There is no more effective way to catch a trout on a fly than with a nymph imitation. And nothing will increase your catch rate faster than mastering the basics of nymph fishing. Happily, the rudiments are the easiest techniques in fly fishing to grasp. No particular casting skills are required — just lob the fly upstream and watch the indicator as it drifts back toward you.
Yet to become truly proficient at nymphing — that’s another thing altogether. That is to enter the realm of the 10 percent, those individuals who consistently catch fish each time they go out. They have realized that nymph fishing is a subtle art — captivating, demanding, an act of faith. It’s one of the opportunities for hope that fly fishing regularly provides. To master the art requires positioning your fly at the right depth and in the right lane and detecting, by the slightest movement of the line at the surface, the moment when the trout takes the nymph into its mouth.
That sounds daunting, perhaps, but nymphing results in so many more fish and bigger fish than dry-fly fishing that mastering the skill is a critical part of becoming a complete angler, and the subtle pleasures that it brings make it a very satisfactory pursuit.
Reading the Water
Learning to present a fly in a natural manner at various levels in the water column and to detect the moment that the trout takes the fly involves a simple set of skills. The process starts with learning to recognize the most likely holding areas.
Beginning nymph fishers often wonder where to start. With no rising fish to target, you have to develop the ability to “see” the likeliest places for a trout to hold from the way the water’s surface flows. The easiest way to visualize this is the concept of the “chow line.” But this isn’t like the line in your school cafeteria, where you waited to shuffle past the food. Like diners in a trendy sushi bar where offerings circulate on a conveyor belt, the trout have it much better than you did — their chow line brings their food to them.
That’s what the current does. Draw an imaginary line along the center of the main current in the water you are about to fish. This line carries the greatest concentration of food, and most trout will spend their time tucked up against it. The majority of what a trout eats is taken below the surface. A trout’s life literally depends on taking in more energy than it expends in getting food. In moving water, a trout cannot afford to travel far for a meal, so the ideal nymph presentation asks the trout only to open its mouth to take your fly. Where the current flows around rocks and other things that offer some relief from the current and safety from danger, a trout will find its happy place. The three essentials for a trout’s happy place are a steady food supply, relief from the current, and safety from danger. Anywhere that combines these three elements will usually hold trout. The biggest trout will take the best places.
A trout will swim out of its happy place, pick a delicious nymph out of the water column, and return to shelter and current relief. In your fishing, target the edges of eddies, where upstream and downstream currents meet. Look for deep water adjacent to the main current, the edges of weed beds, and ledges and steep banks along the sides of the stream. Pay attention to pockets created by boulders, both upstream and downstream of the boulders. Deeper water and depressions in gravel bottoms offer shelter and relief from the current.
When you are able to recognize the places in a stream most likely to hold fish, you can focus your efforts on those productive spots. As you fish, work on developing your pattern-recognition skills. Take a moment after each fish you release to look at the exact spot in the stream where you hooked that fish, noting the depth, current speed, and any other characteristics. As you continue to fish, look for similar water and fish it carefully. You will find it holds fish, as well.
Tackle, Tools, and Techniques
An ideal nymphing rig begins with a 9-foot rod and a floating line — 5-weight to 6-weight outfits are typical. The long rod provides a good lever for casting weighted flies and leaders and offers a long reach for line control. Add a 7-1/2-foot leader tapered to 4X or 5X, spools of 4X, 5X, and 6X tippet, various sizes of split shot (I prefer the removable type), some sort of strike indicator, and polarized glasses.
Another critical tool is a wading staff. The staff allows you to get into just the right position to make the best presentation. Once you’re in that position, you need enough weight on the leader to get the nymph to where the fish are feeding and keep it there through the drift. Generally that means down near the bottom, where there is some relief from the heavy current and most of the food is found. How much weight is the right amount? One BB less than will hang up on the bottom with every drift.
There are the three basic nymphing techniques that will allow you to fish at any distance or in any depth you might encounter in a trout stream, from a shallow riffle close at hand to a deep run on the other side of the river. They are known as short-line nymphing (sometimes called high-sticking), in-line indicator nymphing, and puffball nymphing. Whichever one you employ, pay close attention to your target when you cast. Accomplished nymph fishers understand that real success is measured in inches. Place your casts accurately and thoughtfully, in exact spots, rather than in general areas.
Plan your approach, casting to the close water first, gradually working up through the fishy water in a progressive and methodical fashion. Casting up into the best spot first might get you a fish, but you risk of spooking all the fish holding in the water just downstream.
Wherever you cast, remember that you need enough current to keep your fly, leader, and indicator moving. Otherwise, you will be unable to detect the take. No movement means no chance of detecting the take.
Short-Line Nymphing
Short-line nymphing is the basic nymphing technique and the one most often used when fishing riffles or pocket water, up to about 10 or 15 feet from your rod tip. The short-line approach is best suited for situations where you can approach fish closely, such as pocket water, riffles, and small streams. Think of it as a four-step process. I like to call it “the four Ls”: Look, Lob, Lift, and Lead.
