Podcast: Stick the Landing — Tight Line Skills Series, #3

by | Jan 26, 2022 | 4 comments

 The Troutbitten Podcast, Season Two, is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts.

** Note **  The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below.

Part three of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on sticking the landing. Because after putting ourselves in great position to present the fly, we shouldn’t waste the perfect tuck cast and delivery. As the fly hits the water, all the elements of our system are in position and ready to drift. That’s sticking the landing.

Like a gymnast who tumbles, somersaults and then lands on two feet with no body movement, the best completion of a cast happens with no extra movement. Instead of landing and then recovering or correcting, we stick the landing, ready to drift.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me on Episode Three for an in-depth discussion of this technique.

(Season three will return to my full panel of friends, with longer form discussion about all things fly fishing.)

We Cover the Following
  • What sticking the landing looks like
  • Position of rod tip, leader, sighter and tippet
  • Why it matters
  • Maximizing the drift time
  • Preserving good slack with tippet position
  • Sighter angle
  • Leading angle
  • The negative results of reaching
  • Where to stop the forward cast
  • Correcting mistakes

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ; Troutbitten | #3 Stick the Landing — Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing

Listen with the player above, or . . .

Find the Troutbitten podcast on any of these services:

— Apple Podcasts
— Spotify
— Google Podcasts
— Amazon Music
. . . and everywhere else where you listen to podcasts.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Stick the Landing While Tight Lining
READ: Troutbitten | When the First Cast Matters Most
READ: Troutbitten | It’s Casting, Not Lobbing
READ: Troutbitten | Put More Juice in the Cast

You can find the dedicated Troutbitten Podcast page at . . .

podcast.troutbitten.com

Episode four of season two is coming soon. Thanks again for your support, everyone.

Fish hard, friends.

 

** Donate ** If you enjoy this podcast, please consider a donation. Your support is what keeps this Troutbitten project funded. Scroll below to find the Donate Button. And thank you.

 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com

 

Share This Article . . .

Since 2014 and 1000+ articles deep
Troutbitten is a free resource for all anglers.
Your support is greatly appreciated.

– Explore These Post Tags –

Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

More from this Category

The Dorsey Yarn Indicator — Everything you need to know and a little more

The Dorsey Yarn Indicator — Everything you need to know and a little more

The dark truth is that upgrading your fly fishing gear rarely catches you more fish. Rods, reels, fly lines, expensive tippet and overpriced hooks hardly improve your catch rate. And the marginal improvement you might see is probably a result of confidence and concentration rather than the performance of new gear.

The Dorsey yarn indy will catch you more fish.

Here are the details . . .

Fly Fishing with Streamers on the Mono Rig — More Control and More Contact

Fly Fishing with Streamers on the Mono Rig — More Control and More Contact

So why do we use a Mono Rig over fly line? What’s the advantage?

Just like a tight line nymph rig, we gain more control over the presentation of the flies, and we have better contact throughout the cast and the drift. With fly line in the game, we cast and manage the fly line itself. With the Mono Rig, we cast and manage the streamers more directly.

With the Mono Rig, we can stay tight to the streamer after the cast, we can dead drift it with precision for the first five feet, keeping all the leader off the water. Then we might activate the streamer with some jigs and pops for the next ten feet of the drift. And for the last twenty feet, as the streamer finishes out below and across from us, we may employ long strips. All these options are open . . .

High Light — Low Light

High Light — Low Light

My article, "High Light -- Low Light," is over at Hatch Magazine. Here are a few excerpts..... -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ... Finding the shady cracks that harbor resting and wary trout is a good challenge on bright days. Offering the flies to them in those small...

Tight Line Nymphing with an Indicator — A Mono Rig Variant

Tight Line Nymphing with an Indicator — A Mono Rig Variant

I dislike arbitrary limits. Placing restrictions on tackle and techniques, when they inhibit my ability to adapt to the fishing conditions, makes no sense to me. I’m bound by no set of rules other than my own. And my philosophy is — Do what works.

I guess that’s why I’ve grown into this fishing system. Most of the time I use what I refer to as the Mono Rig. It’s a very long leader that substitutes for fly line, and I’ve written about it extensively on Troutbitten. Tight line and euro nymphing principles are at the heart of the Mono Rig, but there are multiple variations that deviate from those standard setups. Sometimes I use split shot rather than weighted flies. Sometimes I add suspenders to the rig. I even throw large, articulated streamers and strip aggressively with the Mono Rig. All of this works on the basic principle of substituting #20 monofilament for fly line.

Tight line nymphing is my default approach on most rivers. I like the control, the contact and the immediacy of strike detection. But sometimes adding a suspender (an indicator that suspends weight) just works better.

Often, I add a dry fly to my tight line nymphing rig. “The Duo” (European fishermen’s term for dry/dropper) is widely popular because it’s a deadly variation of the standard tight line approach. But dry/dropper rigs have their issues. And choosing a Thingamabobber or a Dorsey Yarn Indicator for the suspender not only solves those issues but also includes extra benefits.

This isn’t about which method is better. Invariably, the answer to such questions in fishing is, “It depends.” Everything has its place. This is about how to use tight line principles with a suspender rig. I hate arbitrary limits. Do what works.

What do you think?

Be part of the Troutbitten community of ideas.
Be helpful. And be nice.

4 Comments

  1. Hey Troutbitten !! Just listened to Podcast # 3 and I’m amazed ( mostly what I don’t know ) This is great I’ve already caught more fish … and I’m still at home Thanks

    Reply
  2. Can’t find podcast #3, Stick the Landing, in the tight line series. The link opens #6, Finding the Strike Zone. Anywhere else I can open it?

    Reply
    • Hi Tom,

      Thanks for the question. You just have to scroll down. The link and the podcast player above both load all of the podcasts, and the most current one is at the top. It won’t take much work to just look below. You’ll find number three listed.

      Thanks for listening.

      Cheers.
      Dom

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Articles

Recent Posts

Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

Pin It on Pinterest