Visual Nymphing
After you cast and mend upstream, focus your attention on the trout, fly line, and strike indicator—if you are using one. Your main focus should be on the trout. Sometimes a fish aggressively takes your fly and at other times, particularly when the fly is small and exactly on target, the trout may give only subtle signs it has taken the fly. It may just be a flash of white as it opens its mouth or a slight up-and-down movement.
If the fish does not take the fly, continue the drift at least one or two feet past the fish before you pick up and try again. This reduces the chances of foul hooking or spooking the fish.
Rod Position
The position of your rod after you cast and mend is an important part of getting the right drift. In most situations you will either keep your rod at a low horizontal position or at a high vertical position.
The low horizontal rod position is most effective in shallow water or in water that has uniform current speed between you and the trout. Fish in shallow water are more likely to be spooked from movements, shadow, or light reflections from above. By keeping your rod low you are less likely to spook them, so if there are no conflicting currents to create line drag, it makes sense to keep your rod low. When a fish hits with the rod in the low position you will have more distance to raise your rod and have quicker, more secure hook sets.
A high, nearly vertical rod position is best in deep water or when a fish is holding in water with varying current speeds. Fish in deeper water are less likely to be spooked by a high rod, and this position allows you to keep most—if not all—of your line off the water to defeat drag and at the same time maintain contact with your fly. When you use the high rod position, cast your fly upstream to the target area. When you deliver the fly, your rod may be low, but as the fly drifts downstream toward the trout you raise the rod tip to remove slack and keep your line off the water. Gradually drop the rod tip as the fly drifts downstream past the trout. Throughout the drift, only the leader and strike indicator should touch the water. This allows the thin-diameter leader and tippet to sink quickly without drag from the fly line. This gets your flies deep and helps you monitor their depth as they drift.
This high rod position is most effective when you are fishing spots with varied current speeds such as behind rocks, along seams, and below gravel bars and riffles. With a high rod the fly line won’t be in slow water while your fly drifts quickly downstream. Instead, your leader and indicator are in a single current speed throughout the drift to prevent drag. When you are fishing with your rod high and vertical, there is little slack in the line, which makes it easier to detect strikes. Sweep your rod downstream to set the hook into the corner of the fish’s mouth.
Whether your rod tip is high or low, you should always keep the rod directed toward your fly or your indicator. If your rod is pointed upstream or downstream of the fly, you create an unnecessary bow of line that makes it more difficult to set the hook and get a good drift.
Visual nymphing has given me countless hours of enjoyment at those times when trout are not rising to drys and accounts for most of my largest fish. Watching trout as they feed on subsurface foods not only increases your chances of hooking more and larger trout but also gives you a wealth of knowledge and understanding you can apply to other aspects of your fishing.
Landon Mayer is a Colorado Springs fly-fishing guide and author of the upcoming book How to Catch the Biggest Trout of Your Life (Wild River Press, November 2006).
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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