Tight Line Nymphing Leader Formulas

[JimKennedy]

Brother anglers,

While I may be late to the party, I've seen too many trout being caught while I'm still struggling to get that first hit. This is the year I give into tight line nymphing.

Can any of you offer some leader formulas, particularly for small and medium-sized creeks.

Also any tips on things to avoid, and especially on how to best use the technique in the South Central Limestone region.

Fish stories and fish porn always appreciated!

thx
jk

 

[afishinado]

JimKennedy wrote:
Brother anglers,

While I may be late to the party, I've seen too many trout being caught while I'm still struggling to get that first hit. This is the year I give into tight line nymphing.

Can any of you offer some leader formulas, particularly for small and medium-sized creeks.

Also any tips on things to avoid, and especially on how to best use the technique in the South Central Limestone region.

Fish stories and fish porn always appreciated!

thx
jk

I suggest you tie on a wool bugger and experiment with it drifting, swinging and stripping. I would bet one of those pesky trout will interrupt your experiment!

If you are looking to nymph fish try using an indicator first.

The link below is a great primer on rigs and fishing techniques.

Try the "Dead Drift" presentation using the single fly indicator rig shown in the diagram. Set your Indy about 1.5 the water depth and add a little bit of weight until you touch bottom. Move the Indy up just enough to drift it slightly above the bottom.

Nymph Fishing Primer

Good luck, and post a pic of your first fly-caught fish (that will be the first fish you ever caught that actually counted!... :lol:

 

[Skook]

jk,

I'm basically in the same place you are. I hope I'm not preempting any responses from those here with actual experience, but I've recently watched a three-part video of a slide show seminar given by George Daniel. It's essentially an introduction to tight line nymphing. He does talk about what leaders he prefers and shows their formulas.

Here is a link to Part 1. Parts 2 and 3 should be shown in YouTube's right margin, and so you can easily find the other two segments.

George Daniel Seminar

I found a similar video seminar given by Steve Parrott, and he also discusses leaders. There is several minutes of dead air in this video that you will need to fast forward through to get to Steve's presentation. Here is a link:

Steve Parrott Seminar

I found these videos to be a good introduction, and I hope they help you.

 

[afishinado]

Skook wrote:
jk,

I'm basically in the same place you are. I hope I'm not preempting any responses from those here with actual experience, but I've recently watched a three-part video of a slide show seminar given by George Daniel. It's essentially an introduction to tight line nymphing. He does talk about what leaders he prefers and shows their formulas.

Here is a link to Part 1. Parts 2 and 3 should be shown in YouTube's right margin, and so you can easily find the other two segments.

George Daniel Seminar

I found a similar video seminar given by Steve Parrott, and he also discusses leaders. There is several minutes of dead air in this video that you will need to fast forward through to get to Steve's presentation. Here is a link:

Steve Parrott Seminar

I found these videos to be a good introduction, and I hope they help you.

If you own George Daniel's book on nymphing, I would suggest any beginner page through and find his section on using indicators to nymph first before trying all the tight-line or high-sticking methods.

I started to fly-fish back in the BI era (Before Indicator) and learned tight line and high-sticking methods first. In fact when I switched from bait to fly way back in-the-day, I fished a nymph the same way I fished a minnie or worm (because I really didn't know any better)...and it worked! And I've been using "sighters" for many decades long before they were [d]invented[/d] named.

Anyway, indicator fishing is often easier for the beginner to master before going on to tightline or high stick nymphing.

Good luck to all.

 

[ryansheehan]

Afish has some great advice. Practice highsticking your indicator first. Get all your fly line and leader between your rod tip and indicator off the water to practice the drift. It will help you get the feel, rhythm and line control necessary for when you take the indicator off. When done correctly you indicator will drift drag free.

 

[PennKev]

JimKennedy wrote:
While I may be late to the party, I've seen too many trout being caught while I'm still struggling to get that first hit. This is the year I give into tight line nymphing.

Are you sure it's technique and not an issue with reading the water to identify and effectively fish places which are actually holding fish?

 

[Fredrick]

Here you go . Both are great leaders . I also recommend Modern Nymphing DVD

http://www.tacticalflyfisher.com/fly-fishing/tactical-fly-fisher-european-nymphing-leaders-1

http://competitiveangler.com/products/pat-weiss-upstream-leader

 

[JimKennedy]

Thank you, gentlemen. I can already fell the fish hitting my flies!