Good morning Farmer John.
Once long ago I went though a similar problem..... too long ago now.
First some background on the problem.
Back then after talking to some old fellas then who by now would have moved on to the big rivers and even bigger fish in the sky, I was introduced to another fly fishing World.
Where even though I knew the fact, that 90% or so of fish's meals are sourced from beneath the surface I did not fish for them where the 90% of meals were.
However even back then I was brain washed by the stupidness of 'it must be a dry fly' thinking. You must see the take, the thrill of seeing a fish enter my human World for a micro second type of thinking.
But the fish's time has been spent feeding, has only spent 10% or less of its time feeding on the surface. Why would anybody wish to only spend 10% of their time fishing and 90% sitting in their car, nobody would.
From that point onwards,
I started to only fish sub surface and the results flowed from there.
Today, it would be so rare that I would connect a dry fly to my leader its impossible to think.
Because if the fish were feeding on the surface I would know there will be more and larger fish feeding sub surface, the 90% of fish and they will feed for longer and in most cases almost appear as though they have hooked themselves if I conduct my leader and line correctly.
In your case I would suggest that you don't use a woolly bugger type or any type of fly with a lot...a lot of weight built into it, and in the pace of a weighted fly, use an improved approach to getting your fly down to where the fish could be feeding.
Myself I use a mono tippet thats as soft as possible and as long as possible without effecting casting.
This is coupled to a heavy 100% fluorocarbon leader and or a sink tip line, depending on the water flow and the depth of the bottom.
In this situation I do not use an indicator.
This arrangement of fly and leader is to allow me, the caster, the fisher to search the water at different depths from the almost surface to the bottom, there by greatly increasing the area where a fish could be stationed awaiting for a meal.
I normally only fish across and down.
This allows me to stimulate a strike, a fish thinking my fly is a meal, by having to fly lift up through the water column. As simple as that, it tricks bass, trout and all manners of fish, even saltwater fish, a fly rising towards the surface.
This action is called the Induced Take.
The late Oliver Kite wrote at length and mastered the induced take when he was exploring nymph fishing.
Might help ?... for a quick read and to further explore the thinking on the Induced Take ideas, the English magazine, FlyFishing and Fly Tying, October this year had a article about Oliver and his ideas.
To fish across and down, the advantages being.
I can fish into areas where I couldn't cast to by simply releasing line.
And while releasing line, I stop and hold for a minute or so depending on the water speed, this then lifts the fly in the water column, I now have effectively searched the stream from top to bottom as my fly drifted down stream.
I am too far up stream to spook a fish, there is no indicator to even upset the fish or warn them of any danger. I just watch like a hawk the fly line and with any add normal movement; I just lift the rod softly, which in its self will lift the fly in the water column, again producing an Induced Take movement.
The soft as possible tippet will allow your fly to move about with all the micro currents that are flowing down the stream, result your fly will now look even more natural in its movements.
I use my leader and or sink tip to get the fly down, not lead wrapped around the fly which only kills the fly's movement.
There is a great educating read on Nymph fishing a book called the Masters of the Nymph; it is printed in the United States.
For anyone interested I will try and find the book and give you the Publisher and code numbers to help you find the book.
Of all the books on fly fishing, this to me is the only one that will feed your mind with ideas, ideas that will help your over come a no fish day and then as a result fish new locations with total confidence AND more importantly results.
One of the strange things about using this concept of fishing, the Induced Take and Nymphs, yes it can be applied to streamers and others from the Nymph Masters book is you WILL start to catch bigger fish that you ever thought lived in 'that' stream.
Change the location to a lake.
Here searching for a most likely location where a fish is looking for a meal is the key to fishing a lake.
To some fishing a lake is boring, to some lake fishing is the a great and rewarding adventure to understand the sub surface and the surface and the wind and all the other factors as they change during the day, here the Induced Take is almost magical !
Cast your floating line and allow the wave and wind action to apply their forces to your fly, which could also be a buzzer, why would the wave and wind produce 'takes', because you connected a soft tippet as long as possible to your almost weightless fly, this in turn will move your fly in mini 'Induced Takes' movements.
Fishing a full sinking line and a booby fly, this is just another case of the Induced Take concept.
Sorry about going on a bit, however this is my pet subject and maybe I could write a 100pages on the subject as a starter.
Kind regards,
UB
Sorry to bore a few.
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