One of the things I enjoy most about Troutbitten is the questions and ideas I receive from anglers. Fielding questions every day keeps me in touch with what makes fishermen curious. And hearing new ideas keeps me current. So I’m constantly adding to my backlog of...
** NOTE ** This Troutbitten article relies and builds upon many articles that have come before it. Find and follow the article links below as they appear in orange. They are significant chapters of knowledge that precede this one. -- -- -- -- -- -- All fishing casts...
Beads are the best. We can summon endless theories for why, but trout love eating bright, metal beads. Gold, copper or silver, even painted and faceted beads have made their way into our fly boxes. No doubt there’s a time for flies without bead heads, but oh my,...
Most of the die-hard locals in this region are nymph-first fishermen. We fish all year, but the opportunities for good dry fly fishing are a small percentage of our time on the water. So, we learn nymphs and catch fish. Because a nymphing approach produces, everywhere...
Using the riverbed as a reference is the most common way to know about the unseen nymph below. Get the fly down. Tick the riverbed. Touch and lift. This time-honored strategy is used across fishing styles for just about every species I’ve ever cast to. Find the bottom, and find fish. Better yet, find the bottom and know where the fly is.
But how do we tell the difference between ticking the bottom and a trout strike? My friend, Smith, calls it the tap and the take . . .
After hundreds of Troutbitten articles featuring the versatility of the Mono Rig, now there’s a podcast. My friends Josh, Austin, Trevor and Bill join me to discuss how each of us fishes this hybrid rig as a complete fly fishing system, detailing the ultimate flexibility of this amazing tool.
The Troutbitten Mono Rig is a hybrid system for fishing all types of flies: nymphs (both tight line and indicator styles), streamers, dry-dropper, wets, and small dry flies. With twenty pound monofilament as a fly line substitute, better contact, control and strike detection are gained with the Mono Rig versus a traditional fly line approach. And yet, the casting here is still a fly line style cast. Ironically, it takes excellent fly casting skills to efficiently throw a Mono Rig.
A simple piece of Dacron, tied in a barrel, is a visible and sensitive addition to your tight line and euro nymphing rig. The versatile Backing Barrel serves as a stand-alone sighter, especially when tied with a one-inch tag. Better yet, it draws your eyes to the colored monofilament of any sighter and enhances visibility threefold. The Backing Barrel adds a third dimension of strike detection, with the Dacron flag just stiff enough to stand away from the line, but just soft enough to twitch upon even the most subtle takes . . .
Choosing a fly rod that’s perfect for the Mono Rig and euro nymphing starts with knowing your goals. How versatile do you want to be?
From the best all-around fly rod that’s ready to handle nymphs, streamers and more on a long leader, to specialized euro nymphing rods and dedicated streamer rods, here are my favorite tools for fishing the Mono Rig . . .
The next time your beautiful dead drifts are ignored in the strike zone, consider getting dirtier. Sure, you’ll stick some rocks and tree parts down there. You’ll lose more flies and waste more time retrieving snags. But you may quickly find more trout in the net too. Live on the bottom for a while, and see what happens . . .
I’ve received countless questions about my thoughts regarding euro lines and mono rigs. And while this is also one of the most common questions I’ve fielded through the years, it has a complex answer that I’ve never tackled in an article. So let’s fix that.
Here are my thoughts on euro nymphing lines vs a Mono Rig. These views address all seasons, all distances and many variations . . .