for the past few weeks I have been gettin to grips with upstream nymphing and have had great returns both in number of fish caught and the size of these fish. however last night my local river was running really low and I was fishing shallow water so I decided not to use a weighted nymph and I notices that my takes were alot less than if I had a goldhead on. is this because some of my takes were really my fly knocking on the bottom of the river or was igerting fewer bites because my flies werent on the bottom if that makes sense. any advice or insight would be much appreciated

Hi Gerry
Upstream Nymphing

Many times the best way to catch trout is through nymphing. And often nymph-fishing requires that you get the fly down to the bottom.

Using a weight, such as a couple split-shot sinkers, 12 to 18 inches above the fly will usually do the trick and move the fly down into the water column.

While there are a number of techniques for nymph-fishing, the upstream method is a very productive technique that works well.
When fishing with the upstream method you fish your fly directly upstream or upstream and slightly across your cast. This sends your fly close to the bottom and allows it to float naturally into the water column. This technique presents your fly as a dead-drift as it moves through the water.

The key is to keep nearly all of the slack out of the line. Also with this technique it will be hard to detect a strike. Trout are very subtle when taking nymphs and will move the fly around in their mouths trying to decide if it is something they want to take. For this reason, it is advisable to tie on a strike indicator, such as a piece of yarn. Place the indicator about twice the distance as the depth of the water your are fishing in. For instance, if the bottom of a riffle is around two feet deep, place the indicator four feet from the fly. You may also find it necessary to adjust the indicator for the current flow of the water, meaning you should increase the distance between the fly and the indicator in fast water, and decrease the distance in slow moving water.

After the cast, keep the rod tip up as the indicator and fly drift past you. You want to keep all of the slack out of the line as it drifts past to enable you to accomplish a hook up. As the fly and indicator drift past, lower the rod tip slowly and make sure you keep any slack out of the line. Work the drift of the fly and keep it natural looking by presenting downstream S-curves.

Watch the indicator for any movement, such as a twitch, or a sudden down movement, which obviously indicates a fish has taken the fly. Strike back quickly, yet gently, and bring the fish in.

BK

thanks for that, great reply. I always used to fish wets across and down and managed a fair few fish but they were nothing in size compared to the ones I'm pulling from deep pools using an upstream nymphing approach. I have been using foam football indicators which seem to be doing the job. my nymphs are pretty limited at the moment to ptn and grhe. are there any others that you would recommend. iv found that I can rarely go wrong with sparsely dressed ptns with a gold head. thanks

My choice as well Gerry in different sizes, colours, and dressing.

BK