Wet Flies and Nymphs with Tom Rosenbauer

that was cool yeah baby hi and welcome to the  orvis guide to fly fishing i'm your host tom   rosenbauer and in this episode we're going  to explore the world of subsurface fishing   for trout now you know people say that trout feed  90 of the time under water and that may be true   the problem is we don't usually know what they're  eating so there's a lot of mystery involved a   lot of trial and error join us and we'll show  you some tips on subsurface fishing for trout oh yeah nice fish that fish has already refused  that flight you're gonna have to try it just a   slightly different pattern the roll cast pickup is  a great cast to use in a lot of fishing situations   this is a beautiful wild trout from a small stream   just a gorgeous little fish i say hit  that bank let's go to that grass bed the orvis guide to fly fishing  is supported by orvis fly fishing algoma country destination ontario   maine office of tourism yellowstone  teton territory crazy rainbow ranch bahamas tourism adipose boatworks   global rescue   proud unlimited 150 years ago trout fishing was done solely with  what today we would call traditional winged wet   flies anglers fished as many as 10 of them on  a single liter and even cast them over rising   fish was success then people began experimenting  with floating flies a little over 100 years ago   and this concentration on more exacting imitations  of insects and crustaceans gave rise to the nymph   really just another kind of wet fly but usually  without wings today we fish wet flies and nymphs   interchangeably but wet flies are more often  swung in the current than fish dead drift   fishing a wet fly or nymph on the swing in other  words across and downstream on a tight line is   both a return to a more traditional way of fishing  with a fly and a relaxing and elegant way to fish   one of the really pleasant things about about  fishing a wet fly is that they don't have any air   resistance at all and so they don't have as much  air resistant as a dry and unlike most nym fishing   you don't have an indicator weight on the leader  so the casting is just really easy and pleasant   because trout often take the fly on a tight  line the strike is felt immediately and fish   often hook themselves it's also a great way to  cover a lot of water when you're not sure where   the fish are this kind of fishing a sunken fly  works best in shallow water with a gentle riffle   and it's tougher with conflicting  currents and in very deep water   wet fly fishing is also most productive when  you see the occasional rise i'm just letting   that i don't even really have to make a mend  in this nice slow water i can just let that fly   oh there's one oh lost them don't even need demand  this water is so nice and gentle and uniform   i can just let that fly swing across the current  although most of the time when you fish nymphs you   strive to eliminate drag on the fly when swinging  a wet fly the drag is subtle and controlled   some aquatic insects can swim a swung  wet fly could imitate a tiny bait fish   or it might also imitate an aquatic  insect rising to the surface to hatch   we don't know exactly why fish take a  swung wet fly but that's part of the fun   and the mystery of fishing this way frequent mends  keep the fly from swinging too quickly because   a tiny insect can't swim that fast against the  current so the slower your fly swings the better   keeping the rod tip relatively high also helps  to keep the fly swing more moderate one more   scientific way of fishing a wet fly on the  swing is called the lizen ring lift or induce   take here you cast the fly slightly upstream and  across make some mends follow the line through its   drift with the rod tip and when you think the fly  is close to where a fish should be stop moving the   rod tip or lift it slightly the fly will suddenly  rise toward the surface and often it encourages   savage strikes from the trout before we move on to  the more complicated issue of fishing nymphs let's   visit pete kutzer for some helpful tips on casting  with a strike indicator and weight on your leader   through all these presentations i've been talking  about staying in the straightest line possible we   want to stay in that nice tight straight path  that's going to keep that loop nice and tight   when you're dealing with heavy flies or  wind resistant flies or great big poppers or   maybe you have an indicator rig with a lot of  weight on that on the end of that leader that's   when we might want to actually start to travel  in a little bit of an arch that's going to help   open up those loops and prevent that heavy fly  or that big popper from colliding with the rod   i have seen rods break just by a  piece of split shot coming forward   so we want to open up that loop by traveling a  little bit of an arch that's going to help get   that fly still out to those fish but keep that fly  well away from that rod and away from that line   another great way to cast nymphs and wet flies is  called the water load where you let the river be   your back cast sometimes if you've got a lot  of wind if you've got a lot of brush you've   got two flies and an indicator a weight