** NOTE ** This is the fifth installment of the Troutbitten Short Series covering drop shot nymphing. Find the full series HERE. -- -- -- -- -- -- How is casting any different with drop shot weight vs traditional split shot placement or weighted flies? And how is the...
** NOTE ** This is the fourth installment of the Troutbitten Short Series covering Drop Shot Nymphing. Find the full series HERE. -- -- -- -- -- -- There’s nothing new about drop shotting. Placing the weight at the bottom of the rig is very common in all forms of...
** NOTE ** This is the third installment of the Troutbitten Short Series covering Drop Shot Nymphing. Find the full series HERE. -- -- -- -- -- -- I’ve often described adding weight as the original sin of fly fishing. As soon as we add weight to the system, things...
** NOTE ** This is the second installment of the Troutbitten Short Series covering Drop Shot Nymphing. Find the full series HERE. -- -- -- -- -- -- Contact lies at the heart of tight line tactics. The ability to be in touch with our flies at any moment is what makes...
We overweight to lead the flies, and we underweight to track them. But to guide the flies, we must find the middle ground, with enough weight to control the flies against the effects of the current but not so much that the flies cannot be permitted to drift at the will of that same current.
This may sound like a bit of hocus pocus. But in truth, it’s an intuitive process that becomes natural with trial and error . . .
Locate the strike zone, and unlock the mysteries of what’s happening underneath. Know where your nymph is, and stop guessing.
This is everything . . .
Nervous sighters and the line dip. Learn to better read the sighter for contact, then back off. But remember, until you are in touch, you can’t reliably and purposefully slip out of touch . . .
We can recover slack in three ways: by stripping, by raising the rod tip and by leading the rod tip downstream. And while these are basic skills, the heart of advanced nymphing is in the critical ability to recover slack in all three ways . . .
Troutbitten leaders are back in the Shop. There are some unique features to Troutbitten leaders that make a big difference. These are hand tied leaders in four varieties: Harvey Dry Leader, Standard Mono Rig, Thin Mono Rig, and Micro-Thin Mono Rig. Standard Sighters are also available, and they include a Backing Barrel. The Full Mono Rig Kit contains each of the three Mono Rig leaders, three foam spools and a twenty-inch Rio Bi-Color extension.
All Troutbitten leaders come on a three-inch spool, making long leader changes a breeze . . .
The goal is to stick the landing on the sighter — to end in the final position perfectly, rather than struggling to find it after the landing. The best anglers learn to adjust the amount of slack — and therefore, time to contact — within the cast. That’s the art of a good tuck cast. So we tuck and then stick the landing on the sighter at an angle and depth where we expect to catch that contact . . .