PO Box 1273Helena, MT 59624-1273 • Fax 406-443-0788 800-874-4171e-mail: orders@thebookmailer.com
Search~> Flies - Gear - Supplies - Stories - AND everything else IMPORTANT: This database search does not cover our Books, Audio, Video, Software, Gift items. It searches the Flies, Gear, Supplies, Stories, and ALL other information on our site. If you are looking for a book, media, or gift item, please use this search instead.

JANUARY 2003 TIP • Fishing the Nymph Downstream

Conventional wisdom for nymph fishing says, “Cast upstream, or upstream and across, keep a short line, and mend like crazy to keep that fly on the bottom.” That advice is good as far as it goes. The trouble with that advice is that it neglects the second half of the drift -- when the fly passes downstream of you in the current. Once the fly bounces by you and is downstream of you, what you did to keep that fly down while it was upstream won't do you any good as it heads downstream. But you don’t have to settle for a simple, most-common swinging-to-the-surface downstream presentation. To extend your bottom hugging downstream drift, you have to reverse what you did on the upstream part of the drift.
If you have been managing the drift of your nymph correctly as it bounces down to you from above, you will likely have retrieved some slack as the fly got closer to your position on the stream. As the fly heads below you, follow its progress with the rod tip, gradually dropping the rod tip from the elevated position you maintained on the upstream portion of your drift, until the rod tip is just above the water. As you get the rod tip close to the water, begin wiggling the rod tip just enough to allow the slack which you collected on the upstream portion of the drift to pay back out. This will extend the dead drift for several feet before the fly starts to lift off the bottom. This technique works equally well whether you are using a nymph without an indicator or one with an indicator.