Begin by positioning yourself slightly below and across from the most fishy spot. Face across the current and slightly upstream. Strip the leader and no more than a couple of feet of fly line out of the rod tip. Shake that line out downstream and point your rod at a 45-degree angle downstream. The current will pull your line straight out below you, loading your rod. Secure the line under your index finger against the grip, just after it comes off the reel. Essentially, you will be fishing one-handed.
Look at your target — the exact place you want your fly to land. Lob your fly into that spot by raising your rod in an arcing cast upstream. Stop the rod tip high. The weight and the fly will flip over the tip of your rod and hit the water vertically, plunging quickly down through the water column. Lift the extra line and leader off the water with your rod tip and gently establish a long, shallow curve in the leader coming up out of the water from your fly and weight to your rod tip. Lead this curve downstream by holding your rod horizontal, parallel to the water, and rotating your upper body from the waist. Keep your rod steady and the leader curve constant. Lead the line downstream until the fly has passed below your position, watching for any movement in the leader that suggests a take. Strip in and repeat, fishing one-foot-wide lanes one after the other until you have covered all the fishy water at hand. Then move upstream and do it again.
A dead-drift presentation and the need for strike detection would seem to contradict each other. Your fly must appear to drift naturally, but the line must be tight enough to the fly to detect the movement of the fly. In fact, it is a very delicate balance. Use your free hand to strip line in behind your index finger, keeping excess line off the water. You always want the least amount of line possible on the water to minimize drag. By keeping much of the line off the water and leading your line and leader downstream, you can come close to a drag-free drift.
Drift your fly through all the likely seams, slots, and pockets, paying particular attention to the depth. Avoid false casts. If you can learn to cast and fish a nymph with either arm, so much the better. You always get the longest and most efficient drift using your downstream arm. Remember that the first drift always has the highest probability of success, so be completely prepared before you make that first cast.
It is critical to remember that this is a visual fishing technique. Watch your leader or your indicator and react to its movement. If you wait to feel the fish, you will be disappointed. It’s an acquired skill, and each time you do it you’ll get better.
Here is what’s happening beneath the surface. The trout spots your nymph. Lacking fingers, it swims out and takes the nymph into its mouth and bites down on it. Then it spits it out. This process takes a second or two — not long, but long enough, if you are paying attention. Whenever you see the leader or line pause, twitch, or do anything other than move smoothly with the current, set the hook by a quick downstream flick of your rod. Easy does it — all you have to do is move the hook point half an inch.
You can often improve strike detection by adding some sort of a visual indicator to your leader. Just be aware that anything you add to the leader creates opportunities for drag — the unnatural movement of the fly in the water. The most drag-free system is simply to fish straight monofilament and watch your leader closely. The next step is to add a one-to-two-foot section of brightly-colored monofilament where the leader joins the fly line. My own favorite indicator for short-line nymphing is a thin coating of orange or yellow strike putty rolled onto the leader just above the knot connecting the leader to the tippet and another about four feet up the leader toward the fly line. The putty need hardly be fatter than the monofilament and only an inch long. It is virtually drag-free. When the two pieces of putty are in a straight line pointing upstream, the leader is likely aligned with the fly and the weight. The leader curves smoothly up from the weight to the rod tip. Even if your fly is heavily weighted, you may need to add split shot above the fly to keep it near the bottom. Pinch it on 10 to 15 inches above the fly. If the distance between the fly and the weight is much greater than this, the current can raise the fly off the bottom and out of the feeding zone of the fish.
In-line Indicator Nymphing
The short-line technique works well on waters where you can wade close and can fish nearly under your rod tip. When you need to fish farther away, it’s time to add a bigger indicator to your leader.
To fish the far side of a deep, fast run, a pocket against a far bank, or a seam 20 or more feet from where you are standing, or when the fish are too spooky to allow a short-line approach, a buoyant strike indicator tied into the leader allows a sensitive drift with minimal drag. I say “minimal drag” because it’s unrealistic to think drag can be eliminated entirely. The current on the surface of a stream or river is always faster than the deeper water, sometimes much faster, as in the case of a rocky river such as the Pit or the upper Sacramento. The result is that the indicator drags the fly downstream. Trout don’t like that. They’re looking for a dead-drifted nymph, the one that appears natural and at the mercy of the currents. So the idea is at least to try to minimize drag.
Nothing floats higher and drags less than a well-greased yarn indicator. You can trim it to whatever size the fishing situation requires, from tiny to enormous. I prefer to make up my own indicators with a bit of poly yarn, scissors, and paste floatant. Yarn is easy to see, easy to adjust, and causes minimal drag. My yarn indicator kit includes a couple of feet of polypropylene macramé yarn, a pair of compact folding scissors, and a small comb. For fast water, a clump of yarn about the size of a pencil eraser works well.
