Hey Sholgate....Aaron is the expert on this so you should wait for his reply. It may be that you don't have enough weight on your flies and they are not getting down to the bottom.....you can basically spend all day drifting flies way above a trouts head...if he's not looking up he'll never see it. If you rarely got snagged on the bottom - or not at all - thats a likely sign you were not even near the bottom. Or...if you have a big foam indicator - and don't have enough line between it and your flies...it may be artifically suspending your flies too far above the bottom. You should read Aaron's article (on this website) about indicator nymphing. I first starting nymphing without a strike indicator last week on a smaller stream in the croton watershed (been flyfishing for 7 years)....and did it again yesterday. I like it - and in that situation i've been sucessfull...but...I also am shortening my leader/adjusting it so the end of my flyline becomes my indicator. I still have alot to learn about this style but I like it so far. On bigger rivers like the Housy - especially if my flywill be down 4 feet or more...I'm sticking with indicators.