Articles in the Category Videos

When a nymph disappears under the surface, it’s easy to settle for a drift that’s merely good enough . . . but we shouldn’t. Underwater currents are complex, and a convincing nymph drift depends on three things: lane, depth and speed. No matter the rig — tight line or indicator, Mono Rig or fly line — we must understand what the nymph is doing and make deliberate choices about its path. And while all three elements matter, trout are more particular about some drift qualities than others. In this video, I break down each element and rank them by importance, with one goal in mind: better dead drifts and more consistent fishing.

Fly fishing has suffered from its own elitism for too long. The I’m better than you because I have a fly rod in my hand . . . attitude . . . has sadly carried over and infested every part of the sport (at times).

But all of this is changing swiftly. And we can be part of moving away from the elitism and instead passing along the good things about what makes all of us anglers.

Most anglers put a lot of focus on fly choice. And that makes sense, because we have to tie something to the end of the line, and we have to feed something to the trout. The fly is the quickest thing to change, and it’s the easiest thing to blame. Consequently, a lot of myths have grown around fly choice. Here are nine of those myths.

For over a decade, I’ve written and talked about fishing a Mono Rig for all underwater presentations — nymphs with and without an indicator, with and without split shot, dry dropper, streamers of all shapes and sizes and even pure dry flies.

I’ve detailed the formulas for my favorite leaders in many places, but I’ve never put everything together from the ground up. This video answers the most frequent questions about reels, fly lines, leader connections, materials and knots. No matter what tight line leader you choose to build, the principles shown here apply.