"Leisenring Lift" worked this morning

[mike_richardson]

It is no secret that my favorite way to nymph fish is with an indicator. I don't know what it is but watching that indi rip up stream has the same effect for me that many dry fly fisherman like when the trout comes up and wacks their fly. Stupid I know, but it is what trips my trigger. I can catch fish with Czech, high sticking, all that other jazz, but I like the no fuss no muss way of fishing. Heck I use a hand tied tapered leader to a barrel swivel and use 4-6# fluorocarbon for my tippet. It works, I catch fish, and I am happy. I spend more time with flies in the water than I do fighting with blood knots

Some days however the old faithful indicator and dead drift wont cut it. Often if the water is lower it is tough to detect the strikes with it. So I reluctantly switch methods. Some times I leave the indicator on to help me see the general area where the flies are. My eyes are not the best anymore.

Well this morning before work I snuck to my honey hole and had about 15 minutes to fish. My first cast yielded a nice 10" hold over bow. The trout hit a grey squirrel nymph. I know there are a pile of fish in this hole, but after 5 minutes of no more takers I figured I was either not detecting the strikes, or the fish did not want the dead drifted nymphs.

I could see a few trout actively feeding mid water coloumn, so I figured I would try and use the "Leisenring Lift" technique. Now it is probably more technical than how I was doing it, and I am sure others know more about how to do this but here is what I was doing.

I knew a few of the key feeding lies on the hole, and a few of the structures that would hold the fish. I kept the indicator on for a reference to know where my flies were. Most would take it off, but it helps me quickly keep tabs. You would probably be a lot better off without one

I would pitch out up stream at roughly a 45 degree angle and let the flies get to the bottom. Once my indicator would be above where i felt the fish were I would start to slowly lift the flies up. I like to almost pause a little or dip my wrist back down as I am lifting. The rod would be pretty much straight out in front of me at this point, and I would be lifting the flies up and down stream.

I believe what this is representing is nymphs coming up off of the bottom to hatch. My first lift yielded a nice brookie about 9".

I took him off and gave it a go again. One of the key things about this that you need to remember is pinching the line with you rod hand between one of your fingers. If you don't it is easy to lose tension, and not get a good hookset. The fish will often hook itself on the lift as they are going to take you fly and swim back down. If you keep tension you will feel the fish take it, they will feel the hook and dart down, setting the hook. A quick lift of the rod, and the fish will hook itself.

I was having a blast and just about every cast or every other cast yielded a fish. I had about 2 minutes to spare, before I get out of the 10 minutes early comfort zone for work, when my lift got hammered.

I set the hook and my drag was screaming pretty good. I knew I had a nice fish on. THe water temps were pretty low with the cold snap but I still wanted to make the fight short, as I imagine the oxygen levels are a bit lower right now.

I brought to hand a really pretty rainbow. I knew he was in the hole as my son had lost him on a salmon egg/waxworm combo about a week or 2 before.

My go to fly "peeping caddis" as I like to call it, and the name my uncle who showed me the pattern reference,( "peeking caddis" is its real name), did the trick on a few of the fish I brought to hand. You can see it a little in this fishes mouth.

I like to tie mine with ultra chenille as the peeping section, ruffed grouse hackle for the legs/sticks of the caddis case, holographic tinsel for the rib, and grey squirrel for the body. I substitute hares mask dubbing as well. All colors will work but the grey squirrel is best IMO.

Anyway, I snapped these pics real quick, and was getting my fly out the trout flopped into the water, and snapped my fly off.

Figures as I am out of the ultra chenille I use to tie the pattern. I may try some chartreuse yarn this time around, and save some money.

I am not great at this method and I hope some others who would out fish me any day can chime in with some better tips and explanations. I am all ears on this as I want to get better at different techniques. But it is worth a little research if you never heard of it or tried it. I also believe the creator was from PA.

Thanks for the read,

Mike

 

[mikesl]

Sounds like a nice morning! good post thanks for sharing.

I'm not an expert either, but i have read that a more typical leisenring lift is more associated with a longer kline downstream drift, and comes from slowly stopping the free drift when the line and nymph are well downstream, and letting the current lift it?

but your technique did the same thing in a tightline nyphing sort of way, and it sure worked. the principle is what counts.

I too have had times when the lift was an unbelievable strike triger, and could take fish after fish from the same hole. Fun when you can get into it!

 

[mike_richardson]

Thanks for the input. As I said I am not up on lingo, and techniques. IF there is a technical name for what I was doing, please let me know. Just wanted to bring the point home, that sometimes, the slightest adjustment, or switch of technique and bring in more fish.

 

[geebee]

Mike is correct - what you are doing is more akin to Frank Sawyers Induced Take method. It's pretty deadly on fish you can see.

I typically do it without an indicator though. It gives me a better connection with the flee.

 

[mike_richardson]

Thanks for the insight on the actual tactic I used. I knew there had to be something out there on it. To be honest half the reason I left the indicator on there was because I only had a few minutes to fish. LOL gotta love being a father of a 3 year old and twin 2 month olds, you sneak in every minute you can. LOL!

 

[troutbert]

A standard practice from back in the wet fly days is to use a handtwist retrieve for a little movement. Works with nymphs also.

 

[henrydavid]

Very pretty Rainbow and nice write up

 

[shakey]

great to see a nymph fisherman trying wet fly techniques !! you are on your way to the art

 

[Mike]

Your pragmatic and simplistic approaches are a breath of fresh air and aptly counter some of the pseudo sophistication present in fly fishing. Any ice angler will agree with you that vertical jigging works well for trout, panfish, etc., and what you described sounds a lot like jigging. A trend toward greater simplicity would probably bring more into the sport.

 

[mike_richardson]

Thanks. I am a firm believer in the K.I.S.S techniques, my uncle who got me into fly fishing told me to (Keep It Simple Stupid) I am not one who knows technical names, or can cast my way out of a wet paper bag, but I can catch fish and that works for me. My main focus with fly fishing is catching fish, and as many as I can in the short time frame that I have to fish. Most of my outings are close to home since I have twin 2 month olds, and a 3 year old at home. SO I need to keep my flies in the water as much as possible.

My typical rig is a hand tied tapered leader, to a barrel swivel, then I use 4lb suffix flourocarbon to my first fly, then tie off the hook bend the other fly.

I am not denouncing learning proper casting techinques, knots, technical names of fishing techniques. My hats are off to those that can cast a dryfly through an opening in branches that is 10" round, but that is just not my style. I am more of a small-medium stream fisherman, who dredges the bottom with nymphs and a bobber. Leisenring lift, induced take, jigging, lifting, swinging, what ever I did worked LOL

Also I am interested in learning more on wet flies, and the art of fishing them. It will just be a tough transition for me. I am so set in my ways of roll cast, mend, drift, repeat, or roll cast, mend, drift, lift, that I would probably take the wet flies off and go back to bobber nymphing.

 

[dsmith1427]

This video (and the one after it) talks about the Liesenring Lift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WZbM1H8k0Y&index=9&list=PLD1970A9E13C61EBA