Guiding the flies is a blend of two skills called leading and tracking. At the core, this skill of guiding the flies is fishing the flies. And this is what anglers tend to focus on most — for good reason. It’s the longest in duration. It’s the most active, and has the most room for variation.

In truth, there are number of ways to dead drift nymphs through one seam. And the choices we make are about how much influence we want to have on the flies. A leading approach puts the angler in charge, and a tracking approach let’s the river dictate the course of the flies. Guiding the flies is an effort to mix the two . . .

Unlocking this knowledge — understanding the strike zone — and then finding it and drifting your flies there, is perhaps the most pivotal moment in your nymphing skills progression. It changes everything.

Most of what happens in a river occurs in the strike zone. It’s where the trout spent most of their time. It’s where the bugs and baitfish live. And understanding everything about the strike zone allows us to know exactly how and where we want to present the nymph . . .

Contact is visual. It’s about reading the sighter to know that we are in touch with the flies from rod tip to the nymph or split shot. It’s not about touching or ticking the riverbed. Instead, the contact we’re looking for is seen on the sighter.

With contact, we know everything about the depth and speed of our flies. We know where they are, and we determine where they are going. That’s the advantage of a tight line (contact) nymphing system . . .

To dead drift a nymph, we cast it upstream. And as the river flows downstream, it sends the fly back toward us, creating slack. Usually, we simply pick up that slack and maintain contact with the fly (sometimes directly, sometimes slightly).

Slack maintenance is a critical skill. And if the goal is to be in contact with the nymphs and know where they are — if this is a tight line rig — then allowing too much slack in the system destroys everything that we’re working toward. We recover the slack in three ways: by lifting the rod tip, by leading the rod tip, and with the line hand.

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.

Part two of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on the tuck cast. A good tuck is a turnover cast — where the loop unfolds completely in the air. In fact, a tuck cast is a fly-first entry, and it’s perfect for setting up the tight line advantage, where we keep everything up and out of the water that we possibly can.

We tuck cast not just to get deeper, but to setup the fly, tippet, sighter and leader in the best possible position to drift the flies down one seam. Accuracy starts with a good tuck, and not just accuracy over where the fly goes, but where all the parts of the leader go too . . .