Nymph fly rod and nymph casting advice request

[AlphaDelta]

I have started fly fishing this year and use a 4wt 8'6'' rod and it casts great for dry flies. When fishing weighted nymphs I can not cast well. Someone told me to use a 5 or 6wt 9' rod which should help in casting the heavier nymphs. Does anyone have any comments or experience with this idea?

I currently shorten my leader to 5' with about a foot of 5x as the tippet on my current rod. This seems to help with turning over the fly and have to keep my casts to about 15 to 20 foot max otherwise I cannot get the fly to turn over.

Any help will be appreicated.

I am practicing in my back yard with my current rod to gain better casting proficiency in nymph casting.

 

[ebroesicke]

9ft 4wt has been my go to nymph rod for the past 2-3 yrs. I works great for this. You have to learn to not make the real tight loops that work so well for turning over dry flies, especially when using heavy nymphs. If your fly truly is not turning over, this may be a case of not enough power in your cast. Just keep fishing, it will come.

 

[J55tyger88]

^ bigger loops for nymph rigs, it helps me.

 

[RCFetter]

So, how do you make larger or smaller loops?

 

[afishinado]

A Belgian or sometimes called a tension cast works for casting weighted flies and/or splitshot. The idea to keep tension on the line throughout the cast without stopping. Here good how-to article:

http://midcurrent.com/techniques/the-belgian-cast/

 

[ebroesicke]

i am far from a casting expert, but tight loops usually come from having acceleration of the rod in a straight line coming to a hard stop. For an open loop, a "lazy" casting stroke, with less of a hard stop, or even starting the cast off to the side on the backcast and then bringing the cast back up over the shoulder has worked for me.

 

[J55tyger88]

Its tough to put into words, but i think i drop my rod a tad on forward and back cast to open up loop. Also, like already said, a lazy stroke as well. Does this sound right?

 

[WildTigerTrout]

One of my favorite flyrods is my Sage "SLT" 8'6" 4 weight. It is an excellent rod for dryflys and lightweight nymphs. Frankly though it's horrible with weighted nymphs. If I know I will be fishing with weighted, heavy nymph rigs I turn to another favorite rod, my Cortland "Brook" 10 foot 5 weight. The SLT is just not fast/stiff enough to handle heavy rigs, but then it was not designed to do so. Invest in a flyrod designed for nymph fishing and you will find the experience ALOT more enjoyable and less work too. Besides you can never have too many flyrods.

 

[krayfish2]

I'm with Tyger. Slow it down. You don't cast easier but slower tempo. Allows tension on line which should help you with distance and "turning over" the rig.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

Roll casts can also work for heavy nymphing. When I'm fishing for Salmon I am using additional weight to get the egg pattern down in the strike zone quicker.

 

[MKern]

While casting further is a valuable skill, you really only need to cast nymphs less than 25 feet.

When fishing nymphs the more line on the water the more missed strikes detected and less takes because of all the drag.

 

[dsmith1427]

^ +1
Most of the time I roll cast or flip nymphs. For me, the key is keeping tension on the line aka the rod loaded. Check out this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MtbHAhq7V8

I follow the line down stream in a similar fashion. Rarely do I use an indicator anymore.

 

[Chaz]

You don't need a special rod for nymphing!!! You only need to change the setup of your leader.
When you cast a nymph you want a big loop the momentum of the fly following the big loop will drive the fly to the bottom.