Please bear in mind here that much of what l write is based on some 50 years experience fly fishing the world’s trout streams, rivers and lakes, and they all differ to some extent. Fish in one system may differ from fish in another as the basis of the food chain may be different. Likewise the most productive methods to catch those fish will differ. A freestone stream or a spring creek is very different from the tailwaters that we fish here in Arkansas. However there is a common basis of approach to catch those fish; be it with a dry fly, a nymph, or a streamer.

Nymph fishing has by far a requirement for more skills overall than any other means of fly fishing with possibly the exception of traditional wet fly fishing techniques. When nymph fishing, with a few exceptions, surface presentations are not an issue other than the manner in which the cast is made to the water surface to allow for the subsequent drift of the fly at depth to take place. For example, if you cast a jumbled mess onto the water you are reducing your chances of catching fish big time. If, however, you make a good straight line presentation or one of the special casts, such as the tuck cast, you will enable the fly to get to acceptable depth and you will fish way more productively.

We have only two options to know that a fish has taken our fly; visually or by feel.  In almost all cases of dead drift nymph fishing it is a sight related activity. You see the fish take the fly or you have a visual indication such as when using an indicator or fly line or leader/tippet indication. The latter is by far the more difficult than using an indicator as it requires way more overall skills to master and it is by and large the method used by skilled EU anglers. I would argue that in the case of wade fishing, once mastered, the technique is more productive than fishing with an indicator for the reason that the angler has to exercise much more control of drift than one who watches an indicator.

OK, Nymph rigs. Frankly l do not use tapered leaders, with possibly one exception, and that is when fishing low glassy water for midging fish. Saying that, l build my own rig from what more or less is a permanent butt section, which, at the end of the day, is all a tapered leader is. Its function primarily is to terminate in a given X factor.

It matters not what system you use, if you do not have some degree of good casting skill you will not turnover a leader system in a straight line.

My standard rig is this. From the fly line, l add 3ft of 20 lb Amnesia and to that 2 ft of 15 or 12 lb amnesia. The main reason why l choose Amnesia is that it is oval and not round, and due to that will not twist and coil like regular round leader butt sections. The other reason is that with a good stretch it will be perfectly straight, unlike typical leaders that are the devil to pull straight. The last thing l need is a bunch of coils that will not lay straight. I want a perfectly straight system.
A lesson l learned  many years ago when l was well into the FF competition world, is that leader systems needed to be chopped and changed in a few minutes, and they needed to be simple affairs.

Amnesia is a memory free shooting head backing line available in red or green in 200 ft spools at around $5.

The amnesia is attached to the fly line with a no knot connection. Nail and needle knots, when using long leader systems, are a pain because as often as not the knot will hang in the rod guides, and can cause you to loose a good fish when using light tippets. To the end of the amnesia is tied a simple overhand knot. Above that is tied the additional leader of whatever length and X factor chosen, which in my case is very likely to be 5X or 6X.

More or less this is a system good enough for any high water situation we have here. The additional differences such as weight choice of fly are explained in the first part of this two part article and that is by far the major part of setting the rig up for a given depth and water speed. The fly is not so much the issue in that sense of the word; it is the presentation that is the issue at or near to the river bed.

Two other major issues are choice of rod, and line weight profile used, particularly the fly line. Long tapered lines are not required for deep water nymph fishing; they are designed for surface presentation.

If fishing high water, the indicator is always placed on the amnesia. If lower water, then at given distances from the fly to the leader attached to the Amnesia.
This system will accommodate fishing water depths of 10 to 15 ft at most. Other methods are needed for greater depth.

Long rods are pretty much the name of the game here also, 10ft at least and maybe more. The long rod allows for way easier mending and drift control, also when fishing at depth they enable faster hook sets as the long rod will allow line to be picked up from the water surface quicker that a short rod. A short rod is a serious handicap when using long over-all systems of 8 feet or more from indicator to the fly.

There is an additional consideration. A short section of, say, 5X attached to a standard 9 foot tapered leader of 4X or 5X is a weak link. Short sections of added tippet have little stretch, 5 feet of 5X gives you way more margin. Knots are, at the end of the day, the weak link.

If l wish for a step down tapered leader system, then from the end of the 5 foot amnesia butt, l will add 3X or 4X and reduce that down to terminate in at least 4 feet of tippet of the X factor of choice, 5X or 6X as a rule. The exception will be when fishing large heavy flies such as stonefly nymphs and large caddis larva type patterns or Czech/Polish/French nymphs.

For many reasons, most of my systems will be at least 10 to 15 ft in length. The primary one being it keeps the fly line away from the fly. Also there is fewer disturbances to the water during mends, and it is less likely to spook the fish.
Now these may not be so much of an issue for stockers, but it certainly is for long term resident fish, particularly Browns. On the matter of fly line color, it makes no difference to me, l prefer white.  You can see it at any time against any background and when there are low light conditions, you cannot control drift unless you can see the fly line.

Indicators, make your choice. There are a great many options out there, some of which in my book are worthless. So far as l am concerned you cannot beat yarn, and there are many reasons why l will say that. It sits high above the surface and can be easily seen at a distance and in very turbulent water.  This is not the case for indicators that sit low. Yarn can be cut back and finely tuned so the most sensitive of takes can be seen, not all fish will sink a indicator, they may just register as shudders or slow downs. Many of these takes are very difficult to see when using other types on indicator. For high water l use the O ring type, for lower water yarn that is double looped at the position that l wish it to be. I realize, however, that many fishermen find the poly ball type indicator more convenient to use.

Out of choice l also prefer yarn of more natural shades, white, black, olive, brown, gray tans, which was less likely to spook fish and draw attention to the indicator and not the fly. I accept that when fishing very high deep water, color may not be so much of an issue.

At the end of the day if you are fishing with confidence and you have a rig set up right, the odds are you will catch fish. There is a big difference between catching fish by design than by accident.

Hopefully, this fall, we will see low wadable water. When we do, l will be able to hold some Euro nymph classes onstream as l know there is a great interest for many of you to learn these techniques.

Tight lines all. I am off to MT/WY/UT this month for my annual fishing trip and to shoot a new DVD.

Davy