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Today, I tried to wean myself off the bobber.....

4K views 41 replies 24 participants last post by  nwbobber 
#1 ·
I’ve been wanting to learn to nymph without a bobber for some time.... but was hesitant because.... bobber fishing is pretty easy...and works pretty good..,

If you never tried nymphing without the indicator, it takes a little getting used to....but after 5 or 6 hrs, one unrecovered snag, and 16 fish, I noticed (2) things I really liked...

(1) I seemed to hook up better when fishing straight line as opposed to the indicator...

(2) Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually a lot easier fishing varying depths than constantly adjusting an indicator...
 

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#3 ·
Yes. I have been exploring Euro nymphing for some time now and have just gotten a rod to accomplish the type fishing. I have never been much on nymph fishing but then, most of us like the visual of dry fly fishing. That is still my favorite but the bugs don't always come off when I'm there so the nymph route seems to be the way to go. I bought a nymph "extension" line to tag on to my floating line so when I am seeing no hatches, I can tag that on, change leaders and flies, and be ready to nymph fish in a matter of minutes. I haven't tried it yet but will pretty quickly.
 
#4 ·
Geez, I started with what is now called "Euro Nymphing"... but we simply called it dead drift nymph fishing. Then someone came up with the idea of using a corkie... now called an indicator... and I do use indicators when midge emerger fishing on stillwaters. For rivers, I go back to basic dead drift nymphing with no indicator.

I honestly believe in "whatever works for you". If using an indicator works for you, use it. Why on earth would you want to change?
 
#8 ·
Yeah, but don't you have to think about what you're doing?... and pay attention???
Sounds like work.
Yes. The key is to keep the line between the rod tip and the pattern (s) as short as possible. Then you can see any hesitation. Plus, I like to lift and drop the rod tip (if possible) during the drift so if I feel any hesitation, I set the hook.

I learned how to dead drift nymph fish on The Metolius and really, it was the most effective technique for fishing the river. Those who try nothing but dry flies on the Met usually do not fair all that well.
 
#6 ·
I imagine it's just a challenge to try something new. It's like the recent interest in trout spey fishing. The loss of most steelhead availability has folks scrambling to find something to fill the void. I don't steelhead fish much any more but I like the two handed rods so I've stepped down to lighter rods suitable for trout fishing and get the same enjoyment when I hook up. I use a 10'10" 2/3 switch rod for trout. Even the small ones give me a thrill before I release them.
 
#7 ·
Congrats to the OP. Nice fish!

Tenkara is similar to (Euro) "tactical nymphing". Brightly colored (orange, chartreuse, hot pink, yellow) ~0X - 3X fluorocarbon lines are popular. I use a 3 color 0X Orvis tactical sighter at the end of an orange 7 to 17 ft line. One difference is a Tenkara angler will fish dry/wet, or weighted nymphs using the tight vertical line presentation.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Bobber fishin has it's time, and place. But, sans bobber, and being in touch with your business end, will give you better strike detection as a general rule........but you have to be rigged properly.

So I prefer no indo when it makes sense.

My typical approach on a big river like the D is high stick/euro, whatever u wanna call it, the shit out of close stuff, then bomb the further stuff with an indo rig.

I recommend George Daniels "Dynamic Nymphing.". Lots of great info on all of it...
 
#19 ·
My buddy and I actually did an unintentional experiment on indo vs sans indo, on the D during winter several years ago..

Fishin side by side on one of our favorite winter runs....it's a long run that looks like prototypical long indo drift.....so that's what I was doing....and I was picking up a fish now and again.....I'm confident in my weight and depth....I've indo fished A LOT on moving water over the years.....my buddy doesn't like to indo fish all that much, so he decides he's goin to fish a mono rig with the same flies I'm using.....protein B-fast(egg and worm)....he flat out out-fished me, which doesn't often happen....I introduced him to fly fishing.

Two points I'm trying to make...

1) strike detection.....the takes were very subtle that day, and I'm absolutely convinced I was getting strikes that did not register on my indo setup....we were fishing pretty much identical besides indo.

2) we never stop learning on the water....or another way to say it is, don't get caught up in what has worked before.....keep your mind open. I had had lots of success in the past, on that kind of water, in those kinds of conditions. On that day, I un-learned my automatic go-to of an indo setup in winter, in slower water.....and that's why I'm an addict.....constant discovery
 
#20 · (Edited)
I've been working on it too. Another arrow in the quiver of techniques available. Been through the curve with a few over the years. Horses for courses. Nice to have options your confident in. Have fun with it, but indicators have their place as you know. I'm enjoying Tactical FlyFfishing by Devin Olsen on the subject. But it's not all "euro nymphing".
 

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#27 ·
The videos from Lance Egan and Devin Olsen are awesome. I purchased all three, over the last year and a bit. I've watched each one maybe 3-5 times and I find something new each time.

I resisted the whole tight-lining thing for a long time and tried to improve my patriot nymphing instead. I regret it. I have noticed that this is a common trend.

I never thought I would say it, but tight-lining a dry-dropper rig is becoming my preferred way to fish dry flies too.
 
