Dry-fly fishing gets the glory, but studies and experience agree: trout take something like 80–90% of their food below the surface. Nymphs imitate the larval stage of aquatic insects, mayflies, caddis, stoneflies, midges, drifting in the current where trout hold and feed. Learn to drift a nymph naturally near the bottom and your catch rate goes up dramatically.
The two main approaches
Indicator nymphing
The most accessible method. You suspend one or two nymphs below a strike indicator (a small float), with a little weight to get down. The indicator both suspends the flies at the right depth and telegraphs the take, when it hesitates, dips or does anything unnatural, set the hook.
Tight-line / Euro nymphing
A more advanced, highly effective method using a long leader and weighted flies fished on a tight line with no indicator, feeling and watching for the take. It's deadly in the right water, worth learning once you have the basics down.
A simple indicator rig
- Rod/line: a 9-foot 5-weight (see the 5-weight setup) handles it well.
- Indicator set roughly 1.5–2× the water depth up the leader.
- Split shot or a weighted anchor fly to get down.
- One or two nymphs, a heavier point fly and a smaller dropper.
The most important part: the drift
Trout won't eat a nymph that's dragging unnaturally across the current. The goal is a drag-free, dead drift, the fly moving at exactly the speed of the current, as if it weren't attached to anything.
- Mend your line (flip the belly of the line upstream) to keep the flies drifting naturally.
- Get deep enough. If you're not occasionally ticking bottom, add weight or lengthen the drop, trout hold low, especially in cold water.
- Set on anything. Takes are subtle. If the indicator so much as pauses, set. You'll snag bottom sometimes; that's the price of fishing deep enough.
Tip A few nymphs cover most Northeast trout water: a Pheasant Tail, a Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear, a beadhead caddis, and a small zebra midge. Carry them in a couple sizes and you're ready for most hatches.