on your  leader you don't want to be casting all over the   place you can do what's called a water load what  you do it's very simple you wait until the line   drags behind you you pick up the rod tip and  flick a cast forward so you keep doing that   as soon as the line drags behind you especially  with nym fishing you don't need to be that that   super delicate just pick it up and make a forward  cast that way you don't have to have your line   going back and forth in the air and your flies  tangling and getting in trees and things like that you know it's not all about catching giant fish  sometimes just swinging a wet fly through a riffle   and catching small trout is a lot of fun nymphing  is one of the most effective ways to catch trout   day in and day out it works all day long whether  trout are rising or not and in all kinds of water   feeding trout seldom pass up a well-presented niv   and will accept these flies more readily  than dries or streamers in most cases   artificial nymphs can imitate the larvae  of mayflies caddisflies stoneflies midges and also freshwater crustaceans like  scuds crayfish and even aquatic worms but the method of presenting all these imitations  is the same what fly do you tie on most people   think the trout are not as selective when feeding  under the surface and you might want to pick a   nymph that's popular in the area or one that a guy  told you about but in an unfamiliar stream with no   other help we can get an educated guess by looking  at submerged rocks and along the edges of rivers so one thing you can do when you're  nymph fishing the obvious thing   is to turn over some rocks and see what's on  the bottom here we've got these brachycentrists   i think anyways they're caddisflies they're  case caddisflies i think they're brachycetrus   we don't need to know the latin name so you  turn over a rock and you try to see what's   in the river and then you try to match  that with the closest thing in your box   all you know is what's there in the  water it's a clue and it's a start   but not knowing exactly what the fish are  taking you're at a disadvantage and that's   why fishing with a wet fly or a nymph is  so exciting mysterious and interesting one of the biggest issues when fishing a nymph  is getting the fly deep enough when trout are   feeding close to the bottom at the same time  letting the fly dead drift without showing any   pull from the line or leader current is always  faster near the surface than near the bottom   so when line and leader land on the water they  immediately exert pull on the fly unless you   remedy the situation with your presentation as  a result even though we think we're fishing a   fly close to the bottom with a dead drift it's  not often the case and most aquatic insects and   crustaceans when they drift don't swim or  are at best feeble swimmers so trot often   shy away from a fly that's dragging but it's  hard to see drag when your fly is under water   you can often tell if a fish takes your niv  by watching the tip of your floating line   or by watching your leader if it hesitates or dips  under suddenly you've either hung bottom or a fish   is taking your fly but strikes can be quite subtle  and fish can take and reject or spit out your fly   very quickly and unless a fish takes your fly in  fast water or very aggressively many strikes go   unnoticed just as with any other kind of nymph  fishing any time that floating line hesitates   wiggles twitches does anything that looks weird it  looks suspicious set the hook immediately with nym   fishing those fish are going to take that fly and  spit it out really quickly and you've got to set   the hook quickly that doesn't mean wrench it way  over your head and break the tippet but you got to   be quick and just about this much just like you're  going to make another cast but do it quickly   so to help stack the odds in our favor we use  strike indicators these are little more than tiny   bobbers in fact i once fished with a nymph a whole  day on the north platte river in wyoming with one   of those big plastic bait bobbers i bought it in  a gas station it was a little clunky but it worked   strike indicators turned nym fishing from  something that was almost a black art into   one of the easiest ways to catch trout on a fly in  fact nym fishing with a strike indicator is a lot   like fishing a worm with a bobber and some of the  deadliest nymph anglers are those who started out   fishing worms for trout it's not that different  except the fish spit out your offering faster   indicators come in all different colors and sizes  and types and most people carry a variety of them   different colors show up better under different  light conditions so you should experiment   also carry a range of sizes the indicator should  be big enough to hold your flying weight off the   bottom but not so big that it spooks the fish  most people these days use a big plastic or cork   strike indicator they're really buoyant they  float all day long um but they do land kind of   hard and there's sometimes when you want something  more subtle that's a time when you want to use a   yarn indicator yarn indicators on flat water like  this are very subtle they