Czech or Polish Nymphing

I forgot to add one very important factor here when fishing shallow fast runs and riffles, which is a factor many fly fishers do not consider.

In such water any natural fly or terrestrial is very subject to being drowned , unable to emerge and all else that enables fish to take bugs within that turbulence of water flow. They are simply at the mercy of downstream drift, and the fish know it.
This is the reason why fish will take our flies at any level in such water. Not to mention that fish also have cover from predators in water conditions of this nature.


Davy.

Loren-

I nymphed "Euro Style" all day yesterday on the Farminton River, and I had a blast. After a slow start where I was getting near going back to my usual indicator & shot, I nailed a 19" beauty and that gave me the confidence to stick with it. I have a lot to learn, but I feel at least competent. Now I have more ideas on how to tweak my leader to make it more sensitive & helps get my flies down better, and I know how much weight & what size beads to put on my "anchor" nymphs. Got some tyin' to do now boy! I caught the fish of the day on a #10 Hare's Ear Czech style nymph of my own design with a hot spot, not 3 minutes after my buddy told me to "take that unnatural looking nymph off and put something natural looking on". I stubbornly stuck with it and was pleasantly surprised.

I can see where in certain water types/situations this method & rigging is superior to standard indicator & shot techniques. It was cool actually feeling the hits. I'll be doing more of this style fishing.

Check my post about this in my Farmington Report under the CT section of the forum:

http://troutpredator.info/index.php?topic=1492.0

Awesome! Glad you found favor with it. Just always keep in mind the water type you are fishing Answer yourself and the theory behind how you are rigging. Answer yourself the "why" questions...then you'll see how to evolve the use of weighted flies.

If you wish to hone your skills further fish same using only a single fly , and not always one that carries weight.

DW

If one were to fish with an unweighted fly in moving water would you want to go to a running line to eliminate any possible drag on the fly? I was think today about utilizing a running line in pocket water zones. I think that this might enable me to use less heavily weighted flies and gain a more subtle presentation. since I have found that in most of the situations I have fished require very little traditional casting. I have the running line that is .021". I can also use a much shorter leader with setup. I was thinking that in heavy water I can have my total leader to 7 feet give or take. Please mind that these are only thoughts!

Not sure about the lone fly--that may be a beast to cast. I do see value in the short line affair though. However, .021" is still much thicker than any monofil you'd use so I see little value there (subsurface). However, the slim RL will be beneficial when you need to have some fly line exposed as it will belly less and wind will not blow it as much.

With weighted flies and a crisp stroke you can tuck a RL nicely and expand your range over what a WF or DT will allow to a point.

Loren,

I came to the "wind resistance" thing the other day when I was doing this and it was blowing like a son of a ------.

Each situation is going to call for different rig ups. If its windy I will be equally proficient with the rl and the normal line. I just don't want to have to use it in a pinch. It all performs differently.

I just want to cover everything. I know that when competing you need to have many game plans and being able to implement them successfully is paramount. Every time I am on a trout stream from here out is to be played within the confines of the rules. How long of a leader are you allowed in competition. See the only problem is of I go the mono route the leader has to be tapered. I am pretty sure the sighter is around .015"

There are no maximum or minimum leader length regulation.

Leaders do not need to be tapered. However, if there is a deviation of diameter the taper needs to be descending. This was implemented last year in Finland. So, when using a backing sighter in competition you need to be aware of that.

I had a session in Tasmania where I absolutely could not nymph; the wind was howling directly downriver to a point where it was blowing my rod downriver too fast to fish the flies properly. The river was mud too from 2 inches of overnight rain. The only way I could get into fish was to use a heavy fly to tell me what the bottom depth was as well as the structure since much of the river flowed over bedrock. Once the wind got so bad that I could not keep in contact I was sunk. I measured 2 bows and was sure I'd won...but a Kiwi on the top beat has a few minutes of clearing water and scored a few more fish.

It sucks not knowing the bottom contour or substrate. This river was largely on private water so we could not look at any of the beats. Imagine fishing the Salmon River for the first time when it was muddy--spending time fishing great looking seams only to find the water was 8 inches deep and flowing over bedrock!

Just about to leave here for a guide day myself.

My answer is this.

1. Use a sinking fly line, the weight will help you control your flies on the hang, my wet fly DVD explains this a little more.
I have used a very fast sink lines in the past. And in many respects you do have some degree of way better control fishing in many other conditions.

2. You want to figure water depth when you cannot see bottom take with you a 1/8 or 1/4 sinker, given you are as a rule fishing a short line from rod tip it is easy to figure this out as you can feel the lead bounce bottom.

Have a good day guys, l am going to get wet again. Our lakes here are at flood stage big time and more rain expected. We will see big water here on the White for a long time this year, no doubt.


Davy

Davy-

Maybe big water = big fish? Is that pulling more Shad into the river?