#27 Fly Fishing with Nymphs part 2 of 2

Learning to Fish with Nymphs, Number Deuce!

If you are new to fly-fishing, a total beginner fly-fisherman or more advanced fly-fisherman this post might have a little something for everybody.

If you managed to survive our previous trip down the rabbit hole in “learning to flyfishing with nymphs part 1” well hold on to your shorts here is part 2 for you napping pleasure.

The trusty Toyota..

In the early years of my fishing career, I would load up the trusty Toyota 4x4 and burn rubber to the nearest stream creek or river at the drop of a hat. I would be formulating my strategy while I was driving down the road, which nymph, to use, what colors to use, which rod to use, not even knowing if there was even water in the creek, but boy I had plans.

I would arrive on scene tires skidding to a stop, literally falling out of the driver’s seat, sometimes before unbuckling my seat belt.  While still stumbling around I could grab a rod, thread it from top to bottom, and tie it on a nymph, split shot and indicator all while I was on a slow gallop to the water’s edge. Upon reaching the water I would begin to relentlessly “flog the water” with about 100 cast per minute. Sometimes I would get lucky, manage to catch the “village idiot fish” but rarely was the case.

What I’m trying to impress upon you is the fact that I never once stopped, for even a second to consider the water, and think about where trout might be holding or feeding in the river before me.

Up next

I’m going to spend a few minutes talking about the word “lies” not like the ones when asked if you ate the ice cream,? but lies as in where trout might hang out in the water, this type of lie, not the other. Trout have a few basic requirements to survive. They will need food, cool oxygenated water, and places to shelter from predators. Places that trout hang out are what we refer to as a "lie".

Generally, there are three main types of lies, and we are going to talk about these right now.

Fish hide under stuff, maybe not umbrellas, but they do hide

First up, protective lie to flyfish with a nymph

A protective lie is just like it sounds, places where a trout can stay safe from predators. Trout have a long list of predators, like birds of prey, racoons, fox, and coyotes just to name a few, and even humans. If you think of protective lies as places in the river like undercut banks, or under a dead log, or a deep plunge pool, or under a weed bank. All of these places are where a trout can seek protection, normally you might not be able to see a trout when they are in a protective lie. Protection in these places will keep trout safe but might not allow for the best opportunity to feed. So, safety yes, food, not so good.

Next up feeding lie

I’m going to ask you to use your imagination for a quick second and pretend you are at the supermarket and are in the checkout line. As you place your items on the conveyor belt, one by one they are brought to the checker. Think about the trout as your checker “I know kinda weird” but instead of bread milk and cheese on the conveyor belt it is small aquatic insects and bits of food. This is exactly how trout feed; all of their food is sent down to them in a constant stream of goodies. The flow of water is the conveyor that bring food to trout throughout the day. The job of the trout is to find the best spot in the river with the highest concentration of food coming down the river. Trout do this by actively moving around the water to find the best spots. These might be the edge of the main current, a small eddy, behind a boulder, or even in the middle of a riffle where scattered ruble forms the river bottom.

As a general rule of thumb, I try to teach people to look first for the foam lines in the water’s surface. Just remember this silly phrase “foam is home”. Casting your nymphs in this type of water will be places that generally will hold feeding fish. There is a drawback to these feeding lies; however, trout have little to no protection from predators. They can feed but are vulnerable to predation. So, at the first sign of danger, trout will shoot off in the direction of the nearest protective lie.

Eating from the surface

Prime lies, the big Kahuna’s of lies

We now have a basic understanding of the first two types of lies protective and feeding, the third one is know as the “Prime Lie”. These lies are spots where trout can not only have protection from predators but are in a good spots for the food conveyor to bring food right to their front door, like “door dash”.

Prime lies will generally be places like the edge of a drop off, the smooth waters, right in front of a fallen log, A classic example is an undercut bank. The bank itself provides protection from birds of prey. Yet, the current brings the food close to the bank. That’s why trout will dart out from under a bank to take your hopper pattern or even a tiny dry fly and then just slide right back under the bank’s edge. Sometimes, you’ll find a prime lie in a deeper pool or in water under a foam patch. The key is to look for places which provide both cover and food.

Now you have located a prime lie, you may have just hit the jackpot. The reason is small fish will get pushed out of these lies and be occupied by larger trout. There is a constant turf war occurring in the river hood as big fish are pushed out by even bigger more dominant fish. If you are able to locate a “true” prime lie there will generally be bigger fish in it. Recognizing the prime lies, and fishing them properly, not only increases the likelihood of catching trout, but of catching the larger trout in that section of the river.

Ok, I found one, now how do I fish them?