#28 ·
All of this shit cracks me up....I mean we're fishing for trout....right?

Most folks who have been fly fishing for these trouts for a while now, have utilized the whole tight line techniques for a really long time....as we go through it, the technique hasn't changed, just the rigging to make it slightly more effective has. I'll never be one to argue that tight-line techniques are extremely effective at putting numbers into the net, but personally (just for me....ergo 'personally'), I find it a rather boring way to fish for any length of time. But that's just me. Then again, knowing where and how to throw a small indicator with a couple of small nymphs dropped off it 20' to 60' out and doing that well, brings me more joy and sense of accomplishment. But that's just me, re: the nymphing game....yeah, it's just a game...stop taking it so seriously. Then again, if the streamer bite is even reasonable, I'll just do that.

carry on....

btw, today, my snail pattern seemed to garner enough interest to keep it around...
 
#29 · (Edited)
All of this shit cracks me up....I mean we're fishing for trout....right?

Most folks who have been fly fishing for these trouts for a while now, have utilized the whole tight line techniques for a really long time....as we go through it, the technique hasn't changed, just the rigging to make it slightly more effective has.
Everyone has tight-lined with their normal gear. However, it barely works and is reserved pretty much just for pocket water; you have to have the fish pretty much right under the rod tip, because the fly line is so heavy. To say all this euro/contact nymphing stuff is slightly more effective is a huge understatement; it extends your range by an order of magnitude.

Joe Humpreys and all those folks were doing the whole no-fly-line thing a long time ago. Maybe this is what you're referring to. It's true that it's nothing new, but it was very niche and a lot of people never heard of it before a few years ago. I've been into fly fishing since I was about 10, but I didn't know contact nymphing techniques existed until maybe 15 years later. Even then, it was just an obscure thing that only competition dudes did. I didn't actually try it until nearly 10 years after that. I think you'll find there's a lot of people like this and many more who refuse to even try it.
 
#32 ·
Everyone has tight-lined with their normal gear. However, it barely works and is reserved pretty much just for pocket water; you have to have the fish pretty much right under the rod tip, because the fly line is so heavy. To say all this euro/contact nymphing stuff is slightly more effective is a huge understatement; it extends your range by an order of magnitude.
I think you are missing out on a whole technique of nymphing by thinking this. Frank Sawyer is one of the well known guys that was doing the long line nymphing. The Czech team (and Im sure other european teams) were also doing long line upstream/downstream nymphing with fly lines on the water, no indicator.
 
#33 · (Edited)
I think you are missing out on a whole technique of nymphing by thinking this. Frank Sawyer is one of the well known guys that was doing the long line nymphing. The Czech team (and Im sure other european teams) were also doing long line upstream/downstream nymphing with fly lines on the water, no indicator.
That's exactly how I was taught to nymph, when I was a kid. I don't think indicators had caught on back then or at least no one I knew used them. Regardless, I don't think anyone refers to that as tight-lining. Back then, people just called it "nymphing", but I heard it referred to as "naked nymphing" after indicators became prevalent.

Perhaps we are all talking about different things. When I say "tight-lining", I mean having all fly line off the water and being tight to the fly. If you have fly line on the water, the line is not tight to the fly. Hence, it's not "tight-lining".

I'm aware that there are other ways to fish a nymph. However, in the quoted post, I was only talking about tight-lining.
 
#30 ·
to say it "barely works" is a disservice to those of us who actually can do it well (I'm not saying that utilizing new types of setups doesn't help----just saying that it's not the one and only way to catch a helluva a lot of fish). Hell, one of the very best fly fishers I've ever seen only fished 2 PTs tightlined on his trout spey rod, no indi, no special leader, and just absolutely crushed it. Personally, I find it boring as hell. Could I catch 10 more fish in a day? probably, but at some point, when trout fishing, there's very little difference (to me) between catching 50 fish vs. 60 fish. just sayin'....(unless you're the ultra competitive type, in which case, you're in the wrong hobby....).

Btw, I stuck a really nice fish today on a streamer I tied....way more rewarding than the double digits I got nymphing....most under an indi, but a few not.

bottom line, it's great to have multiple clubs in the bag, not just a putter.
'
 
#31 ·
to say it "barely works" is a disservice to those of us who actually can do it well
I meant in comparison to the no-fly-line approach. 2ft of 4wt fly line weighs more than 10ft of 15lb mono and you can't really argue with physics of that.

just saying that it's not the one and only way to catch a helluva a lot of fish
I don't think anyone here is claiming that it is, but I didn't read the whole thread.

it's great to have multiple clubs in the bag, not just a putter.
Again, I don't think anyone here is claiming that euro/contact/whatever is the be-all of fly fishing. However, many are discovering it for the first time and they want to focus on this fun new thing they are learning.
 
#36 ·
It's all been done before, or at least variations.

I am no fan of competitive fly fishing. But I understand the value of the innovations.....these guys/gals fish in really difficult conditions. The fine tuning of some of this shit is worth playing around with, imo......that said, as always, it's fishin.....do it how u want, and be happy ur not at work!
 
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