Warren,

Great article! You do it pretty much as I started out nymphing. My father-in-law always fished with a fly rod except he (gasp!) used worms, corn and once in a great while a little power bait but that came out shortly before he died. He taught me to get the bait down to the trout and we weighted with one or two split shots in those early days depending upon the depth and speed of the water. I didn't start fly fishing till about age 62 shortly after reading a fishing magazine article with a front page saying that trout fed under water 90% of the time. So, figured I was good to go with my conversion from bouncing bait along the bottom. Didn't have a mentor for proper techniques of fly fishing at the time so it was trial and error for me. Don't hardly ever use an indicator unless it's a dry fly; but, I like my method best. When tying flies that I'll use myself usually don't tie them weighted. I like to add some of that soft weight material about 12" to 18" above the fly and when I apply it I roll it between my fingers into an elongated submarine shape with a slight taper at each end instead of a ball shape like a split shot. I find that there's less bottom snagging this way and I really like the ability to add or subtract weight quickly and easily depending on the water depth and speed. It's also very easy to slide it gently up or down the tippet when the need arises unlike trying to relocate split shot. Gave up split shots long time ago.