NEXT-LEVEL NYMPHING

It’s May and stoneflies are moving from the center of the river to the banks where they dry their wings in the surface film and dance on cloudy afternoons. In the soft runs and the seam edges, the first caddis of the season struggle to break through. In the slow water and back eddies, midges appear in small black clouds. This month holds the promise of the dry fly fishing to come, but right now the vast majority of insect life has not yet hatched, and an angler’s success is dependent on his or her nymphing game.

Let’s re-imagine nymphing and put the heat on river trout with subsurface tactics informed by the latest tight-line and indicator methods. A lot of anglers get it almost right. We choose the right fly but don’t fish