New to Nymphing

[Baron]

I wasn't having any luck in catching trout in the Matin's Creek. I hadn't even gotten a hit. Everyone said "well use a Wooly Bugger".........Junk. Never even a hit in a whole year.....One LMB.
Last week a gentleman walked up and asked how I was making out and I said "terrible". "Never caught a trout ever after a year of trying." He said he could help me out and handed over some of the plainest looking and miniature Nymphs and on my first cast I had hits. Hits developed into many more and then a score.
I'm new to fly fishing and am wondering, will these Nymphs be good all year or do I have to switch to the adult version of them as they develop during spring and summer. The flies were as follows: 16 Prince, 16 or smaller Flashback Pheasant Tail and 14 Zug Bug.

 

[afishinado]

Baron wrote:
I wasn't having any luck in catching trout in the Matin's Creek. I hadn't even gotten a hit. Everyone said "well use a Wooly Bugger".........Junk. Never even a hit in a whole year.....One LMB.
Last week a gentleman walked up and asked how I was making out and I said "terrible". "Never caught a trout ever after a year of trying." He said he could help me out and handed over some of the plainest looking and miniature Nymphs and on my first cast I had hits. Hits developed into many more and then a score.
I'm new to fly fishing and am wondering, will these Nymphs be good all year or do I have to switch to the adult version of them as they develop during spring and summer. The flies were as follows: 16 Prince, 16 or smaller Flashback Pheasant Tail and 14 Zug Bug.

There really are no "magic" flies that work all the time but those are some really good flies to keep in your box and fish.

One of the mistakes I see with many beginner FFers when I peek into their fly boxes is they tend to use big flies and shy away from smaller ones. Your friend did you a favor by giving you some smaller flies to fish.

Without getting into specific patterns, stock your fly box with a wide variety of flies > big and small, dark and light, shiny and earth-tone, weighted and unweighted, minnow-like and bug-like, etc.

BTW, keep trying wooly buggers, they are one of the most universal flies you can ever fish.

Good luck.

 

[marcq]

Each stream has its own diverse group of bugs in it. Get to know the bugs. I’m sure martins has a hatch chart somewhere on the internet.

Some flies I would have on any givin day would be.

Pheasant tail 14-20
Hare ear 14-18
Scud 14-18
Sexy Walt’s worm 12-16 in tan gray olive
Zebra midge 18-22

In the Lehigh Valley you also get good hatches of Tricos I would have some of the 22-26. Get both male and female. One are female are white and males are black.

 

[Baron]

Okay and as the year passes do I use the adult versions of the same insect? For example: there were caddis flying around the other day and the fish were rising all day. I was using nymphs that were supposed to represent the same in a larval stage. Should I have switched to an adult caddis with wings and so forth.

I would believe in wooly buggers if I had caught anything on them. I fished three hrs a day 2-4 days a week from June through September and only caught bass on them. I plan on using them in lily pads for bass and pickerel this summer.

I did cut from size 8,10 and 12 to 14-20. I've seen the trio's online and will acquire then on my next order. Thanks for your help.

 

[HellBoy]

The LaFontaine caddis pupas are killers whenever caddis are popping. The unweighted ones are awesome trailing behind a caddis dry, especially when you see slashy rises, use the bead head versions when you see some caddis and fish are flashing down deep. The "adult" of an aquatic insect is basically the dry fly version of the fly. Caddis have larval, pupal and adult stages, stone flies just have nymph and adult, non pupal stage. Hares ears in a variety of sizes and colors, princes, and pheasant tails usually always work. A couple of other simple patterns are Walts Works, San Juan Worms, small Glo Bugs, Green Weenies, and Sawyers Killer Bug. Wooly buggers are a staple for many anglers so don't knock'em.

 

[MKern]

If fish are hitting the surface taking dry flies, you could switch to a dry fly. But that's a whole different fly fishing genre. However, nothing like watching a fish explode up and take your dry.

But yes, you could stick with nymphs and fish subsurface during a hatch. Every fish you see hit the surface, there are ten more under the water actively feeding.

Just keep as much line off the water and try to get your fly in little current breaks and seams.

 

[Tigereye]

Good selection of flies noted above. I would suggest also fishing a dry/droppper. Tie a 15 -18 inch piece of tippet to the bend of your dry fly. The tie the nymph of you choice to the other end.

You are now fishing a dry and a nymph/emerger simultaneously. BUT the best part is you are also learning to fish with an indicator that happens to be a dry fly.

I do not mean this disrespectfully, and don't take it as such. But it is like training wheels for nymph fishing and will definitely shorten the learning curve for you.

This forum is a great place to start. You are asking the right questions. Stay with it and good luck.

 

[marcq]

When nymphing use some sort of indicator. Watch a YouTube video on how to set it up. They will explain it best.

Stages of hatches are hard to predict some times. The other day same thing Caddis flying around everywhere fish were rising threw every dry version of Caddis I have. Nothing. Put on a emerging and it worked when swung like a wet fly.

Watch some YouTube videos there is a ton of really good show fly shops and anglers that make content that is very educational.

 

[SteveG]

Don't get discouraged by not having success with buggers during the time frame you were fishing them, as some would agree it wasn't the ideal time for them. Furthermore, it could also have been the time of day, water temp, water levels, water features (pools, riffles, etc), insect activity, how you were fishing them, and even the character of that particular body of water.

As you gain proficiency and confidence, you'll see that trout change food sources throughout the day due to a multitude of changing conditions. It's not uncommon to cycle between nymph, dries, wets, and streamers in a single outing.

Personally, if it seems like it could be streamer conditions, a bigger is usually the first thing I tie on. If action is slow or non-existent, I'll try another color or style of streamer. If that doesn't have any effect, I switch to nymphing pretty quickly. If something isn't working, change up.

