Challenges of Nymph Fly
Fishing
By Brett
Fogle
When nymph fly fishing,
the angler is imitating the juvenile stage of aquatic insects.
As such, all fly fishing is done underwater,
not on top of it. Thus, unlike when dry fly fishing, an
angler will not see a rise or the fish itself pop through
the surface when gulping in a fly.
Additionally, unlike dry fly fishing, when
using nymphs an angler will usually not be able to see
the actual fly itself. Not being able to see the fly
itself is probably what gives anglers new to fly fishing
with nymphs the most problems, as it needless to say
makes it more difficult to detect strikes and set the
hook.
Yet another challenge of nymph fly fishing
is that the nymphs are frequently floated along or just
near the river bottom. As such, the nymph will constantly
be "bumping" into underwater obstructions – particularly
rocks. All these little bumps cause beginner anglers to
mistake these bumps for strikes (as the strike indicator
will momentarily pause when the nymph hits a rock). And,
of course, sooner or later, the nymph will actually hook
a rock or log, leading to the fun of getting the fly
unstuck from whatever it hooked.
Finally, the angler who is fly fishing with
nymphs will have to use methods to get their fly down
into the water. Comparatively, dry fly fishing is easy
where all fishing occurs right on the surface.
Everything in dry fly fishing is two
dimensional. With nymph fishing, however, the angler will
need to determine how deep the trout are and then figure
out how to get their fly to that depth – adding a 3rd
dimension to their fly fishing. To accomplish this
requires being able to know how to get your nymph to the
right depth, as well as making accurate casts.
To top this off, trout tend to be much more
subtle when they eat nymphs. Unlike in dry fly fishing,
when trout often times hit a fly really hard, trout
unfortunately don’t show this characteristic with nymphs.
This is probably due to the fact that the bulk of a
trout’s diet is in the form of nymphs. Whatever the
reason, though, a trout tends to "slurp" in nymphs gently
– often times just being lazy and waiting for the nymph
to float right to it. Because of this, setting the hook
properly (and knowing when to do it) when fly fishing
with nymphs is extremely important for
success.
These are the challenges of fly fishing
with nymphs. And these same challenges are generally what
put off many a fly fisherman from attempting nymph
fishing – all the more so if they just happen to be fly
fishing on a river known for top-water hatches (even
though the exact same river may have even better
sub-surface fishing!).
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