When fishing a nymph in a still water lake, do i need a strike indicator or not? and what exactly do you use for a strike indicator?
I’m sure you’re going to get alot of different responses – but I think whatever you feel most comfortable with is best for you. I personally like to use indicators especially when the wind is blowing a little bit. The chop on the water works your fly and you really don’t have to do anything but keep up with the slack. Some people like to use a foam beetle or small grasshopper pattern and then tie on the nymph as a dropper. I have used a variety of indicators from the pinch on type, the ones that look like small footballs with a rubber sleeve going through the middle, and I’ve also used some small balsa floats that’s I’ve made with an emory board.
Just last week I was fishing a nymph in a pond with an indicator and the fishing was slow. I took the indicator off and caught fish for the next hour – probably 25-30 bluegills. No doubt I was not deep enough, or it may have been the free-fall of the fly. Sometimes you just have to tinker around until something works, especially in this heat.
well i dont kno what im comfortable w/ because ive never fished a nymph before. thats why i asked. and w/ a indicator, how would you kno if yer deep enuff? i guess ill fish it w/ out a indicator or topper fly. :?
I’ve got to agree. Comfortable and where the fish are. It is hard to watch the line for a bite or feel a bite on the line when the water is rough but keeping the line as straight as possible is the best way for me when I don’t use a float or a surface fly/nymph dropper rig. I know the nymph is deep enough when I get a bite or it hits bottom or it goes down as far as it can go depending on the water depth and what line I’m using :D. Then I slowly work it back. Sometimes floats or a surface fly/nymph dropper might be better if fish are shallower or suspending and/or the water is really rough. Depends on if the fish are shallow, suspended, or deep, and how they are biting. But most importantly is what I’m most comfortable using at that time. Try all the different ways to see what you like. Best of luck.
yea, im just gonna fish it. no float no suspenderfly. nothin. just gonna feel a bite myself. how would a bluegill take a nymph…would it hammer it or gently slurp it up? is it hard to feel?
Around here, when a bluegill takes my nymph, it feels like I got snagged in the weeds but then it gets twitchy and the weed starts to pull back a little. I wouldn’t use the word “hammer” and it’s rarely been as delicate as a “sip.”
k. ill keep that in mind 
David, When bluegill are on their spawning beds they will frequently attack anything they feel is out of place in the area. You’ll prolly know when they hit
when they are in that particfular mood. :lol:
I do not fish any fish while it is on the spawning bed. Matter of fact, most fishing seasons are closed, during the spawn. If you want to ruin a fishery, just continue to fish the spawning beds. You will either endup with no fish, or runts. I wrote an article for FAOL on …
April 17th, 2000
The Premiere OnLine Magazine for the Fly Fishing Enthusiast.
This is where our readers tell their stories. . .
Runts
By Steven H. McGarthwaite (aka: Parnelli)
In Minnesota, Walleyes may be King, and Muskies and Northern Pikes, Queens and Jacks. But the most angled for fish in the early spring is the Bluegill. Bluegills are of the Sunfish family, which also includes Largemouth Bass, and Smallmouth Bass. Minnesota’s State Record for largest Bluegill is a whopping 2 pounds 13 ounces. That is one huge Bluegill, bigger than any I have ever seen, and sadly, most of us will never see again. The reason for this is, Runts!
The typical angler in Minnesota is not a fly angler and does not care about the same things we do. It is mostly slab fishing, seeing how big a stringer you can get, and bringing in your limit. The limit in Minnesota for daily possession of Bluegills is 30 fish. No other fish has a daily limit of 30 fish. The Bluegill is always legal to take 365 days a year, and is not even offered protection during spawn.
Bass, Walleye, Northerns, Muskies, and Trout are off limits during their spawning season. Yet Bluegills are even denied this basic protection. Because of this, we anglers have contributed to the decline and have damaged, maybe forever the gene stock of the Bluegills.
The Bluegill sexually matures at approximately 5 to 6 years of age, when they are a nice 1 to 1 1/2 pound size. The adult Bluegill can live to an age of 11 or 12 years. The males build nests in the warm shallows of the lake and guard their territories against all intruders. The females lay their roe and the male then fertilizes the roe and guards the nest.
The “Runt” is a Bluegill that sexually matures at the age of two years and only lives to the age of 6. It is smaller than the normal Bluegills so it is unable to make a nest, let alone guard one during the spring spawning. It hangs out on the perimeters of the spawning area, waiting for a chance to dart in and fertilize an unattended nest of freshly laid roe. The result of this is a degradation of the gene pool, and the runt gene passed onto the next generation.
Over a period of time the Bluegills size is reduced and all that are left in the lake for catching, are the “Runt” sized Bluegills. The damaged is done, it cannot be altered.
Some may say, ?well I don’t fish for Bluegills, I am a Trout only, or Bass only angler.? Well, the same can happen to both if we interfere there too, in ways we really don’t understand, or are aware of.
The Minnesota DNR doesn’t have an answer to the problem, yet they are doing a limited experiment. On certain designated lakes they have reduced the limit on Bluegills from 30 daily to 10. The thinking is, more slab-sized Bluegills must be returned to the water to perpetuated the species, and to keep the stock pool strong. The DNR has not restricted fishing for Bluegills during the spawn, because all the Walleye, Bass, Northern, and Musky anglers, fish for Bluegills until their respective seasons open 1 to 3 months into the future. Besides, it is so darn easy to catch Bluegills on the spawning grounds.
I am not going to tell you what you should do, but think it over. Maybe you can come up with an answer to a question that is troubling many of us. We see more and more people fishing a finite source. ~ Parnelli
I’ve had bluegill snatch up the fly and follow it in with no pull, no wiggle, nothing. Just a sensation that the fly isn’t fishing “right”. In those cases, they usually come alive as they approach the surface at the end of the retrieve. I’m not talking dinks either.
Jim
I agree, Jim. Sometimes the 'gills around here slam it; often times you’ll feel a “tug-tug”; but more often than not, I simply notice that the tip of my floating fly line has moved an inch left or right for no apparent reason – at least not apparent until I set the hook. 