How Do You Know When a Trout Has Taken Your Nymph
Marker Bachmann photograph
SOMETIMES KNOWING what not to do can exist more than of import than knowing what you should practice. Over the years I've made my share of mistakes and seen others fail at nymph fishing only because of a few simple missteps. Beneath are five simple no-no's that if avoided I believe volition profoundly improve your nymph line-fishing success.
#1: Don't be afraid to use modest nymph patterns!
For some reason well-nigh wing fishers pay close attention to the size of their patterns when line-fishing dry out flies, but routinely take hold of the largest wing in their wing box when selecting a nymph pattern. It'southward difficult not to. Even after years and years of experience to the contrary, I still have to strength myself to select a size sixteen or eighteen nymph instead of a size ten or 12. It simply seems to make sense that a trout volition one, see a larger nymph easier than a small one, and ii, notice a larger morsel of food much more enticing than a small morsel. I hateful who picks the smallest piece of cake on the dessert tray?
Ah, simply trout, if nothing else, are creatures of habit, and when it comes to the size of natural nymphs floating by them, small and smaller is the rule, not the exception. As a result trout run across way more small nymphs than large ones, and thus are in the habit of taking tiny morsels of food.
Trout also feed selectively when a specific food item is abundant. We know that's truthful when fishing dry flies because we meet the refusals when our flies are merely a little too big. Well, the same selectivity occurs when trout focus their feeding on a really arable food drifting below the surface. Their refusals of our oversized nymphs, all the same, go unnoticed and we have no thought our fly has been rejected.
While the large stonefly nymph looks tasty to usa, the small size 18 mayfly nymph
in the middle bottom row is more often what trout are looking for. Rick Hafele photo
If you don't think small nymphs outnumber big ones, I encourage you to take a few minutes and collect a skilful sample of nymphs out of a riffle in your favorite trout stream. Put what you collect in a white plastic tray with half an inch of water and look closely at how many different types of nymphs are present. Then expect closely at the size of the most numerous ones. Now take one of your favorite nymph patterns for that natural and place information technology in the tray side by side to the real thing. I'll bet dollars to donuts your fly is significantly larger than the natural.
The above stomach contents show that this well-fed trout had eyes only for little bluish-winged olive nymphs (size eighteen) and small Mother's day caddis pupae (size 16). Dave Hughes photo
I have found over and over once again that using nymph patterns that match the size of the ascendant natural nymphs present, even if that means using a size xviii or 20 nymph imitation, greatly improves my nymph line-fishing success.
Bottom line: Make sure your nymph selection includes patterns in sizes xvi and smaller, and so USE THEM .
#2: Avoid "Rootitis"
Rootitisis one of the most mutual afflictions of beginning nymph fishers, and it will seriously limit your success. How do you know if you lot have rootitis? If you lot discover yourself parked in one spot line-fishing nymphs for xxx, 20, or fifty-fifty ten minutes without getting a strike and not moving, you have rootitis.
Looking at the insect life in a stream will proceed y'all from fishing for a while, but information technology usually proves to be time very well spent. Rick Hafele photo
Rootitis occurs considering the water you're line-fishing looks actually fishy, and maybe you lot have even taken expert fish at that place before. But one of the secrets to better nymph fishing is making sure your fly gets in front end of more fish. Because you tin't see exactly where the fish are at —at least not typically—y'all need to carefully cover a piece of water and and so motility to some other piece. That could exist taking just a few steps upstream, or lengthening your cast a few feet to drift your fly in unlike water, or walking upstream or downstream some distance.
In that location are no rules about how long is too long. For myself after vi to eight good drifts of my nymph through a specific current seam or property lie without a strike, I pick another prevarication to cover with another six to eight casts. By roofing water then moving y'all are increasing the chances of your fly passing virtually a fish. Always keep looking for the next fishy spot to cover with you lot nymphs, and thus avoid rootitis.
#3: Change patterns that aren't working
This problem is sort of similar rootitis in that you are continuing to do something that isn't working. With rootitis you are continuing to fish the same water. In this case you are standing to utilize the same fly pattern.
