Skunked Again

[djs12354]

Spent a couple hours out this afternoon on the Dyberry, but took the skunk for a ride. Made worse by watching a couple of gentlemen using the dark side of the force to bring a couple in.

In spite of being sore from an ankle I turned in the morning and a backache from being fat, it was good to get out on the water. I may not have caught a fish, but I did learn that, given enough space, I can lay down a decent cast left-handed. Of course, I will now have to spend time practicing that!

The other thing I obviously need to work on is my nymphing technique. Although, I did also try buggers, emergers and dries, all in the hope of ringing some fishes dinner bell.

I had hoped my brother could join Dan and I on the water, but he was busy working on his kitchen. We were hoping to get him on his first trout on the fly. Maybe tomorrow......

 

[duckbuster]

A couple of tips that might help your nymphing; use a tandem rig, I go with a prince on top and some sort of brassie on the bottom(anywhere from 6-12 inches apart) . Use a strike indicator, the thingamabobber works really well, and lastly set your indicator 1.5 time the depth of the water (if you don't get any takers adjust the depth, sometime an inch or two makes all the difference).

 

[djs12354]

Tandem was the one thing I did not try yesterday and I'm head slapping myself for that one. Water was high where we were fishing and it may have been the ticket I needed.

 

[JackM]

I learned to fish under the surface by using a tightline method, whether presenting wooly buggers, nymphs or wet flies. Knowledge of the take immediately is the key to success. The tightline will impart knowledge immediately, but is not always the best presentation technique. Hence the invention of various "strike indicators," some of which are quite bobber-like.

If you adopt the bobber-indicator, don't give up on tighline techniques altogether. Use them each when one or the other seems to be an advantage based upon your experience then or prior.

I find in 75% or more of the nymphing situations I fish, I can gain immediate knowledge of the strike by having a leader than lets my fly line lay on the water and some part of the leader butt to do so also. The balance of the taper should hold the fly approximately where you want it. Achieve a semi-slack-free drift and concentrate on the line-leader connection. Relative movement in this connection will be every bit as helpful as the bobber, without interfering with the drift and without giving immediate resistence when a fish "takes."

 

[moonbeam]

Good advise on working the water. This is new water for Dave and I and we had returned to a pool with holding fish where I had caught fish last weekend. With rising water the pattern had changed as fish were neither chasing or rising. Dave worked his way to the next deep water moving over shallow runs working primarily nymphs while I worked wet about 20 minutes after him. I think the pattern required working slow and deep and from stream side talk before we got started that is what the successful guys were doing.