This is part two of a Troutbitten short series on leading, tracking and guiding the nymphs in a tight line and euro nymphing system. This will all read a lot better if you first check out the overview of these multiple styles from Part One. — — — — — The advantage of...
Most anglers seem to think that tight line nymphing is just one thing -- as if there's a single way to do all of this. The logical assumption, at first, is that you can learn this style and then polish it up until the new-to-you tactic is under your belt. Then maybe...
Missed ‘em. How many thousands of times have we said that? And why do we miss so many hits, takes or eats on our nymphs? Late hook sets are a problem, as is guessing about whether we should set the hook in the first place. But I believe, more times than not, when we...
A few days ago, someone said that they realized what I’ve been writing about on Troutbitten is beyond euro nymphing. He told me that it’s more of a hybrid method of western styles mixed with some French nymphing. Fair enough. The hybrid part I agree with. But my first...
. . . But Smith had also drawn out of me one thing that I’d never fully put into words before explaining it to him. Namely, that contact is felt as much as it’s seen. While tight line nymphing, I’d told Smith, an advanced angler can feel contact with the nymph on the rod tip. Essentially, you could very well fish with your eyes closed. And because Smith was skeptical, I’d suggested some after-dark tight line nymphing as a way to prove to my friend that he could feel that contact just as well as anyone . . .
Smith was still puzzled, and I suspected I was about to join him. He held up his rod, with the long Mono Rig leader, two nymphs and a sighter, and pointed to it.
“But if strike detection is mostly visual, what part of this is feel?”
Smith had asked a question that I’d never fully considered. Then I answered. “At the rod tip you can feel when you’re in contact with the flies . . .”
Smith set up over my right shoulder and watched for a while, quietly examining my backhand drifts and spitting sunflower seed shells on the water. I landed two trout and missed another . . .
“Did you feel those strikes, or did you set the hook because the sighter twitched?” Smith asked . . .
“They rarely hit hard enough to feel it,” I told him. “And if you’re waiting for some some kind of tug or tap, you’re missing a lot of strikes.”
The biggest misconception in nymphing is that our flies should bump along the bottom. Get it down where the trout are, they say. Bounce the nymph along the riverbed, because that’s the only way to catch trout. We’re told to feel the nymph tick, tick, tick across the rocks, and then set the hook when a trout eats. With apologies to all who have uttered these sentiments and given them useless ink, that is pure bullshit.
. . . Here’s how and why to avoid the bottom, fish more effectively and catch more trout with a top down approach . . .
. . . Think of it like this: Tight line anglers should stick the landing at the end of the cast. Only the line that must enter the water should go under, while everything else remains above the surface and in the air. The leader should be tight, from the water’s surface to the rod tip, in a leading angle almost immediately. Stick the landing! Learn what angle the sighter eventually takes through the drift, and that’s the angle you should start with . . .
The best nymphing leaders incorporate a key principle — limit the diameters of leader material under the surface. But sometimes, two is better than one.
Here’s how and why it’s done . . .