We all have favorite flies, go-to patterns, that we put on when nosotros don't have a practiced reason to choose something specific. These patterns have proven themselves constructive time and once again, and we fish them with confidence. Merely don't permit the habit of choosing sure flies become a rut. No matter how expert a particularly wing pattern might exist or how much confidence you have in it, there will be times fish just won't take it.
One time yous take a good collection of naturals in a tray of water, drop your nymph patterns into the water next to them. You'll likely be shocked at how much larger your patterns are than the naturals. Rick Hafele photo
Like rootitis there are no difficult rules near how long yous should fish a fly earlier changing patterns. I've had some wing fishers tell me that if they haven't had a strike in ten minutes they change flies. I generally stick with a pattern longer than that. Simply if you lot haven't had whatsoever success after an hour's fourth dimension, it'due south time for a change. That's when I recommend you put your rod down and spend 20 or 30 minutes looking around and in the stream for clues about what fish might exist seeing and eating.
Pick up some rocks in a riffle and encounter what nymphs are crawling around and shake some streamside trees or shrubs to see what adult insects fly out. The time spent looking will aid a great bargain in deciding exactly what that next fly design should be and give y'all confidence in it when you tie it on. This likewise gives you a take chances to see the naturals up close so you can check their size, and thus avoid no-no #1.
#4: Become your nymphs to the lesser
Skip and Dave both mention the need to fish nymphs deep, which ways near the bottom whether you are fishing in water two feet deep or ten. I want to emphasize this fifty-fifty more by saying: If your nymph isn't hanging upwards on or bumping the bottom at least in one case every five or half-dozen casts, you lot are not angling deep enough and demand to add more weight to your leader. I don't mean that you should lose a fly every five or six casts, just you should exist feeling your fly hitting the bottom. Occasionally it will go snagged, and some snags will result in a lost fly. If you lot desire to improve you nymph fishing all the same, equally they say, get use to it!
More than once I've fished a section of stream with nymphs without hardly a strike, and and then re-fished the same water later adding one or two more carve up shot to my rig. The increased success after adding the carve up shot was surprising. The aforementioned water that produced zip fish suddenly produced a half dozen. Remember, xc per centum of the time when fish aren't feeding in or near the surface, get your nymphs to the bottom.
A natural nymph and its imitation. Rick Hafele photo
#five: Fish nymphs with as little line as possible
One of the chief challenges of nymph fishing is detecting a strike and and so setting the hook before the fish spits out your fly. All successful nymph fishing tactics maximize these two factors. No thing what tactic y'all are using, you will be more effective at detecting a strike and hooking fish if yous shorten the corporeality of line you have on the h2o.
Strike indicators have gained acceptance and popularity considering they make detecting strikes much easier. None-the-less it is much easier to meet your indicator, and know when a fish has wiggled it, if it is ten feet away instead of thirty. When nymphing without an indicator, loftier sticking or Czech nymphing for example, yous are relying on feel to detect strikes. In this case it is even more important to accept as lilliputian line equally possible on the water. With Czech nymphing there is no wing line on the water.
Once you lot see or feel a fish strike, a short line will as well greatly increment the number of those fish you lot actually claw. For every foot of additional line you lot have out beyond your rod tip you are increasing the lag time between seeing or feeling a strike and pulling the fly tight in the fishes mouth once yous react. I've watched fish from underwater (a wetsuit, mask and snorkel are great learning tools) suck in an angler's nymph and spit it out so fast I wasn't certain I saw information technology. Afterwards watching the speed at which a trout tin spit out a fly, I'm convinced that even the best nymph fisher misses many, many fish.
With nymph line-fishing you need to practice everything you can to increase your odds of hooking fish. Fishing a brusque line is one of the best and easiest ways to do it. By short I mean a bandage of xv feet or less and ideally less than ten anxiety. Sometimes to reach the water you lot want to fish you'll accept to cast further, but if you focus on fishing nymphs with short casts yous'll run into your success ameliorate significantly.
If you lot avoid these five no-no'south, I'm confident y'all'll meet your nymph fishing success improve.
Good luck and Happy Casts!
From the June/July 2011 consequence ofHookedNow, the new online east-zine by Dave Hughes, Rick Hafele, and Skip Morris. For more information and a gratis issue go to hookednow.com.
Source: https://midcurrent.com/techniques/fly-fishing-nymphs-nymphing-no-nos/
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