Now you have a basic understanding of how trout spend their day; the next question is how do we fish them?. This part will be a little tricky, but I will give you some tips that will help you increase your chances of a successful day.

I watch so many fly-fisherman during the course of my day on the water, and I observe them as they fish. Most of the people I watch are not quite in the right place the majority of the time. What I mean is they might be in the right location to fish but are not getting the presentation correct.

You will hear people talking about dry fly fishing and the term “correct presentation” this is so true when you are fishing a dry fly, but it is also true when it comes to nymph fishing. Think back to the checker at the supermarket. All day long items come down the conveyor belt, and all day they see the same things. If something comes down the conveyor that looks slightly different than the other ones, wouldn’t they be able to tell the difference immediately? You bet they would. This is the same thing that occurs in the trout’s world. All day food comes down to them, and they are accustomed to seeing the same things over and over, but suddenly there is something that’s not right, they will spot the difference rather quickly.

The point I’m trying to illustrate is how important it is that what you present to a feeding fish will need to look as natural as possible. There are two main killers when it comes to this concept. Number one is drag, and the other is not being in the correct depth of water.

When we are talking about drag, we’re talking about how the waters currents are pulling on your fly line or leader and adding some unnatural action to your flies, this is what we call drag. Drag will pull a fly sideways in the current, or pull it too fast downstream, or too slow. Only the slightest thing will make the fly look odd or different on the trout’s supermarket checkout line. Trout are able to spot these differences, and in split second turn off your fly and say, “no not this time”.

How to avoid this?

By now you may or may not have heard the term “mending:? Mending is just like it sounds, you are doing something to “mend or adjust the drift”, by either moving your fly line to allow for a natural drift, or by adjusting your cast to allow for a draft free drift. If you see your indicator moving faster than the surrounding water, you have drag, and in contrast if you see your indictor moving way to slow you have drag.

A perfect drag free drift should flow the same speed as the water, or the bubbles surrounding the indicator. This will ensure that your fly will be moving at the same speed as all other food items floating down to the fish.

Weight does not mean wait!

We talked about the use of small pieces of lead split shot, or weighted flies to get them closer to the bottom of the river. As you are nymph fishing you will want your fly to be as close to the bottom of the river as possible. To achieve this, you will either add weight, or remove weight, but the goal is the same. Get your fly close to the bottom of the river. How do I know I’m near the bottom when I can’t see the bottom? Great question.

The best way to tell if your flies are near the bottom is to actually touch or tap the bottom of the river with your flies. If you have too much weight you fly will become stuck in the rocks in a flash, you will see your indicator stop, because you are stuck on the rocks on the bottom of the river, and that’s it, you now know you have too much weight. Once you are unstuck you can remove some of the weight and re-cast. If you can see very subtle “ticks” in your indicator, this will mean you are just “ticking or tapping” the rocks on the bottom of the river. This ticking will tell you that you are at the right depth.

In contrast if your indicator is floating freely and there is no ticking or tapping, you may be too light in the weight department. Try adding a small piece of micro shot, to get the light ticks that tells if you are correctly weighted.

Indicators are your eyes underwater!

As we touched on this in a prior post, I said “Indicators are used to detect strikes underwater” these are placed on the leader so you will be able to “see” or detect the strike like a “bobber” if you were worm fishing.

No matter which of the types or style of indicator you choose to use, the placement will be the same. Most agree that indicators should be 11/2-3 times the depth of the water you are fishing. For example, the water you plan to fish is 12” deep; you will place your indicator 18”-36” from the fly. Now you move to fish a section of water about 36” deep. You will need to move your indicator to 41/2 ft. to 9ft. from the first fly (11/2-3 times depth). By placing the indicator in the correct position, you will ensure your fly has the ability to sink to the correct depth and be able to indicate or detect the strike, which is your clue to lift the rod to set the hook.

You have done it all correctly:

Ok you have located the correct type of water; you have chosen your fly and attached it to your tippet and added an indicator and some small pieces of weight. Cast your fly out in the heart of this prime lie, you drift is perfect as you watch your indicator, freely slide with the water, when suddenly the indicator stops, for a quick moment, you lift your rod tip to the sky only to feel a heavy weight and a violent head shacking. You’ve done it, you have hooked trout while using a nymph.

Long winded speech

I know that I have delivered a lot of information in a short amount of time, some of you have taken a short nap, but I promise I will deliver more content to further understand the topics I covered today. It is my hope to give you a better understanding of some of the ins and outs of using a nymph to fish with.

Now go out and practice and have fun learning this technique of fishing and catch a few fish.

Cheers

Gary.