The Nymphing Paradox – A New Years Resolution

December 26, 2022

Fish sitting on the bottom barely moving, are waiting for a nymph to drift by. As I have said many times before, nymphing is my least favorite form or method of fly fishing. It is a paradox for me because it can be extremely effective. So why is it that I don’t like to nymph fish even though it catches a lot of fish? I do like the dry/dropper approach. However, if you are merely using the dry as a strike indicator on a day when there is no hope of getting an eat on the dry, this approach is far from ideal. Also, dry/dropper is most effective in shallower runs, like 1-2′ of water depth. This is because the amount of weight needed to sink the dropper to the bottom in say 4′ of water is going to be enough to sink almost any dry fly.

Tight line nymphing is something I have done a fair amount of but have not explored the Euro nymphing approach. The tight line method takes a Euro nymphing approach but uses conventional tackle. Euro nymphing involves a longer rod and very long leader, so basically a dedicated rig, which is why I have not committed to it yet. The two features that make Euro nymphing superior to tight line nymphing is the longer Euro nymph rod gets you extended reach and also tip sensitivity, Additionally, the length and flexibility of the rod enables you to effectively cast the leader, without the line. This eliminates the bow in the line caused by the fly line extending from the rod tip to the water’s surface. That sag or bow impairs the direct contact with the fly and the feel of the eat. Euro nymphing also utilizes a “sighter”, which is sections of red and green colored leader that enable you to see movement, subsurface.

The hardcore tight liners like Kelly Galloup (Check out his tight line technique at 7:30 in the video) poopoo the need for all that special gear. In reality, the Euro nymphing gear evolved with several competitive European teams competing to win tournaments. Of course they wanted every advantage! The advantages of either approach is that as long as the weighted fly or split shot using Kelly’s technique, is correct for the depth and the flow, the drift will be perfect. Both flies will be in the target zone. IMHO, to be a great tight liner, you have to have a really well developed “Spidey Sense”. Sensing the take is part feel and part visual. When the rig pauses, you set. Be prepared to set a lot and there will be many will be false positives. If you use split shot your connection is with the split shot, not with the fly, so you may have more “false positives”. Experts will tell you that if you use an indicator, like the ole “thing-a-ma-bobber” you will miss a lot of subtle takes. I firmly agree. The advantage of the indicator is that if set correctly, it keeps the line somewhat tight below the surface, so your line above the surface doesn’t need to be. It also helps beginners get a very clear visual of when there is a fish on. However, you miss all the subtle takes. Remember a fish will mouth anything that comes by that resembles something close to what they are eating, but they also quickly spit out anything that is not the real bug. In order to get a hook set with these types of eats, you have a split second to set the hook once the line pauses. With a “Thing-a-ma-bob” you will miss the majority of these eats. The primary reason for this is you have zero connection with the fly until the line becomes tight under the indicator. The floating bobber in almost every case will lead the rig. Surface currents are often faster than those below.

So, in exploring the paradox further, why is it that I’m so resistant to nymphing, tight line and Euro in particular? Well, let’s start with why I enjoy dry fly fishing so much. First off it is sight casting to fish. I really like making a long, precise, drift free cast to a rising trout. Similar to sight casting to fish in salt water I might add, but typically dragging a streamer, crab or similar in front of the fish, but even if t is below the surface, you can watch the eat. Second, I enjoy watching the eat and setting the hook. This aspect really gets me excited! Now, there are times in really shallow, clear water, that I can get close enough to the fish to watch them eat my nymph and set based upon the visual of watching the eat, rather than watching an indicator. If I were able to locate these situations more frequently, I know I would enjoy nymphing a lot more.

One time, many years ago, I was fishing a high mountain lake near lake Granby Colorado and realized that there was an inlet that was holding big rainbows in a shallow run. The water was gin clear. There was a group of fish almost stationary in a gentle run and I could see that they were eating nymphs. I tied on a couple of beadhead midge patterns and because of the shallow depth, literally a foot deep I could fish these flies and get into the zone without split shot. But, out of habit I put on a really small thing-a-ma-bob. It was kind of problematic, because I noticed these fish spooked easily by the splash of the indicator. So I had to cast at least 6′ upstream of the fish to avoid spooking the fish. These were big fish(18-22″) and I was really excited! Right off the bat it looked like they were eating my fly, but since I was accustomed to waiting for the indicator to twitch or go under, I ended up missing every take. Since I was so close and could see the fish so well, I could see their mouth move when they ate. It was also pretty obvious when they spit out the fly. Thankfully, I was able to adapt. Instead of watching the indicator, I put my focus on watching the fish’s mouth. When it opened, I was ready and when t closed I set! Before long I was getting hook-ups and also landing fish! The flies I was using were 22’s and getting a sold set was not automatic. Also, because of their size and the fact that I was using 6X tippet, I had a few break-offs, but before my day concluded 2 hours later, I had three big fish to hand and I still count this day as one of my best ever! I realized that watching the eat subsurface and setting the hook was almost as much fun as a dry fly eat!

So back to the paradox. The situations where fish are stacked up in shallow clear water and you can actually watch the eat, are somewhat rare. So going back to the Kelly Galloup video, if you noticed, he is standing about 10′ from the fish. I’m guessing this spot is one he regularly fishes, especially in winter and he knows the fish are there, even though the water is neither clear, calm or shallow enough for him to see them. So for me, as I think about the streams and rivers I like to fish, I need to think about some runs with a nice seam, like the one on the Madison that Kelly is fishing, that I know hold fish and I can easily stand within 10′ of the fish. There are a couple of runs that I like on the South Fork that fill this bill, but also a few favorites that don’t, where it is difficult to reach the fish. The 9′ 4wt rod is an excellent nymphing rod, especially in winter when you tend to cast smaller flies. I like using my Scott G2 because it has a very sensitive tip that will help detect eats. It s also a versatile rod in that if I want to change it up and change rigs I can do so to cast small streamers, like leeches, or even dry flies if a hatch starts to come off.

In 2023, I resolve to take my nymphing more seriously. I will tightline nymph more and take my rigging and fly selection more seriously, thinking through what weight needed to reach the proper depth and achieve a drag free drift. However, I’m still not ready to commit to Euro nymphing although I continue to research it. I do believe a 10′ 2wt is in my future.