 Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
Posted by greg (3735 reads)
As is typical, I received a phone call to fish a stream that I don’t typically think much of and one that ignored all last year. The reason I wasn't highly motivated to fish this particular river is because I hadn't had much luck there last year. My friend calls me on the phone and tells me there are lots of brown trout in the river because of recent high water flows and if I fish it with a specific type of nymph setup I'll catch plenty. I was doubtful, and thought it a bit strange that trout would only be taking dead drifted small nymphs and not paying any attention to swung streamer patterns, nymphs or wet flies. But, I was eager to catch some fish and willing to give anything a try. The stream was at a good flow and my friend, after checking my rig, said walk out to the edge of that seam and cast your nymphs way upstream. I was set up with an indicator rig, very similar to the way we fish for steelhead. The only difference was, instead of using egg patterns, we were running two flashback pheasentails. The lead fly was a size 16 and the dropper fly was a size 18. On my second cast I hooked a nice brown trout, after that it seemed as though I was blessed by the fishing gods. I was hooking fish on what seemed to be every cast. I do not remember catching that many brown trout in a few hours time for years. I must admit to being not good at nymphing until fishing with this friend, but learning is a life long process. I have decided to not question my friend when it comes to fishing, in spite of his junior years. I believe he is just one of those guys who has a natural feel for the presence of fish and how to trick them. When you find guys like
this, stick with them! I am sure that fly fishing is a sport that requires the input of others and that input is often responsible for more fish on your line. Advice given should be used until proven wrong. If you don't take the advice and catch nothing, you have learned nothing.
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Re: Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
by gilly09 | Beautiful fish Greg. Glad you had a good day out.
Thanks for sharing. |
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Re: Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
by hedrush999 http://www.worldangling.com | | damn greg, you look cold...he he It doesn't look like there are any leaves on the trees yet, but its good to see that you are getting into some fish. |
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Re: Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
by jeremy http://www.fliesandfins.com | | greg ... it's so true.. sometimes, all they want is nymphs .. and won't even turn their head for streamers and other stuff... and, just because a person may have a prince, copperjohn or whatever tied on .. does not mean they are nymphing .. especially if they are swinging those flies .... i remember a few years back i was always perplexed because some guys (joe-m and joey) would be hooking fish after fish on nymph setups .. and i would have a wooly bugger with a nymph dropper .. and though i would hook some fish .. it was not nearly as many or consistent as them ... then, i came to realize that it was the presentation .. if trout are feeding on nymphs that are just floating through the water column and not swimmers or anything like that .. then it's really no wonder why they don't want to see a swung fly .. because a swung pheasentail, in that instance, looks NOT natural .. just like swinging an egg pattern for steelhead does not make much sense .. because an egg just drifts down the river, motionless .. so, to swing it gives it an unnatural presentation .... and fishing streamers in a river where there is not many baitfish and the trout are definately feeding on nymphs does not make much sense to me either. conversely, during a smelt run or a dry fly hatch ... fishing nymphs would not make that much sense ... so, through the years and to this day .. i too am constantly learning that it's rarely a one size fits all setup and presentation ... depending on what is happening in the water and what the food is ... i find enjoyment out of figuring out the puzzle on any given river ... even though sometimes, like on the delaware river or some wild fisheries here in maine or albies, i fail to solve the puzzle .. or i just get lucky and catch a couple dumb ones .. but that's still ok too ... |
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Re: Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
by AlexisMT555 http://www.ekwatafly.com/en/ | greg,
Nice humble tale. I like your point of view about "learning". Great reading.
This fish is simply beautiful and the underwater pic just awsome!!! I don't know if it's the fish' dress, sun reflect on it or both. |
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Re: Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
by waterwhippa | | Great trout Greg. Glad to see you out and about and getting down and dirty with the nymph tactics. |
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Re: Brown Trout: Nymphs Or Nothing At All
by Fisherboy | | Greg, what a great fish! Like yourself, I thought that this river was "old hat." It was an amazing discovery. That is a very respectable brown for anyones standards, and like you mentioned, tough to trick. Congrats on tricking the big brown |
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