don't land with a lot of   commotion and you can really see the slightest  twitch in a yarn indicator so they're one of   the best things to use on flat water like this  indicators serve another very important purpose   besides being strike indicators they're  drift indicators you can't tell if your fly   is dragging under water but you can watch your  indicator and if it begins to struggle against   the current you know the fly is dragging and that  you need to mend line if you watch your indicator   and make sure that it's traveling at the same  speed as the bubbles or debris in the current   you can be pretty sure you're getting a drag-free  drift if it's not drifting properly mend the line   to adjust your drift or use a reach cast the  next time you present the fly exactly where   to put your indicator on the leader is part trial  and error based on how often the fly ticks bottom okay when you put an indicator on  your leader general rule of thumb   is to have the indicator about one and a half  times the water depth you want that fly to be   riding just above the bottom and the fly is never  seldom gonna hang directly below the indicator so   you want to estimate the water depth and then  the water is pretty shallow here i think it's   about you know it's about this deep so i'm  going to go right about here with my indicator   and i'm just going to put the indicator on  my leader here this is the kind of foam kind   it's got rubber bands inside you just twist it a  few times and that holds it wherever you want it   yet when you change water depths when you go  to another place you can slide that indicator   and move it to wherever you want this is only a  general guideline though so play with the strike   indicators position until you either tick  bottom once in a while or you catch a fish   despite our best efforts even with a weighted  flying weight on the leader the fly may not get   deep enough or may not drift in a realistic manner  so we have to combine some presentation techniques   and perhaps add more weight to the leader let's  discuss presentation first one way is to cast   straight upstream so that your fly and weight  and indicator are all in the same current lane   but that's a lot of work you have to gather line  quickly and you risk putting your fly line right   on top of the fish it's best for short casts when  fishing across the current you can also mend line   sometimes frequently throughout a drift  but mending often moves the fly too much   and it's better to get that upstream loop of line  before the fly hits the water with a reach cast   keep trying different approaches  until you find something that works when you're faced with a deeper run and you're  fishing smaller flies like we are today you need   some weight on your leader nobody likes to put  weight on the leader it makes casting tougher   and you get hung up more often but sometimes you  got to do it to get your fly down to the fish   so what i'm going to do now is put on one shot  you try to start with as little weight as possible   and then you add you have you add the lightest  weight first and then you add weight to the leader   until you're ticking bottom every half a dozen  casts or so your fly's got to be occasionally   ticking bottom where you're just not fishing deep  enough the thing you want to do you don't want to   try to put these on with your teeth because  they're hard you need a pair of forceps and   i've got a knot above my i've got a knot above my  first fly it's about a foot above my first fly and   i'm going to attach the shot right above that knot  shot tends to slide on your leader so you really   want to put it above a knot rigging a nymph with  weight is not an exact science so experiment with   various arrangements until you catch fish now most  people fish nymphs with indicators it's easier   it's better in conflicting currents and usually  they fish two flies under an indicator you   wouldn't think so but trout are just as likely  to take the upper fly with a piece of tippet   sticking out of both ends as they are the lower  fly the section of tippet between the two flies   can be anywhere from six to twenty inches long  but the longer that piece the more cumbersome the   whole arrangement gets and a typical separation  between the two flies is about eight inches   the tippet section between the two flies  can be the same size as the upper tippet   or a smaller diameter especially if the  lower fly is a lot smaller than the upper now that you know about rigging nymphs and  some basic presentation it's time to learn   more about how to present them fishing with an  indicator is sometimes called long line nymphing   and it's the best way when you can't get close  to the fish but if you can it's always better to   cast as close to the fish as you can without  spooking them this is called high sticking   one way to fish nymphs is with  what's called short line nymphing   and it's done very close to you it's done almost  under your rod tip you want the fly line to stay   out of the water if possible you use heavily  weighted flies and or some weight on your leader   you lob them upstream and you just follow  the nymphs down through the current like