I have been tying for a long time (over 30 years), but still have a lot of questions. Here is one of them. How much weight is best on nymphs? Should you weight them to bump the bottom, or just enough to get them to suspend. Of course, I understand that flow and pattern make a differnce, but what is the general consensus? Also, what is the prefered method of weighting down your flies, lead wrap, bead heads, or both. Thanks, your responses will improve my success on the river.
Well, I’ve only been tying for about a year and a half at the most but I’ve got an opinion anyway. Sometimes I want the nymph to be down on the bottom and I like beadheads for that because I think the bead at the front of the fly might give it some interesting movement, like the eyes on a clouser on the retrieve.
But other times I want the nymph suspended just below some surface foam and then I use unweighted nymphs.
That pretty much covers everything I know about that.
I rarely use nymphs on rivers, but use them frequently in alpine lakes. I use beadheads on all nymphs and only use leadfree wire on stonefly nymphs (and depending on the pattern I am tying…not even then sometimes). Small nymphs dont need wire weight…if you feel the need to get a bit deeper then tie your nymphs with tungsten beadheads (which I do frequently).
just my 2 cents for what its worth
Take care everyone and cya around. Mark
Consider the use of slim sleek patterns and strong thin tippets since in water, drag is very significant. A bare hook will sink very fast.
I fish warmwater mostly but have also fished coldwater. I fish canals, creeks, and lakes mostly. I sometimes use unweighted nymphs for shallow water or for use as droppers but beadhead and beadchain mostly (but not always) for deeper water. I try to keep dark, medium, and light shaded nymphs to cover all flavors 
. I match the naturals as much as possible. Damselfly nymphs here are dark shaded at size 10 and smaller while Dragonfly nymphs here are medium shaded at size 8 and smaller. I use beadchain eyes on both of these patterns but I don’t use these weighted ones as droppers. I suppose, how much weight depends on how much sink rate I want so its a usage and situational decision for me.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 05 February 2006).]
On Beadheads I go with the tungsten.
For wrap & depending on pattern I usually use
015 lead wrap or tungsten sheet for wrap.
Again, depends on pattern, size, & if in a stream, how fast the stream is flowing.
Tie my favorite nymph unweighted and then use “Loon Soft Weight” on the tippet 12" to 18" from the nymph depending on the water depth and speed. Like this type weight cause I roll it on to the tippet in a torpedo shape. Think this gives me less “bottom” hookups with debris. Personal preference.