#46 Fly Fish with a Nymph

Fly Fish with a Nymph is not a Dirty Word!

We have covered quite a bit of information so far, if you are just learning to fly fish, or even if you have some experience and might be a little rusty or unsure of things, this article might be helpful "Fly Fish with a Nymph" is our topic today.

 I will talk about nymphing and how to understand what we are talking about when people talk about nymph when it comes to fly fishing.

You may have already read from other sources that a Trout can spend up to 90% of their time feeding underwater, on sub-surface food items. These food items can be insect larva, or aquatic worms to small bait fish,  crawfish, or even Snails. But what does all of this mean to the fly fisherman?

This is what we will focus on for the next few minutes. When I first began fly fishing a hundred years ago I would simply go to the sport shop and buy the flies that my local shop told me to buy. I never took time to actually learn about nymphs and understand how to use them. It was later in my fishing career that I really learned what it meant to nymph fish.

typical Nymph designs

What is a Nymph?

A nymph is simply an aquatic form of an insect that spends most of its life cycle under the surface of the water. These insects can live in rivers, lakes, or even stagnate puddles of water. I wont bore you with all of the Entomology lessons that come along with nymphing, but we will talk about what to use, and how to figure it out for yourself.

On the water:

Ok you’re out on the water and you need to decide which fly you are going to use. So far you have watched Youtube videos and read articles, but still may not have any idea how to begin. You have a few choices, you can just rely on the local shop and hope they guide you in the right direction, or you can read on-line information about the water from on-line sources, or you can be a pathfinder and learn how to pick your own ammunition.

How to pick the fly:

What I like to do if I’m on new waters is I will reach into the water and grab a rock or a handful of weeds, or something that aquatic insects live on, and take a closer look. If you look into a handful of weeds you can actually see some of the small insects that inhabit the local vegetation. Upon inspection of the weeds, you might see small insects, that will be trying to escape your grasp, but look harder and pay attention to the shape, size and color of the bugs. If you get a good look at a bug, or better yet, get it onto your palm so you can get a closer look, then you might be able to even open up your fly box and see if you have anything that will closely match what’s in your palm.

If you cant find a bug that is exact, try to find one that is close and see if you can get a fish to party with you. The thing you will learn by taking a few minutes to look at the bugs is next time you are in the shop you can choose your flies for the next time you go back to the water. After a few of these types of outings you will start to build a collection of nymphs, so next time you look into the water, you might have just the right choice of fly.

Real Nymph and it's imitations

 One more way you can do it:

As I write this I can already hear the controversy about what I’m going to say, and that is you can always use a stomach pump to help choose which flies to use.!!!!(ugh)… People have been using stomach pumps for awhile and either you do, or you don’t, but it’s your decision, just be kind to the fish.

A pump is nothing more than a small plastic tube with a small squeeze bulb on the end of it. To use it correctly you first must catch a fish, sometimes you get lucky and will get the village idiot. Now that you have one, keep it in the net and gently hold the fish, next thing is to get a small amount of water into the squeeze bulb. Now “GENTLY, GENTLY’ insert the tube into the mouth of the fish, and gently push the tube into the stomach. Once in the stomach give a slow squeeze to release the water, and then GENTLY suction the water back out. Now you can revive and release the fish, once done you can slowly squeeze the contents of the squeeze bulb onto the palm of your hand. You will be able to clearly see everything the fish has ingested into its stomach. This should give you a very good idea of what the fish are eating.

Wrap it up:

Ok you have a better idea of how to choose which nymph you are going to use, and you now know where to find them, so go ahead and get after it.

Tight lines

Gary

As always any questions or comments give me a shout.