Articles With the Tag . . . drop shot nymphing

Fishing is a story . . . During some of the lowest water I’ve seen in our area, I chose to nymph the skinny stuff on a tight line. But instead of fishing fine and far off, I started with a drop shot of medium weight. Later, I mixed in a tracking approach with a single, light nymph. A couple hours in, I streamer fished a long flat, to test the trout’s response. And I finished the morning with some nice trout that responded to nymphs in the strike zone . . .

I get a lot of questions about drop shot nymphing, and though I’ve mentioned it countless times in other Troutbitten articles, I’ve never devoted a whole piece to it. Why? Probably because it would take a full series of articles and many diagrams to convey my own take on drop shot nymphing. I’m sure I’ll get to it someday, but for now, here’s a quick rundown of my own drop shot thoughts, followed by a link to Dave Rothrock’s new video, How to Set Up a Drop Shot Nymphing Rig . . .

Drop shotting makes a lot of sense. Placing the weight on the bottom of the rig and tying in the flies above provides some significant advantages. Anyone who has tied a tag dropper somewhere above the point fly understands the effectiveness. Trout whack a tag fly riding anywhere from slightly above the streambed to mid column or even higher. They do it a lot.

I’d like to share the two most interesting points that George Daniel made about drop shotting. We got around to the subject about midway through lunch at Happy Valley Brewing Company in State College, PA.