I’m reading George Daniels’ wonderful book Dynamic Nymphing. In the book he talks about using Stren Gold Hi-Vis line for sighters on his leaders. I fish a lot of streams that are heavily shaded. I’ve tried using Amnesia as butt material, but I find that if the material is 15 or so feet away from me I can’t see it. So I’m wondering: Is Stren Gold more visible than Amnesia? Also, does anyone have experience using sighters in longer-line nymphing? Thanks, Randy
I’ve tried both and Stren Gold is definitely less visible than Amensia. I have George’s book and really like it. I think the key with many of the methods in his book is to fish a short line and lift line and much of the leader off the water. For me, this method doesn’t work when I throw more than 25’ of line (including my leader). For longer line nymphing, I believe George recommends a “suspender” of some kind or a curly Q indicator.
For short line nymphing, I use a yellow Amensia leader butt, but there are a couple tricks I found that help with visibility …
Backing sighters. You can get these at Feather-craft among other places. Get one of the barred ones and add it to your leader before your tippet. I use a yellow Amensia butt section with barred yellow / black backing sighter. The barring adds lot of contrast and visibility.
Contrast tubing. I got some bright orange plastic tubing at HobbyLobby in the beading section (“S’getti Craft Lacing”). I cut short (maybe 1/2") sections and add them to my yellow Amnesia leader butt. These also provide contrast and improved visibility.
If you really want to get into the Euro nymphing techniques, I’d suggest visiting the TroutLegend forum.
whatever happened to taking a few 1 inch (or so) sections of an old floating fly line and needling it onto your leader? I guess that’s just too simple and old-school for today’s fishermen.
For short-line nymphing on Western Steelhead, I used to tie a 4’ butt section of Stren Gold, and use a 3’ tippet section of Maxima Chameleon. It was easy to track in run-off water and was very durable. Fish never seemed to mind either. 
Ralph
I’m not that interested in getting into the new Czech/Polish nymphing, but what interested me in George’s book, and I have to reread that part, is using two sighters to tell if the nymph is on the bottom and moving at the correct speed. I’m wondering if I can somehow use sighters with longer-line nymphing to tell how my nymph is doing. Randy
Randy ~ your post reminded me of a few years back trying that “Cajun Line” (red colored) just so I could see it in those type dark shaded areas. Could see the line but never caught anything to amount to anything using it. Now Shakespeare said the line would be “virtually invisible” to the fish but I always had my doubts.
Should say that I never have tried the Gold Hi-Vis OR the Amensia, but find the conversation interesting.
Used to use Stren Gold for shooting heads, but would not use it for an indicator. Try taking two colors of Amnesia, and creating a three part butt section (e.g. red, green, red). Much more visible than a single piece, the knots have a tendency to really shine, and the contrasting colors make the drift much more visible. As others have mentioned, much more useful in a short-line situation than farther away.
I read that book too and looked into a variety of options for a sighter in the middle of the leader. The one I settled on and have been very impressed with was an Umpqua tippet material with alternating two foot sections of bright red and bright yellow. They are both extremely bright and visible, but as was suggested above, I think the greatest utility comes from using the two colors together. I’ve been cutting sections off the spool of about two feet in length, with one foot of red and one foot of yellow in each. Works beautifully.
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1409658
Randy,
The “new Czech/Polish nymphing” is not really anything new. Tightline nymphing, when I began flyfishing in the northeast was the method of choice really. Folks fished nymphs just as they did when drifting bait rigs…with constant contact to the fly. Not dead-drift nymphing…but not necessarily what one would call “Czech nymphing” either. If I want to feel a strike, I tight line. If I want to watch it happen…I throw on an indicator/bobber.
Ralph
Folks, that so much for your helpful replies. Randy