Drift, drag, and getting agitated ...

[maodiver]

Thanks y'all

[DaleW]

Interesting replies ...

When fishing nymphs in moving water, for the most part, I let the river/stream current provide the action.

When in still water I allow the nymph to sink (even to the bottom) and sometimes I'll get a hit as it sinks. Then begin a retrieve with an agitation action simply by stripping in the line in however quick or slow that works for the fish.

Works for the girls I go with.

[bobbyg]

Drag.....agitated....yes!!!

Oh, I see we are to agitate the fly! Well yes, when we understand how different nymphs act while rising to the surface of the water.
How many just drift to the surface? I don't know. I do know some swim very actively and must be fished that way. Some swim lanquidly
and must be fished that way. Naturally the water flow will always be a consideration. The fish will know the difference and eat your artificial accordingly. It's a kinda cat and mouse game, and the way you try to imitate the natural is the game.

Really good nymph fishers know how to manipulate the fly or to let it dead drift. I bow to the ones who can figure that out and fish their fly accordingly.
Been fishing the little buggers for over thirty five years and am still trying to figure it all out! Get lucky occasionally or some bit of fly fishing
lore kicks in and I actually catch many fish with nymphs....I did say occasionally.

A big tip of the hat to those that hook up with nymphs on a regular basis!!

[Greg H]

Leonard M. Wright Jr., Flutter, Skitter and Skim (formerlypublished as Fishing the Fly as a Living Insect), 1972. Chapter 3, TheSudden Inch, pg. 38, "And now, for the first time, some of those bafflingexperiences from my earlier fishing days began to make sense. Those times whentrout took only at the end of the float, just as the fly started to drag, wereexplained to a certain degree by the effectiveness of the twitch."

Fran Betters: Fly Fishing and Fly-tying Patter Guide, 1986,pg 72. Quoting Bill Phillips: "Now the real value of the Usual is that ifyou do not hit the right feeding lane, you can skitter the fly to the rightfeeding lane without a drag effect. When the fly is in the right lane, feed theline from the reel until it passes where the two currents converge. Generallythe tautness and weight of the line will cause the Usual to go under thesurface, and then I return it slowly as one would a nymph. I don't worry aboutdrag; I use it."

I think it is a good idea to move a fly/nymph/bug like a struggling natural, and so do many before us.

[randyflycaster]

A great book about adding movement to nymphs is Rich Osthoff's Active Nymphing.

Recently I saw a video showing how nymphs move in the water. I was surprised at just how much they move, especially up and down.

Randy

[okflyfisher]

I believe the loop a head of the indicator is the same as down current mend. I agree with JohnScott it tends to be a softer water technique.
I use it near the end of most drag free drifts twitching the flies slowly as they come off the bottom. It can be simply deadly just before an emergence.
You can also get long drifts on midges when your line is straight down stream from you by letting out a little more line and then tightening up ,letting out a little more line and tightening up...etc. I typically use a midge with a little flash when i use this technique but it is extremely effective when conditions are right.
Sometimes i drift streamers and mend a little harder and more frequently than needed for a drag free drift to give the streamer a little movement . I think of it as a struggling dying minnow. I don't know what the trout think but I do know they like it
All of this said, dead drifting is still the core of most of my presentations.