VIDEO: Guiding the Flies: #7 of The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line Nymphing

by | May 21, 2025 | 2 comments

Tactics | The Mono Rig | Videos

** NOTE ** Video Appears Below.

There is not just just one way to dead drift a nymph. There are real bugs down there, doing different things. And by really thinking through what our goals are with a nymph, our possibilities for how we present the flies — in a dead drift — are almost limitless. (It’s at least enough to keep a fishing day interesting.

Sometimes we lead the flies through the drift, with deliberate influence. Sometimes we track the flies progress and try really hard not to influence them — just letting the river make the decisions. And on some drifts, we split the difference and guide the flies along with minimal influence, knowing that sometimes we’re leading and sometimes we’re tracking. I call that guiding the flies.

These concepts are some of the most important things to consider in the nymphing game.

These nine essential skills are the baseline for dead drifting nymphs with a tight line. These are the necessary fundamentals. We fish many different tactics and fly styles on a Mono Rig, tight line system, but it all starts here. These skills set the foundation for everything else that is possible.

This nine-part video series is a companion resource to the Troutbitten article series and the podcast series.

READ: Troutbitten | Series | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Guiding the Flies — The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line Nymphing #7
PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line Nymphing #7 — Guiding the Flies

Here’s the video . . .

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Fish hard, friends.

 

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

 

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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.

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2 Comments

  1. Alex Argyros on May 22, 2025 at 6:02 am

    Great video, full of stream and fishing wisdom. Towards the end, you mention the drift afforded by dropshotting. As you well know, a dropshot rig changes the tracking/leading relationship somewhat. Can you talk a little about that?

    Reply
    • Domenick Swentosky on May 22, 2025 at 11:57 am

      What’s up, Alex. Personally, I use drop shot for bottom bouncing. But honestly, your could track with a drop shot rig, if you simply used less weight. I don’t see the point of that, but it could certainly be done. So tracking could happen with drop shot. It’s all about the AMOUNT of weight and not the TYPE of weight.

      READ: Troutbitten | Series | Drop Shot Nymphing

      Reply

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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.

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