Over the years, I’ve tried many approaches to attaching the indicator to the leader. The simplest is just an Overhand Knot in the leader. The only drawback is the kink that it puts in the leader and the chance that you will cast the indicator off the leader. For awhile, I used tiny dental rubber bands to create a loop and then snugged them up against the indicator. It’s a satisfactory method, but recently, I’ve discovered the system using small plastic sleeves that’s called the New Zealand Strike Indicator. It’s the best thing yet. It adjusts easily and locks the indicator in place without damaging the leader. The indicator can be added and removed in seconds. Now there is no excuse for using anything but yarn (or wool, if you’re into the full Kiwi mode).
Set the indicator at about at one and a half times the depth of the water you are fishing. Position yourself opposite the water you intend to fish. Lob your fly into the water at the head of the target zone so it hits the water as vertically as possible. When your indicator hits the water, the faster current on the surface will immediately pull your indicator downstream of your weight and fly. Although this prevents you from getting a truly drag-free drift, it has a positive effect, as well, because it aligns your leader, weight, and fly, eliminating slack from your presentation and making a good hook set possible. Move your rod downstream at the rate your indicator is drifting, keeping a tight line to your indicator — just shy of dragging it.
As the water depth and speed change, adjust the weight and the distance between the indicator and the fly to keep the fly drifting near the bottom. If you find yourself fishing a spot that looks ideal, but you’re not getting takes, before you change flies, try adding weight to make sure the fly is near the bottom. Presentation is more important than imitation. The wrong fly presented well and at the right depth will catch many more trout than the right fly presented poorly.
Puffball Nymphing
With the short-line and the in-line indicator techniques of presentation, it is possible to fish pocket water, riffles, and runs up to about four or five feet deep. Beyond that depth, in the deepest pools and runs or in water so clear that you can’t wade close, the puffball style of nymphing excels.
“Puffball” is simply a name for a large indicator of macramé yarn. The guiding principle of puffball nymphing is to fish it as completely free of drag as possible. The puffball suspends the fly and the added weight at whatever depth you set, typically just above the bottom.
Instead of fixing the indicator in line on a tapered leader, tie a long length of tippet to the end of your leader, equal to or greater than the deepest water you expect to fish. Attach the puffball to this tippet using one of the methods I described for yarn indicators, a bit short of the maximum depth. The fly and weight will hang at 90 degrees on the thin tippet. You need fewer split shot with this rig, because small-diameter tippet sinks quickly. You may wish to concentrate solely on roll casting when fishing with puff balls. In any event, take care to throw open loops. The long leader and tippet, the big yarn indicator, and the weight have wildly differing velocities, an invitation to tangles. Don’t forget the three-minute rule: if the tangle will take longer than three minutes to unravel, it may be faster to cut off the fly and weight and rerig. The first couple of tangles will encourage you to pay close attention to your casting technique. If it weren’t so effective, this system might be more trouble than it’s worth, but I know of no nymphing technique that works so well in deep pools and runs. It more than repays the time invested, often with the biggest fish.
To fish the puffball setup, start within easy casting distance of the fishiest part of the pool, facing directly across or slightly upstream. Point your rod tip downstream and feed line out until you have enough for your first cast hanging down below you in the current. Smoothly and quickly raise your rod to vertical to lift the fly and weight up in the water column. The friction between the water and the line and weight will load your rod as you do this. Continue right into the forward cast and then stop your rod tip high. The puffball, weight, and flies will arc over the rod tip and drop down to penetrate the water column. Immediately raise your rod tip to vertical and execute a tight, fast roll cast, flipping a small loop of line at your indicator. This “stack mend” flips your indicator upstream and takes the pressure off your tippet, allowing the weight and fly to sink completely toward the bottom. Continue making stack mends throughout the drift so the indicator floats in a natural manner. Plan your mends so you’re not moving the line or the fly at the fishiest spots. You can mend several times during a single drift, and you can continue the drift downstream as far as you wish by stripping line from the reel and shaking it out the tip of the rod. At the end of a drift, strip line in until you have a manageable amount to recast. Slowly raise your rod to vertical to lift the weight off the bottom and cast as you did before.
Casting with Split Shot
BBs and weighted flies do not lend themselves to snappy dry-fly casts. Slow your entire casting stroke down, holding your rod several degrees off vertical. Your rod tip should follow an oval shape to keep the casting loop open and to keep the weight from tangling the leader or hitting the rod tip on the forward cast. You should feel the weight of the fly and BBs for the full casting stroke. Stop the rod tip high on the forward stroke so the fly and weight arcs over the rod tip, plunging down into the water vertically.
Successful Nymphing
Successful nymphing comes from the subtle combination of presentation and reading the water. The more you study the water’s surface, its seams and eddies and changes in depth, and the more precisely you place your fly in the fishiest spots, the greater will be both your success and your enjoyment.