this you can high stick nymph with or without  an indicator if you do with an indicator   it's sometimes easier especially when you've  got wind blowing like we do today it's very   difficult to see that leader twitching because  you got the wind blowing your leader downstream   so sometimes a strike indicator helps a lot and  there you just keep the line above your strike   indicator and just follow the strike indicator  down through the current strikes and high stick   nymphing are going to be fairly subtle you'll  just see that leader twitch upstream or tighten   and it's either bottom or a fish so the minute you  see that leader dart a little bit or move a little   bit or do something that looks wrong or doesn't  look like the other cast set the hook quickly   there are times when you won't be able to high  stick nymph high stick kniving is really effective   because you have that dead drift right in front  of you it's really easy to follow the flies down   through the current seam but when you have to cast  longer to get across a piece of water like this   then you have to cast your indicator upstream and  across or across or a little bit downstream but   make a quick mend right after the indicator hits  as your indicator goes down through the current   sometimes you're going to have to mend once  twice even three times try not to move the   indicator when you men just flip enough line  to get that line upstream of the indicator   toward the end of your drift just before drag sets  in you can also release some slack line to make   that indicator float even further downstream  dead drift just have some extra line in your   hand some slack line and flip that slack line  into the current sometimes when you're nymphing   just a little change in position will really make  the difference in whether you catch fish or not   you may want to move upstream a few  feet you may want to move out a little   move downstream sometimes even fishing that same  pocket just a little bit of a change in position   might get your flies in there just right one  of the most exciting things in nym fishing   is sight casting to a fish that's feeding  in shallow water with a nymph a naked nymph   which means no weight on the leader no indicator  just a tiny weighted nymph thrown to a fish in   shallow water you watch the fish's reactions  or you watch your leader to see the strike   that was cool wow that's a big fish and i'm  probably not going to get them out of there   well maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe oh i  got lucky on that one all right you ready patrick   nice thing about fishing without an indicator  is you can reel the fish right up close to your   rod yeah baby bring them out in the sun here  get them in the clear water burp them a little   bit like they do the salmon they roll they roll  them on the belly and get all the air out of them   there he goes at the other end of the scale  from sight fishing nymphs is fishing them from   a drift boat it's one of the easiest ways to  catch trout in fact some people think it's too   easy with an experienced guide at the oars by  casting about 45 degrees in front of the boat   you can get long drag free floats as the guide  works to keep the boat drifting at the same   speed as the indicator but you still have to  do your part and mend the line periodically i joined experienced guide molly seminic in  montana to learn more about proper positioning   and drift of indicators when nymphing from a boat  when the person in the front in the bow casts   downstream and their float the boat catches up to  the fly and the fly gets to the ore then they pick   up and recast downstream if you like to catch  lots of fish in a day there is probably nothing   as productive as fishing nymphs from a drift boat  because you can cover so much water and the trout   are always eating below the surface no matter  what kind of water you like to fish from brawling   rivers to tiny mountain streams nym fishing will  often save the day and it's really not that hard   fishing with a subsurface fly and moving  water adds a lot of mystery to fishing   you never really know what trout are eating  down there but striking to an unseen fish and   suddenly feeling the weight of a hefty  trout is a thrill that never gets old   the orvis guide to fly fishing  is supported by orvis fly fishing algoma country destination ontario maine office of tourism yellowstone teton territory crazy rainbow  ranch bahamas tourism adipose boatworks   global rescue crowd unlimited foreign you

Channel: Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing

Views: 91,529

Keywords: orvis fly fishing, tom rosenbauer, the new fly fisher, brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, trout, brown trout fly fishing tips, dry fly fishing for brook trout, dry fly fishing for trout, fishing fly, fly fishing for trout, fly fishing for trout for beginners, how to fly cast, learn to fly fish, small stream trout fishing, wet fly fishing, wet flies, dry fly, streamer fishing, lefty kreh, mad river outfitters, nymph fly fishing, nymph fishing, trophy brown trout

Id: h5-3jNRpSXo

Length: 23min 55sec (1435 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021