"Euro-Nymphing" the Farmington 3/31/08

[CM_Stewart]

[quote author=LorenWilliams link=topic=1492.msg10629#msg10629 date=1207172270]
in the Spanish application it is two sections of colored mono. I like orange and green. [/quote]

Both Sufix?

[SlowNDeep]

[quote author=Kierran link=topic=1492.msg10625#msg10625 date=1207162258]
Nicely done! I look forward to your pics. My buddy was out there this morning and said the river is ripping. Last night's rain, combined with a dam release, has the CFS over 1200 in the upper TMA.
[/quote]

Yay! That's when the guys from Mass like to hit it good.

[Nymphmeister]

Damn, looks like this started another Euro nymphing thread! Which is good, I feel like a sponge soaking up all the info.

Been super busy the last 2 days, I'll get those pix up as soon as I can.

I was mixing up nymphing styles, doing Polish, Czech and also upstream nymphing (without an indicator). I played with rod angles, positions (leading with it both low and also high-sticking), etc. I both lead my nymphs aggressively while pulling them slightly downstream, and I also did it more Czech style just leading the drift slightly and maintaining slight tension to stay in touch with my flies.

I probably did best in what Loren would call a Polish style, with heavy flies, a very short line, aggresively leading my flies downstream with my rod tip low, feeling the takes. The first & biggest fish I caught, I both felt & saw the take simultaneously. Most of the other takes were mostly by feel alone, one was just "on" when I pulled my rod up to cast at the end of the drift, a "bonus" fish. I played around with different weights & placements of the flies, and felt like I was relatively dialed in after a few hours. Maybe I could have used less weight, I dunno, but the set-up seemed to work- I didn't get hung up hardly at all, I had trememdous sensitivity to the drift & take, and mostly importantly I caught fish and had fun. My best rig seemed to be a #10 scud hook Czech style nymph for my middle (and "anchor") fly weighted with a 5/32 tungsten bead and 2/3 of the shank weighted with .020 lead, a 1/8" tungsten bead on my #12 upper fly (and no lead wire), and a #8 moderately weighted stonefly (no bead) on the bottom. I was fishing riffled medium to medium fast water of 18" to 4' deep, averaging in the 2'-3' range. I know I was getting all the flies down, because 2 of the 7 were on my upper fly. All 3 fly positions caught fish, and I hooked into trout upstream from me, across from me, and also downstream.

Loren-
The markered up 2-tone backing sighter is insanely easy to see & track, I love it. Seeing as I don't have to worry about being competition legal, I have some ideas on how to tweak my leader to make it better in terms of strike detection, ease & speed of rigging, getting my flies down, and keeping all 3 relatively deep. I cannot wait to see how a caddis pupa will work with this rig as a top dropper during an emergence, I'm guessing it will be super deadly.

For competition, is there a maximum leader length?

[LorenWilliams]

Torrey:

"insanely easy to see & track"--isn't it the nuts? I was totally unaware of that application until John Wilson showed it to me last summer, prior I had always used mono.

No maximum leader length regs.

That fish you hooked as you pulled out for the next cast--Vladi calls it the induced take and it is fairly common. More so for grayling than trout, but it's a technique to be used on each cast. One of two things is happening:

1) the sudden lift of the flies is causing a reaction take from a fish
2) a fish had taken your fly and drifted back with it to settle back without your knowing it. There is a point on the downstream end of your drift where you lose contact and if you get a take you may not see/feel it.

25% of my grayling and whities come on the induced take, about 15% of my trout.

[Nymphmeister]

Loren-

I think they do the "Induced Take" at the end of the drift in Pulaski, right? Lol. Ever notice how many people there do the hard "hook-set" at the end of their drifts? I don't think their intent is "pure" though, more like a snagging technique rather than inducing or setting on an undetected strike.

I get a modest percentage of trout indicator nymphing at the same moment when I lift my rig up. Makes you wonder how often trout have your fly in their mouth and you have no idea its there. You said about 15% of your trout come on the induced take- interestingly enough my 1 out of 7 translates almost exactly to 15%! Go figure.