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Fishing techniques

 Nymph fishing – the river keeper’s view

Some times nymph fishing in Glomma can be extremely simple. It seems that every grayling is feeding, and willing to take any nymph you present to them, at any depth and speed. It may even not be necessary to use a strike indicator. You can experience situations like this in the early season. Later in summer things get a bit more difficult, and proper techniques are needed for the best results. In my view this means using thin tippet (12/100), making use of a strike indicator and, of course, the right nymph. I’ve seen it a lot of times : it looks like the grayling is not feeding at all, and you only catch a few fish. The reason for this, I think, is in times like this the river is loaded with food (insects) and fish don’t need (and don’t want) to move more than let’s say 15 cm from their place. And they will be picky too, the fly has to be at exact the right depth (so within those 15 cm) and travelling with exactly the right speed: the speed of the current at the bottom of the river. Just think of it like this – the current at the bottom forms eddies and back currents, just like you can see along the banks. The stronger the surface current, the larger the impact of stones and other obstacles at the bottom will be. If the bottom of the river is quite smooth, like a sandy bottom, the difference between surface and bottom speed will be less. So, what does this mean for effective nymph fishing?

If you are fishing upstream, you have to prevent that your fly line is pulling at your nymph, making it move downstream way to fast. You have to fish with a short line, like Czech nymphing: make a short cast upstream, keep your rod high so the fly line doesn’t touch the water and try to present your fly as natural as you can. I like to combine this technique with the use of a strike indicator, it gives me more reach, and I like the visual aspect. This way it is possible to fish at a larger distance, up to 15 meter, because you can mend your fly line in a curve upstream of your indicator and fly. If you repeat this a few times during the process, it is possible to make quite long drifts, presenting your fly as it should be done: dead drift. 
These were the basics. To go a bit further - it is possible to give the nymph more movement, for instance you can make it rise to the surface in various ways. I can show you during a guided fishing trip.

Some effective nymph patterns :
Hear’s ear gold head nymph
Caseless caddis
Hydropsyche nymph
Pheasant tale nymph
Black and silver nymph
Czech nymph style

  last updated : 16-05-2008

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