Casting and Nymph Fishing Unencumbered by an Indicator

Rim often says, “The purpose of the upstream cast is to allow the nymph time to sink before reaching where the fish are intended to be.  Because of this, you must position your cast to be well upstream of the fish.  How far upstream depends upon the depth of the water, the current speed and the amount of lead on your line.  Therefore, you must position yourself approximately across the stream from the trout.  With this method, you can fish to trout from below, across, or above their in-stream positions.  However, I mostly find myself standing just slightly below the trout’s anticipated in-stream position.”

“To cast, I allow my nymph rigging to extend out straight downstream, by first making a downstream roll cast.  Then with a good pull off the water, I make a smooth and accurate cast to shoot the line to the target point, well upstream of the fish.  The cast itself is commonly become known as the “water haul” and eliminates needless false casting of the weighted line, which false casting generally serves only to tangle most nymph fishing rigs.”

Once the fly is cast into position, “[t]he significant point is that you remain absolutely passive, apart from methodically gathering in any slack line, until you detect the trout’s voluntary acceptance of your artificial and strike on this signal.”  While this may seem like something Mr. Chung would have said, it actually came from one of Frank Sawyer’s pupils, Oliver Kite.  In some hope that Mr. Chung might better explain his method, I continued, “But, I still seem to be missing some strikes while upstream nymphing.”

Rim replied, “This is why it is important to fish the fly upstream from the line.  A straight upstream cast, or one upstream and across if properly managed, will allow the fly to travel in the same plane as the given current.  You must position that cast to be in the same plane of current as the fish.  The whole part of the line and leader, in or on the water, must be in the same plane of current.  Otherwise, a faster plane of current will cause the line to drag across a slower plane of current.  To counter this natural tendency for drag, you must mend to place the line and leader on line with the current plane the fly lands in.  This will create the desired line of drift and then you must manage the line to ensure that the fly travels naturally within that current plane.

“But, you are not making upstream mends, as traditionally practiced in strike indicator methods.  With the indicator, these upstream mends, serve to take the pressure off of the fly as it drifts.  This pressure is created by the downstream pull on the indicator, which serves to prevent the fly from generally reaching the bottom or intended horizontal level of drift.  Without the indicator and with a fine line and leader, such as I use, these upstream mends are generally unnecessary.”

“Strikes are more readily detected if the fly is upstream from the line.  This is because the fly stops moving when a fish strikes it, therefore if your line which is downstream will immediately stop moving as well.  If you fish with the fly downstream from the line, as many suggest, you will never see the subtle takes by concentrating on your fly line.  By the time the line catches up with the fly, your opportunity will be missed.

“With regard to detecting a strike, try to ‘be with your fly.’  Focus your consciousness and concentration on the drift.  You must give your line your constant attention while your fishing is in progress.  It is akin to the martial artist who must know his enemy.  You must focus your concentration on the totality of the situation.  You must attempt to become one with the fly, the line, the drift, the current, the fish, the weather, the rod and it all.  Only then, will the angler become an expert in nymphing.  It is not as difficult as it appears, if one focuses on it.  However, if you lose your focus you will likely miss it all.  You must maintain the proper relationship between fly, line, current, fish, and angler.  Excessive slack must be removed so as to allow the strikes to be detected and so as to not impart drag to the fly.”

In essence, nymph fishing requires intensive concentration.  Skues (Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout) put it this way, “For in nymph fishing one has to watch not for the rise, thought that is occasionally quite obvious, but for one or more of series of other hints to which a lightning response must be made if your trout is to be hooked. . . .Indeed I believe the persistent study and practice of nymph fishing will tend to develop in one a sort of sixth sense which has no name, but which gives at times astonishing results.”  This is one reason why it is so difficult to the dry-fly man.  When the fish strikes the dry, it is readily apparent.  When the fish strikes the nymph, it may impart only the smallest “tick” or “bump” to the fly line.  In some cases it may not cause the line to move at all before the fish spits the fly back out.  Trout are excellent at sampling your fly and then rejecting it without the angler’s knowledge.  It is my belief that most nymph fisherman only detect a very small percentage of actual strikes.  This is one reason why Mr. Chung is so effective.  He has an uncanny, intuitive ability, from thirty years of practice, to sense the take upon only the slightest indication.  My guess is that presentation and detection are the primary explanations of why most of nymph fishing masters were so effective with a variety of patterns.  Kite called it a state of “informed anticipation.”

I’m often asked what do you use as the indicator then, is it detecting the strike by feel? No. It’s by sight, use the tip of the line (or leader if high sticking) where it enters the water, in place of an indicator.  And free your flies from unnecessary drag and spooking of the fish below.

Rim fishes anyway necessary for the conditions.  However, the most advantageous position is for the fish to be roughly straight across the stream or slightly upstream of your position.  Then you cast quartering upstream. It’s a mistaken belief that Rim fishes down and across, letting the flies swing up as emergers, because it is believed by many that the RS2 is an emerger pattern.   It wasn’t devised to be fished that way, but many certainly do that, some even greasing the leaders to encourage the rise on the downstream swing. Rim is not one of them.

We certainly sight fish more often than fishing blind, but that is not always possible.  Yesterday was a good example, as the water conditions where much higher than usual, so it was impossible to see many fish.   My cousin was in town and she and her husband had never fly fished, but we managed enough for them to have a decent day, but it was difficult fishing compared to a week ago in the same spots.

Some ask about connecting the second fly to the first with tippet tied to the bend, rather than tying in as droppers. The argument against dropper tags are they get tangled up and don’t provide a direct connection to the fly.  

But ultimately, each person develops their own preferences or style, so we aren’t trying to convert anyone, I’m just sharing the fly and method that revolutionized my fly fishing after many years of traditional methods.