Anyone care to share their opinions on weighting nymphs? I’ve had people tell me that wrapping lead on a hook causes the fly to move unnaturally. I’ve used some lead on nymphs and I really don’t notice the difference.
lastchance,
You will get opinions both ways on this, but, I weight my nymphs with wire on the hook shank prior to covering it with the body material and I have had no problems with this and they do catch fish for me. Where you position the weight on the hook shank will give the fly a different “swimming” motion. For instance, if you weight the front it will give the fly a “head down” fall and “head up” rise. If you weight the rear of the hook the opposite happens which is similiar to the motion of a leech and if you weight the center of the the hook it will rise and fall more on the horizontal which is how I weight my steamers and buggers which I feel represents a minnow motion in moving water.
The above is just my way and what is working for me here…
Hey Warren: The way I understand it is that fish have just a split second in moving water to grab food so I can’t see how they can determine if a nymph is floating the way it should. Also, those Czech nymphs are heavily weighted to get down in the pocket water fast.
Thanks for your opinion.
I am tying up a batch of nymphs right now and I am weighting them on the center of the hook shank. I find that this keeps them in the column of the water where I want them to be. They seem to swim in an even a straight manner for me. Just my 2 cents. Hope this might help. John
Hey Bassman: I weight mine in the thorax area if they are flathead clinger or crawler-type nymphs. I don’t weight them all because if I’m fishing real skinny water they may be too heavy.
I really like to use beadheads.
Well, Bro., I weight some with lead wire along the hook body under everything else if, like the other guys said I want to get 'em right on down. I do like the beadhead method, though, it seems to do very well. I think that bit of shine does some eyecatching. I don’t know about natural or unnatural look under water. like was said, they don’t take long to decide. They don’t hang on long either before they decide it aint what they thought it was, so you gotta be on yer game to score. In slow or shallow runs, lead wraps will often be a little too much on anything bigger than about size 8 or 10 flies, and then I usually catch quite a bit of bottom :? …ModocDan
Well I guess I will elaborate on my previous simple post…
I fish stillwater, I mostly use the black colored beads, Because they look more natural than a gold ball at the front of your nymph. Sometimes though, I use gold or silver beads on my nymphs because I want the attraction( Dingy water, tough days etc…)
And since I fish stillwater the fish can take their sweet time to decide whether or not they want the fly I’m presenting to them…It’s not like in a small stream where the fish will pounce on a lot of things because that might be there only chance to eat that day.
I weight many of mine, but I usually use a bead head that is for a hook about 4 sizes smaller.
I fish ponds mainly and I want the flies to drop very slowly.
I have tied the bead in on the cente rof the hook on some of the patterns, but they do not seemto work any better than those tied at the eye of the hook.
I also have several tied with different color glass beads.
Rick
Sometimes I use ultra wire under the body of a fly to weight it. Ultra wire can be found in very thin (lightweight) sizes. Another advantage is the number of colors. This means that you can often use a wire that is similar to the body over it. This is a worthwhile consideration for when flies become a bit worn through use.
Ed
lastchance, I do weight mine differently at times also depending on the water I will be fishing and the fish I am after. John
I think I have to go with Bassman. Even in my little streams I need to have weight except for the Aug/Sept skinny flows from lack of rain. My experience is that I wouldn’t catch a fraction of the fish I do without some weighting. One lesson I learned early from some good info I obtained here is to watch the amount of lead you use with your hook to avoid changing the balance and causing the fly to roll over on its back due to the lead acting as a keel. That was a hoot, although I still caught a fair number with the fly upsidedown! Go figure!
Other than bead-heads; I don’t add weight to my nymphs just so I don’t have to tie a bunch of variations of a pattern. I prefer the flexibility of choosing to add Soft Lead to the leader when I want my fly to go deep or not adding it when I don’t.
I also have “made” bead-heads on stream by slipping a cone or bead onto my leader in front of a non bead-head nymph and “pegging it” to the leader with rubber legs threaded through the hole with a bobbin threader. I use the same pegging method when I bass fish with plastic worms and bullet weights.
It works great for me and saves me the hassle of having so many varieties of bead colors and flies. I carry some extra beads & cones in different colors along with some rubber legs and a cheapo bobbin threader in my pocket. If I want a bead-head version of a particular fly I don’t have tied up; I just “make” one on stream!
Chris - I think you are on the ball.
On some occasions too, especially brown trout, a bead head is too garish and spooks them off.
Also, a weighted nymph in fast water will sink into the strike zone quicker, and therefore give you longer to snag the fish.
An idea I like - if you heavily weight, try doing a red head on the fly so you know instantly it is a heavy one!
I just learned from the Kiwi guys a heap about weighting, they really use some serious lead over there.
I weight all my nymphs size 10-16 with .015 tin, not lead, wire wrapped around the middle part of the shank. It helps build a base for tapered bodies, too. I use beadheads, too, but that is for the added attraction. I think the bead helps catch their attention. I don’t worry about heavily weighting my nymphs. As far as getting the fly down quick in fast water, two or three B or BB split shot should do the trick. For stillwater nymphs you are probably better off skipping the bead and weighting the hook shank with lead or tin, to keep the nymph from jigging up and down too fast on a slow retrieve.
I use weighted softhackles and to get down deep fast a flourocarbon furled leader and a 5-6’ flourocarbon tippet.
A center weighted soft hackle will appear to “Swim” in the current as the hackle moves in and out, very much like a minnow.
That’s a great tip, Bambozle! I think that is one worth trying on my waters.
I do something like that I tie off my head with red thread on the weighted ones and black for the un weighted ones
Never saw a need to fish weighted nymphs since I started fishin the :shock: Gooseberry. You should also have no need. :lol:
And sometimes this is just the action you want. :shock: