If nymphing is a joke than call me a jester

[Adam]

As promised in the shout box...here is the write up for today. Spent Saturday with Aaron at HRO and the guys going over Euro nymphing and then slogging some casts in the rain. Second time I have seen the presentation and found some new things in there. Aaron, thanks for the on water help. It paid off today.

Fished a popular spot on the Farmington today with my brother. I get out of the truck and notice a couple of guys standing on the riverbank. I head up to see what is going on. "too windy""no hatch" "waste of time" all being tossed around in conversation. I head back to the truck and and get the new/used 10 footer out (yes it does make a difference). After ANCHORING UP I stroll down to the river and after passing the resident experts and being told "better off getting a coffee" my reaction with a sly grin was PERHAPS....knowing the 10 percenters would not be on the river today I took it as the opportunity to implement what we went over on Saturday.

5th cast...brookie on. Alright...here we go. A little later after some missed opportunities...brown on...and brown on again....and again. Not a huge day in terms of numbers...but a confidence builder and certainly reinforced some of what we went over on Saturday.

Now the bad....I am still struggling a bit to maintain "contact" with my flies. Something I need to work on a bit. Also...Torrey when you are back in town...a tutorial on using the tippet rings please. Man...what a pain. God forbid you snap one off and need to try an re-rig that in the middle of the river. Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated.

Sorry for the length...just excited.

There were some situations today where I employed short line/polish/czech nymphing when in hindsight an indicator rig would have probably served me better. I am not even going to think about spanish/long line nymphing yet.

I know in the shout box I called it a joke...the joke being it took me this long to get it through my cranium that it is a technique that works.

For all you 10 percenters that were at home today.....Should have ANCHORED UP and hit the river...the wind didn't bother the fish one bit.

[alanb_ct]

Headhunter: leave the tippet ring on the clip when you tie one side on. After you rig it up, it will have 3 knots (see picture below). I wouldn't expect to have "perfect" contact right away. I've fished like this about 300 hours this year and still miss fish. Concentrate on the visual aspects, as the tactile part is much more natural. Glad the class paid dividends.

[Adam]

Alain-

Thanks for the idea with the rings...will try that next time. Class paid off...now it is on the water training...

Oh and the fly that was the winner...not that pattern matters too much...Lorens...bead head pt nymph pattern from his tutorial.

[AaronJasper]

Thanks for the kind words buddy. I am glad you had success right away! All the others will too! Also, try the long leader set up instead of indicator nymphing... You will roughhouse them good!!!

[alanb_ct]

That is really the only reasonable method for rigging the rings streamside and I think it is what the manufacturer had in mind. I have the rings, but actually don't use them much. Torrey is a big fan. It is much faster to just rig the droppers using the triple surgeons only and that's what I do. I have not lost a fish yet due to knot failure when rigging this way.

Regarding contact: it is much easier to acheive using a heavy anchor, obviously, but as you progress, you will find yourself using lighter and lighter flies.

There are many, many ways of enhancing strike detection. The best thing to do is to experiment and see what works best for you. Over this season, Aaron, Torrey, Brookie and I have gone through countless iterations and I think we have all sort of settled on our favorites, but it pays to have alternatives. I would also say that our favorite methods are sort of "proprietary."

[alanb_ct]

[Adam]

one step at a time....

planning the next adventure soon to reinforce everything.

alain-nice graphic...I am with you...triple surgeons might be the way to go and leave the tag end on. But I will give the rings another shot first.

[Davyfly]

My personal opinion regarding tippet rings is they are way more bother than worth.
Keep the rigs simple, added additions simply complicate set ups and unnecessary aggravation when they screw up.

With all respect here, for most of my professional fly fishing life, some 40 years plus, l have used 3 and 4 fly rigs. Be it nymph, wet fly or combinations otherwise.
By far in my book the best overall system for droppers is to use a 3 or 4 turn surgeons knot, this serves 3 purposes.
1. To extend leader length with same or reduced diameter
2. To provide for a dropper tag
3. To provide for a stop knot that a dropper can be tied to the main line above the knot when options are needed for that dropper, such as reduced diameter line for small hooks, when the original tag is reduced by length from fly changes, tangles.

I have no favor to use a in line fly set ups, as l am more than convinced that a detached dropper fly is way more effective due the way it tracks with way better animation.

Regardless of whatever rig system you choose to use, it amounts to this. That you set it up in such away as you are able to detect takes, and that largely is the crux of the matter, it takes time to perfect those skills which are in many cases developed with acute senses and reaction reflex, only a fish that takes your fly will allow for you to recognise this.

By and large having taught a few 1000 persons how to fly fish and achieve better skills, if there where two reasons that will determine the ability of the student to do better they are.
Rod and line control and knowing how to rig the system with the choice of fly for the prevailing conditions, all be it at that time the options may include dry, wet, streamer and nymph fishing.

Davy

[Adam]

Davy-

thanks for chiming in on the tippet rings/etc.

Until I have a comfort with nymphing, I am only going to fish that way. Yes, I will probably miss fish, epic hatches, etc. Lord knows I will miss fishing streamers, but I figure the only way to get better is to keep working on the technique.

[Gregorygob]

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