NYMPH FISHING FOR LARGER TROUT
Most of you do not know what I have been dealing with in the past years since I did not post it here on FAOL. Here is a brief history to bring everyone up to date. My Father passed away in 2005 and left my Mom, who does not drive, home alone and she refused to move in with anyone and wanted to stay at her home. This meant that I went to her home each day to prepare meals and also to take her to her doctor, get her hair done, mow her lawn and whatever else she needed. This kept me very busy and off FAOL . I do not regret any what I did for my Mom. She was a wonderful person and a Christian. This past December my Mom passed at the age of 90 and I have been dealing with getting her will recorded and her home ready for listing. I am now on the downhill side of all of this and about to close her will. The attorney was a good friend of my fathers and he told me the other day he usually does not loan out any of his books because they never get returned, but he felt he could trust me and he had heard that I was a nymph fly fisherman and he loaned me his copy of Nymph Fishing for Larger Trout by Charles E. Brooks. What a wonderful book this is and it has answered many questions I had about my fly fishing.
Before becoming a fly fisherman, I fished bass tournaments for 30+ years and got out because the lakes just became too crowded and when the prize money got bigger, I had to compete against those who wanted to cheat and all this just took the fun out of fishing for me. A friend told me to go purchase a fly fishing outfit from Wally World and go to the rivers and he thought I would find the fun that fishing use to provide me and he was right. I really love fly fishing and I took to it rather quickly.
There are several different presentations to nymph fishing brought out in this book. There is the Skues Method, the Hewitt Method, the Sawyer Method, the Leisenring Lift, the Rising-to-the-Surface Method, the Upstream Method, the Continuous Drift, the Life Nymph Method, the Pot-Shooting Method and the Brooks Method and I am proud to say that each time I go fishing I use some of all of these methods based on the water conditions. I am not bragging but just stating a fact. I never knew what I was doing was part of any one of these methods. You see, no one instructed me on how to nymph fish. When I started, over 20 years ago, there were not many nymph fishermen on my rivers. Most were dry fly fishermen or midge fishermen. I just purchased a fly rod and some flies and spent many hours on the rivers. With over 30 years fishing bass tournaments, I brought a lot of the skills needed to become a good nymph fisherman with me. The two most important skills were "line watching" and being able to "feel" the strike. When you drag a plastic worm along the bottom in 10+ feet of water and feel it or swim a 1/8oz jig head with a 3" curly tail grub on it down a stair stepped ledge and "feel" it, you develop a very sensitive rod hand plus your eyes are glued to the line just waiting for it to let you know that a fish has taken the lure. I also learned fish behavior and how to read water.
I guess my point is that it takes many hours and even years to become a good nymph fisherman and there is no "easy button" to push. If you want it you have to work for it and it will take time and lots of it. The same could be said about becoming a good dry fly fisherman. It all takes a lot of time on the water with a strong desire to learn and be successful. You cannot just read a book and then go to the river and be able to do all that you have read. You have to apply what you have read and understand it.
This book has a lot of information in it that took many years of Charles Brooks' life to learn and it is very easy to understand and put into practice on the water. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in becoming a better nymph fisherman.
There is no easy road to success with anything you attempt. If you really want it, you will be willing to put the time in to learn all there is to it to be better.
Thanks for reading my ramblings……
Warren Patterson ("WarrenP" on FAOL)
Tullahoma, TN