Part Two of Drag Free Nymphing

Another point to make is the actual length of your drift. First off, you will not want to do a lot of false casting. The more you false cast the more you are asking that nymphing rig to turn into a birds nest. So, keep your false casts to an absolute minimum and keep your casts fairly short at first.

Anyway, back to the length of the drift. You cast upstream, do your reach/mend casts, and allow the rig to drift down. The first 5 or 10 feet of the drift are used to get your flies down to the bottom. You will not often get hits during that section. Then there is a short section that is right in front of you in where the flies are actually on the bottom and drag free. This is your window of opportunity for a hit. As the rig drifts past you, the flies will be picked up off the bottom because you came to the end of your mended line. Leave the rig alone. You will sometimes pick up a fish on that upswing, the fish think it is a nymph heading for the surface. Once your flies get to the surface, strip in a few lengths and pick up your rig and cast again.

As with all fly fishing, first work the water that is close to you and then slowly cast out farther and farther. Once you have covered that section, then you can move up or down stream no more than ten feet. Now start your casts over. Your strike zone is only a 10 to 15 foot section that is right in front of you, so as you move up or down, don?t exceed that distance on shore or otherwise you will miss fishing some of the sections of bottom, where the fish are.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

Larry ---sagefisher---