Ian and Charity Rutter of R&R Fly Fishing give us some pointers on fly fishing nymphs with a strike indicator in small mountain streams in their latest episode of Advice from the Guides video blog.
High Stick Nymphing Video
Filmed in the Great Smoky Mountains on Little River and Middle Prong of Little River, the Rutter's demonstrate high stick nymphing, an effective method to fish fast pocket water often found in high gradient streams. High-sticking with an indicator is a great method for the beginner fly fisherman as it aids tremendously in detecting strikes that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Tips to Successful Indicator Nymphing
As Ian and Charity point out, keys to successfully fishing nymphs with an indicator include:
Fish a short line to provide better line control and ability to set the hook,
Fish a longer rod to enable you to reach over complicated currents and minimize drag,
Keep fly line off the water to minimize slack and drag,
Keep indicator ahead of fly to better strike detection.
Put Your Nymph Where the Fish Are
This may seem obvious, but one of the biggest secrets to successful nymph fishing is putting your fly where the fish are. To do this you must 1) read the water and 2) know where trout like to hang out during different times of the year. Ian and Charity do an excellent job illustrating the importance of fishing the seams where the fast water meets the slow water, a place trout love to hang out.
Reading Trout Water
Reading a trout stream to identify seams and trout lies takes some practice, but once you master the art your fishing success rate will go up dramatically. Seams are important as they allow trout to save energy while positioning themselves alongside feeding lanes where nymphs pass by in the main current of the stream.
Trout Lies
No I don't mean the little white ones, but places in the stream where trout hang out. In addition to seams, in mountain streams trout will tend to hang out along the river bottom where the water current is slowest or in front or behind rocks where a cushion or eddy forms and the trout can rest.
To make things a little more challenging, trout also change places they hang out during the winter and early spring, favoring slower water in the tail-out of pools and deeper water to conserve energy during the colder months. As the water warms and aquatic insect activity picks up, trout will move up in pools and into faster runs to find better feeding lanes and take advantage of the increased food supply.
Rigging Multiple Nymphs
Why fish one nymph when you can fish two - right? Ian shows us a simple way to rig multiple nymphs to increase our chance of catching fish by covering more of the water column from the stream bottom up to the surface with each cast. An alternate method to fish multiple nymphs would be to fish the upper nymph off a dropper that allows the fly to move more freely in the current.
Weighted Nymphs
In the video, Ian mentions the importance of getting your nymph to the stream bottom (again, where the fish tend to hang out). To do so you can use split-shot or you might consider using a bead headed or weighted fly such as a Czech nymph. Anyway you do it, you want to be ticking the stream bottom with your lower or point fly in a multi-fly rig, cause that is where the fish are at!
If you have any other tips to fishing nymphs with an indicator, share them with our readers by leaving us a comment below.
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Baetis nymphs are a bit like Superman on Kryptonite when it comes time to emerge. Rather than swimming to the surface like a bat-out-of-hell they just float to the surface buoyed by a layer of gas beneath their exoskeleton. Trapped by surface tension they float just below the water surface before popping their wing case and emerging. What fly imitates Baetis nymphs in this vulnerable stage? Why the WD40 of course.
Keys to Tying a WD-40 Fly Pattern
As shown to us by Aaron Jasper of Trout Predator Online, one of the most important aspects of tying the WD-40 is maintaining a slim profile. A tapered thread body helps to keep this super fly slim and looking good from all angles. The WD-40 is often tied in varying shades of gray, olive and brown to match the several dozens of Baetid species that exist.
Baetis Floating Nymphs
Baetis (a.k.a Blue-Winged Olives) are among the fastest swimming nymphs and can move at speeds rivaling that of some small fish. They can move like a speeding bullet by locking their tails together and forming a paddle of sorts as shown in last week's video clip from the Bug's of the Underworld. Unfortunately, our little BWO friends lose this ability when they need it most - when it is time to emerge and make that long trek to the water surface.
How to Fish a WD 40 Fly
The WD 40 fly is effective in the surface film, just under the surface, swept up from the deeper zones or on a dead drift mimicking the Baetis nymph behavior just prior to emergence. Early in a hatch you might fish a multi-fly or tandem rig with a larger weighted nymph and later trail a WD 40 off a dry dropper rig.
Regardless of how you fish it, don't over look the simple looking WD-40, it's the Clark Kent of baetis floating nymph imitations!
Enjoy!
p.s. This video is one in a series on Baetis fly patterns including deep nymphs, floating nymphs, emergers, cripples, duns, wet flies and spinners.
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"Like silkworm moths, butterflies and spiders, caddisfly larvae spin silk, but they do so underwater instead on dry land. Now, University of Utah researchers have discovered why the fly's silk is sticky when wet and how that may make it valuable as an adhesive tape during surgery." And here I thought caddis were just great trout food.
Waterproof Band-Aids?