 

[Baron]

Gentlemen I see a theme here.
maintain a collection of the most recently productive Nymphs from whatever creek I'm on, As the day drags on switch it up when the action slows, stay away from Wooly buggers until someone can show me how they work, fish emerges as wet and graduate eventually to a Dry Dropper.

Okay, I started catching fish little by little......pretty darn exciting compared to spinning gear.

I currently find double nymph to work. Flashback or zugbug under a prince or Frenchie. I use one two or three BB to be sure they are on the bottom.

There are a plethora of local fishermen to copy. That is how I found out about how well the Zug and the Flashback pheasant tail performs.

 

[Baron]

In the few comments you folks shared above I learned more in a short time than I had in months of surfing the internet. The internet is great but in my case I had no point of reference. I was primarily buying the wrong sizes and in some cases the wrong colors. Safe to say my local fish were all Quakers. They only bite the plainest and simplest;-)

As the weather warms I will be watching what others are using. I currently us an indicator (rich mans bobber) however when I get to really deep water do I remove the indicator?

 

[Baron]

Is there a way to have a notification sent to my email box when my inquiries are answered. I almost missed these replies as I'm on the go so much.

 

[Baron]

So the two flies I saw when fishing at Upper Woods Pond Saturday were adult Black Caddis and adult Black Midge. it was 37 degrees and the midge were flying within a few inches of the surface. The caddis were bombing in from I don't know where and the trout were raising here and there. The lake was 20' deep and had clear water. How would you have fished for them? As an old disease I gave in to using Carolina rig and powerboat on spinning gear. I had others in the boat, all with only spinning gear, could I have been successful with the fly rod? if so what Fly/method?

 

[Dave_W]

Baron wrote:
The caddis were bombing in from I don't know where and the trout were raising here and there. The lake was 20' deep and had clear water. How would you have fished for them? As an old disease I gave in to using Carolina rig and powerboat on spinning gear. I had others in the boat, all with only spinning gear, could I have been successful with the fly rod? if so what Fly/method?

Yes, you could have used the fly rod although sometimes in a crowded boat it can be a problem.

If it were me, I would have tied on a basic elk hair caddis dry fly and cast toward the rising fish. If this did not produce I would likely have switched to a midge or caddis fly nymph or emerger and fished it under the surface by casting it toward where I saw a fish rise and slowly stripping it back to the boat.

Fly fishing on ponds and lakes is, in my opinion, more difficult to master than fishing streams where there is current especially if you're targeting trout.

If you spend a lot of time on ponds or lakes, I highly recommend you try targeting bluegills and sunfish. Prime time is May-early June when these guys are shallow. Bluegills on a fly rod are a blast and the practice you get will help you improve your FFing skills.

 

[Baron]

Dave I see you are from Gettysburg, love it.....I used to sell to the Agway there.
I got into Fly fishing a year ago. Fished worms all my life. Wanted to learn more about how fish move around all year and how they perceive their food. The Irony is that my primary target will be and always has been Panfish: pickerel, perch, Bluegill ( I plan to add Crappie as I get to lakes that have them.
Trout are all around me here in Easton and I can practice in ways that will help me with Panfish. Understanding colors, life stages and presentation techniques will be really helpful to learn even though the insects are a bit different for PF.
So fishing in lakes is not the panacea for trout? The lake I fished yesterday is 25-80', deep, 30 acres and is full of stocked trout and some bass. I was thinking Deceivers and other streamers but didn't try. We were in deep water.
The boat was a 12' drift boat built and rowed by me, grandson up front. Works well but is slow.......a blast in the Delaware here in Easton.
At 37 degrees there wasn't any weedbeds to fish and out of all the fish that were seen none were along the shore and the cover afforded there. That is why I used spinning gear.

 

[HellBoy]

In fast deeper water don't over look a bounce rig. it's really easy and lets you fish flies deep consistently without losing them. I typically use two nymphs and the split shot go on the very bottom. Basically two flies tied on the same piece of tippet with clinch knots and leaving an 8-10" tag and you put the split shot on the end of the tag, when the split shots get hung up just give little tugs (CAREFUL) until the shot slides off and replace them. This lets you hit deep rund and heavy riffles without losing your flies. If you tie your flies on a continuous piece of tippet with clinch knots instead of tying off the bend of the hook, the flies drift nicer and wiggle around and it's generally more productive. Just don't use the rig on the Salmon River.

 

[Baron]

Hellboy that sounds reasonable. I had read about that but have not tried it. certainly seems easy. Would be nice not to lose the whole rig because of snags with split shots. I had also seen this tied with a separate splitshot tag of a few inches up higher than the flies. are you fishing Hosensack or Little Lehigh?

 

[HellBoy]

I fish the Lehigh, Little Lehigh, Saucon, Bushkill, Tully, and plenty others. It's good to have a bunch of different techniques/tactics to be able to vary your fishing to the stream you're fishing, I'm sure your finding that there's no magic bullet rig. Sure any nymph rig could catch fish on any given piece of water, but being able to get your flies presented properly it's best to have a few tactics that you're confident with and that will come in time.

 

[HellBoy]

Oh, I live just a few miles from the Hosensack, but haven't fished it. I've seen a lot of people in the VFW parking lot the past few weeks though, I'll have to check it out. I saw the results from the stream survey the state did a while back and there are wild trout in it.

 

[Baron]

I have allot of mobility issues and can't stand in water long nor wear waders.
I learned to catch trout in the Hosensack 40 years ago and I used to love it. Haven't been there in almost thirty years but its pleasant memory is marked in my mind.
Do you recommend Frenchies in the Bushkill?