We all fish weighted nymphs at some time I'm sure, especially now with the upsurge in Czech and French Nymphing methods, but how heavy are the nymphs you use?
We read that some anglers advocate the positioning of the 'heaviest' nymph in the middle of a three nymph rig and others on the point - but how heavy are they;
a) in relation to each other?
and
b) relative to what others use?
and
d)relative to the water you are fishing?

Fly 'recipes' call for 'a 2mm bead and thin sticky backed lead foil' for example yet make no mention of the final weight of the fly. The size of hook and its pattern are also weight factors yet, as far as I am aware, you cannot specify flies by weight, yet the weight is,when actually fishing, almost as important(if not more so) than the pattern.

Have you all any thoughts on this?

Because this was on my mind I have 'invested' in an electronic scale, so that I know exactly what I am doing (only £6 on ebay) and I wondered if anyone else had had the same thought......................or am I going mental!

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I have been tying all of my patterns in various weights.. Although i dont put them on scales.

For example, i have tied a few Beatis nymphs with various coloured heads, tungsten pink, green, copper etc... in 2mm, 3mm, 4mm with and without lead to give me options whilst out fishing.

When i am out and about the weight is changed depending on how fast / deep the water is..

With regards to putting the heavy fly on the middle or point... I am all ears as i am not sure what the correct answer is??? I have always put the heavy fly on the point but thats just because i was shown to do that during a guiding day?

the weight of nymph depends upon water speed and depth. I fish as heavy a nymph as i can get away with, in other words as close to the bottom as possible without getting snagged too much.
I feel its better to put the heaviest nymph on the point.

Were multiple flies are allowed the general rule of the thumb here is the larger/heaviest fly will be attached to the main leader and a smaller/lighter fly as the trailer. Object of the first is to 'find the bottom' the second to 'swing free' behind.

The fish may 'take' either, but the norm is the trailer.
fae

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Interestingly, I have read that the fish are supposed to take the droppers more often than the point..... BUT when i fish a team of weighted nymphs, its the point fly that is taken vertually every time?

Re Fred´s method - it is a good way to fish small flies at depth while giving them an option of a bigger mouthful at the same time, but sometimes they just want the smallest flies that you have. My best rainbow from the San Juan River in New Mexico was caughr on a bitterly cold morning on a size 18 midge larva that was tied New Zealand style to a big heavy hare´s ear nymph that was fishing right on the bottom of a deep slow run.

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Hi

The weight of the fly depends entirely at what depth of water you are fishing in and what level the fish are feeding at. For example you could be in 8 foot of water but the fish are holding mid water.

For me i carry 4 of each pattern in each size from a 10 with a 5mm bead to 20's and 1.5mm beads. I tend not to lead the fly unless extreme depth is needed because it makes the fly to fat, but i do use tungsten beads on all my flies.

In terms of positioning on the leader the heaviest should always be on the point otherwise you are not in contact with the point fly and the takes will not register and it helps with the tern over of the leader. There can be any size difference between the flies for example you could have a size 10 on the point and 20's on the droppers if you wanted small flies in deep water!

Hope this helps

James

If I'm fishing for grayling, I try and touch bottom wherever I'm fishing.
We all know it's not only the weight of the fly that takes a nymph down, it's also the cast - slack line allows the fly to be sucked down in eddies in fast deep water, and in slow water it allows the fly to sink without drag drawing it up towards the surface. So I'd say it's a tricky combination of weight of fly, angle of cast and leader length - even harder to judge! Another thing that effects the sinking of a fly is the dressing - slim and heavy will drop like a stone.

Does anyone use splitshot and lighter nymphs? That's one option that gives your nymph more natural movement, and you have the weight to get down deep. It's something I haven't done for a while, but I used to fish wet flies with a splitshot on rivers for little wild trout.

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thanks everyone for the replies. All very interesting and thought provoking, but no-one has addressed the actual question which was 'HOW heavy'.
In fact I am interested in the split shot application which, in the case of the 'rocky' waters I fish might be worth exploring.
I can see that the old fashioned LEAD shot would work quite well, because when stuck on the bottom the soft shot will actually pull off the (first dropper I reckon) and can easily be replaced. Easily adjustable weight as well, but I wonder if the harder 'non toxic' shot will work as well.


David

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David the 'how much' is a function of the depth/speed of the current flow. Not too many folks 'round here' use split shot on a fly line. Main reason is during the 'fly only' season its illegal to do so.

That said, in the Great Lakes area split shot is used frequently as the rivers/runs require you get down asap. From what I understand the guys will space out two/three over the bottom 1/3'ish of their leaders rather than all off a 'dropper.'

fae

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