Hi folks,

a quick query:

on a still water, letting small imitative nymphs drift around on the breeze. Lots of little knocks and tweaks, and even quite a few fairly serious jerks, but a very poor hook up ratio. I try to keep tension on the line.

Any suggestions for improving things? Even had a session where I drifted the nymphs over the same lie about 8 times, got a knock every time, and never connected, even though I was ready and expecting it (and no, it wasn't the bottom - saw the fish swirl!).

Thanks!

Are your hooks sharp enough?

If your having knocks and not positive takes it can mean that the fish are curious but not enough to take your nymph. Sometimes trout will attack a fly as it's seen as an intruder in their area of water.

If this isn't the case you should try small plucks on the line to induce a take. If this fails try a smaller size nymph in the same pattern.If this doesn't work try a different colour nymph.Sometimes a small change in size and colour can make all the difference between success and failure.

It's a common problem when nymphing, and perhaps one of the most difficult things to get the hang of. The trout will often suck the fly in, and reject it, before the angler has a chance to react. The correct tension on the line is critical, so as to stay in touch, but at the same time, not creating undue abnormal drift. Some drag when nymphing, is not always a bad thing, so try a little more temsion, and when you feel the bump, tighten up quickly.
Things that might help are:-
A shorter leader, a low streach line, a rod with a more tippy feel, rather than a mid fex for better detection, razor sharp reaction. Also try and fish closer to you. Make short casts, about 6 meters away from you, and rather wade carefully towards the fishing zone. When nymphing, many angletrs lose a lot of takes, because they are too far away, which causes delay in the hook set reaction time. Once you have the feel, and are able to react accordingly, you will know exactly what is expected, and your hookup rate will grow exponentially from there.

All good advice, Matt. I'll add my 2p worth by suggesting you could try to strike with the line hand. Once you feel the take give it a fast pull. Always found I could react quicker than by lifting the rod.

Regards,
Johan

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Johan Janssens

If you're fishing the traditional way of drifting buzzers on a stillwater, then I'm afraid it's virtually inevitable that you hook-up rate will be a bit lower than normal.
Most likely this isn't anything to do with hook sharpness or leader length but more to do with the fact that you've probably got a bloody great bow in the line & you have to take all this slack up before you connect!
Fishing closer in reduces this issue of strike drag, as does a very slow figure of eight retrieve, just about as fast as the drift so you keep in touch with the sharp fingy what's on the end of yer leader!

Hi Steve
I thought your name rang bells. You have a famous father who created a range of very successful nymphs. I guess this must make you something of an expert on how to fish them?

BK

Speed up the figure of 8 retrieve........ there's no law that nymphs should be fished slow.

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www.te-ff.org/
Trout Fisherman Magazine.
Hardy/Greys. Fulling Mill.

Interesting. That's the second time that I've heard that in a week. Could you expand, please? I always thought that nymphs should be fished as slow as possible.

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"Take not out your 'ounds on a werry windy day" Surtees.

Thanks very much folks. All useful.

I tried this - and the knocks stopped! I've only recently started fishing nymphs this slow, and the number of takes (successfully hooked or otherwise) has shot up.

It also seems to vary tremendously from day to day - I've had afternoons where it seemed I could do nothing wrong, and hooked every one, and then the following day, in the same place, doing the same thing, dropped them all. ??

The learning continues...

---------- Post added at 09:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------

Oh - and day dreaming clearly doesn't help...

Though the best fish I've had recently came when I was answering the phone!