Russell Stewart is an associate professor of bioengineering and principal author of a new study to unravel the mystery of what makes a caddisflies' silk sticky underwater, a property that makes it very unique and could someday lead to the development of waterproof adhesives. Good luck getting that Band-Aid off in the shower!
Cased Caddis Spin A Mean Web
We've all seen them, those cool casings that caddis, like the Brachycentrus echo isolated from the lower Provo River near Salt Lake City used in this study, make to protect themselves in the larval stage. The secret is in the silk that is "phosphorylated" to make it sticky when wet in order to collect little pebbles and debris from the stream bed. The funny thing is that these crafty caddis figured this out 150 million years ago, while us higher life forms are just catching on.
Makes You Wonder
So the next time you head to the great outdoors, fly fishing, hiking, biking or just taking a walk in the woods - stop and look around. Stop and think. You never know, you just might learn a thing or two from good ol' mother nature.
Score One For Caddis! Go Caddis, Go Caddis....
p.s. If you fancy fly tying and would like to pay tribute to these bioengineering geniuses, check out our collection of caddis fly tying videos which includes a few cased caddis patterns.
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I received a courtesy copy of The Fly Fisherman's Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by H. Lea Lawrence and was asked to review the book. I was little hesitant to do so. After all I am an engineer by trade, not an english major, and asking a fly fishing junkie to review a book about fly fishing in one of our nation's crown jewels is like feeding steak to a lion and asking him if it was any good.
Good Steak, Good Book
My fears melted away as I dug into The Fly Fisherman's Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as it quickly became evident that H. Lea Lawrence, a lifelong outdoorsman and freelance writer who grew up in the shadows of the Smoky Mountains, had crafted an authoritative guide.
Informing, Entertaining and Engaging
In a nutshell, the three things I look for in a good book and Lawrence delivers. Rather than just jumping into the details of the 700+ miles of beautiful trout streams that grace the Smokies, Lawrence takes the time to review the storied history of our nation's most visited national park and the lives of it's many inhabitants, which for me really puts fishing in the park in perspective.
Native Brook Trout: An American Icon In Peril
Central to one of the key themes of the book, Lawrence chronicles the existence of South Appalachian Brook Trout in the Smoky Mountains. Having endured the near destruction of virgin forest by logging companies in the 1920's and later acid rain from airborne pollution, the National Park Service ultimately stepped in and closed to fishing nearly forty streams and their tributaries inside the Park in an effort to preserve and restore the native brook trout population.
Restricted Waters Map
Lawrence demonstrates his extensive knowledge of trout streams in the Smokies in preparing a very detailed 'Restricted Waters' map identifying all the streams closed inside the park at the time the book was published in 1998. I am please to say that 12 years later almost all these streams have just recently been opened to fishing after having been closed for more 30 years! If you think about it, what seems like a dated map is now quite valuable. Can you imagine how gullible those brookies are that have not seem a fly in 30 years?
Rigging, Flies and Trout Stream Details
I won't drone on too much longer here, but sufficed it so say I enjoyed The Fly Fisherman's Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In addition to the above, included is the prerequisite information on rigging, flies and an excellent review of the best trout streams in the Little River Drainage, Little Pigeon River System, Pigeon River Drainage, Oconaluftee River System, Little Tennessee River Drainage and Cades Cove area.
A Guide Book To Remember
If you are a reader of the Fly Fishing Reporter you'll know that my family and I are heading down to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park the first week in April. My three boys (Chris, Kyle and Jack) are getting excited to try their hand at fly fishing for native brook trout for the first time! Thanks to Lea's guide we will be more than prepared and I am sure the trip will be one the boys always remember.
Last Friday night we kicked off our Baetis fly tying video series in anticipation of one of the most prolific mayfly hatches of the season, the Blue Winged Olives. Before we continue the series I thought it might be a good idea to do a quick review of the Mayfly Life Cycle. Fortunately for us, Ralph and Lisa Cutter produced Bugs of the Underworld a really cool DVD that provides a fascinating trout's view of the mayfly life cycle.
Mayfly Life Cycle
Simple Life Cycle
The mayfly life cycle is rather simple progressing from an egg directly to the nymph stage and then the adult stage, a process called incomplete metamorphosis. Mayfly nymphs closely resemble the adults they blossom into, unlike the Caddisfly that goes through a complete metamorphosis and looks nothing like the adult in the early (larval and pupal) development stages.
Nymphs, Emergers, Duns & Spinners, Oh My!
Complete Life Cycle
Now that we have a visual understanding of the mayfly life cycle, when we come back next Friday night we'll resume our Baetis fly tying video series and serve up some scrumptious Blue Winged Olive patterns that are sure to make your season.
Till then...
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by H. Lea Lawrence and was asked to review the book. I was little hesitant to do so. After all I am an engineer by trade, not an english major, and asking a fly fishing junkie to review a book about fly fishing in one of our nation's crown jewels is like feeding steak to a lion and asking him if it was any good.
a really cool DVD that provides a fascinating trout's view of the mayfly life cycle.
