limitations. I know many good fly fishers who have all come out the other side with the same set of tools. Because fishing a contact system like the Mono Rig eventually teaches you all that is possible . . .

How to Easily Avoid the Mono Rig Coiling Problem

Mar 18, 2020 | Nymphing, Tactics, The Mono Rig

Monofilament fishing line tends to hold the curves of its home. Whatever spool it’s stored on, it peels off in roughly the same diameter as that housing. All monofilament has this tendency, but some brands hold their memory much more than others. This line memory — this line coiling — is a problem. But the fix is very simple . . .

Nymph Hook Inversion — And the Myth of the Jig Hook

Mar 15, 2020 | Commentary, Nymphing, Tactics, Troutbitten Fly Box

Would you believe it if I told you that jig hooks don’t change the way a nymph rides in the water? You don’t need a jig hook to invert the nymph. In fact almost all nymphs invert, especially when weighted with a bead or lead. Furthermore, nymphs built on a jig hook probably aren’t inverting the way you imagine. And how you attach the knot is much more important than the hook itself . . .

Tight Line Nymphing — Contact Can Be Felt at the Rod Tip

Mar 11, 2020 | Night Fishing, Nymphing, Tactics, The Mono Rig, Tips

. . . But Smith had also drawn out of me one thing that I’d never fully put into words before explaining it to him. Namely, that contact is felt as much as it’s seen. While tight line nymphing, I’d told Smith, an advanced angler can feel contact with the nymph on the rod tip. Essentially, you could very well fish with your eyes closed. And because Smith was skeptical, I’d suggested some after-dark tight line nymphing as a way to prove to my friend that he could feel that contact just as well as anyone . . .

Tight Line Nymphing — How Much of this is Feel?

Feb 9, 2020 | Nymphing, Tactics, The Mono Rig, Tips

Smith was still puzzled, and I suspected I was about to join him. He held up his rod, with the long Mono Rig leader, two nymphs and a sighter, and pointed to it. “But if strike detection is mostly visual, what part of this is feel?” Smith had asked a question that I’d never fully considered. Then I answered. “At the rod tip you can feel when you’re in contact with the flies . . .”

Fly Fishing in the Winter — The Secondary Nymphing Rig

Feb 18, 2019 | Nymphing, Tactics, Winter Fly Fishing | 15 Comments

Every winter our rivers go through changes, and the trout follow suit. Regardless of how much water flows between the banks, I encounter a predictable slowdown in trout response at some point. Call it a lack of trout enthusiasm. Or call it hunkering down and waiting for warmer water. However you look at it, the trout just don’t move as far to eat a fly.

For some, the solution is a streamer — to go bigger. Get the trout’s attention and add some motivation to peel itself from the river bed and move to a fly. It works — sometimes. (everything works sometimes.) But just as often you’re left with an empty net and more questions than answers. I do love fishing streamers in the winter though. I use it as a chance to build body heat, to warm up by walking and covering more water. But my standard approach is a highly targeted pair of nymphs, right in the trout’s window. Served up just right, you can almost force-feed a trout that didn’t even know he was hungry.

Quick Tips: See beyond the sighter

Feb 10, 2019 | Nymphing, Tips | 29 Comments

New to tight lining? Then staring at the bright piece of colored line is a good place to start. But as soon as you gain some skills for reading the angle and speed of the sighter, when you can quickly gauge contact with your nymphs by glancing at the sag of the sighter, then it’s time to look ahead. Get to the next level.

. . . We do everything possible to improve the visibility of the sighter section in our leaders. We leave tag ends, add backing barrels and use super-bright opaque colored material. Good anglers also learn to fish from the best angles for visibility — usually with the sun or brightest light at their backs. So it’s easy to be mesmerized by those colors. And I think most nymph fishers catch themselves staring at the sighter too often, missing all the other available signals.

. . . What are those signals? Most of them are beyond the sighter — past the last visible piece of yellow, red, orange, etc. and into the water . . .

Fly fishing the Mono Rig — Thicker leaders cast more like fly line

Jan 2, 2019 | Fly Casting, Nymphing, Tactics, The Mono Rig | 29 Comments

Thinner butt sections sag less. But the thinner they are, the more they lose that fly-line-style performance. And sometimes, that matters a great deal.

All of this is part of the the joy in being a fly fisher. There are hundreds of ways to make things work. And because every angler brings a unique set of goals and conditions, that’s why there are so many solutions . . .

Fly Fishing in the Winter — The Go-To Nymphing Rig

Dec 30, 2018 | Nymphing, Tactics, Winter Fly Fishing | 25 Comments

I walked to the familiar counter and laid a small bag of orange material among the aged fly fishing stickers covering the coffee stained wooden slab. Seated on a stool, the shop manager looked up from his magazine and over to my bag of orange fluff. Then he slowly brought his gaze up to mine. We made eye contact and he grinned until we both slowly chuckled.

“It’s all you need out there right now,” he said . . .

Nymphing: How to read a fly fishing indicator — What you might be missing

Oct 17, 2018 | Nymphing, Tactics | 17 Comments

I know, I know. You don’t like to fish with indicators, right? You think an indy removes the angler from contact with the nymphs. You believe a fly fishing indicator actually gets in the way of strike detection more than it helps the situation. Granted, there are big problems with the way most fly fishermen use indicators. And I know a lot of anglers who refuse to attach them to a leader.

But I also know many more good anglers who see the value of indicators, who reach for an indy (or a dry-dropper rig) when a tight line nymphing presentation fails, who recognize that an indicator is an amazing and useful tool that extends our effective nymphing range, balances out a drift and helps keep the flies in one current seam.

I think a lot of anglers miss the finer points of the indy game. Good indicator nymphing (or dry-dropper fishing) is not just a chuck it and chance it affair. Instead, careful attention to the indy itself, reading the water vs the position and behavior of the indicator, is a necessary skill if the tactic is to be productive.

Quick Tips — Set the hook at the end of every drift

Oct 3, 2018 | Nymphing, Tactics, Tips | 7 Comments

I watched the line, waiting for some indication of a strike and intently expecting a fish to eat the nymph. Then at the end of the drift I looked away, scanning for my next target upstream. When I lifted the line for the backcast, I was surprised to find a trout on the line. He bounced off quickly because I never got a good hookset.

That’s happened to you a hundred times too, right?

Nymphing is an art of the unseen, and no matter the material attachments we add to the line for visual aid of a strike, trout take our flies without us knowing about it — probably way more often than we can imagine.

That’s why it’s best to end every underwater drift with a hook set. Do this with nymphs and with streamers, at the end of every dead drift presentation, and you’ll find unexpected trout attached to your line. The short set also prepares the line and leader for your next backcast. Here’s how . . .