TROUT FISHING TASMANIA

FLY LIFE #30

STILLWATER NYMPHING FOR MAYFLY FEEDERS.

This article was developed for our novice and experienced clients alike. Both find it easy to master and with our new custom built fly fishing boat it will prove it self again this season as one of the most deadly techniques available. 

In this article I revisit a tried and proven technique to catch those mayfly feeders when they just will not rise.

It is not unusual to find conditions are less than perfect, duns are not hatching and not a fish in sight.  Perhaps the barometer is wrong, it's too windy, too bright or you've chosen the wrong water. Maybe not ! Good searching technique will usually save the day.  
There are several excellent searching methods available that will bring trout undone during these marginal conditions, and one that is often overlooked is nymphing which can save you a wasted day and result in some spectacular catches.

Nymphing.
There has to be some reason why nymphing is one of the oldest forms of fly-fishing and without doubt one of the most successful searching techniques available.
Think about the following: Trout take more than 80% of their food sub surface.
Trout will take a well presented nymph at any time.
During a hatch they can take 10 nymphs for every dun.
This goes some of the way to explain why using nymphs are so successful but they really produce the best results during summer days when there are no fish rising, giving us the ability to place a searching fly deep into weed beds where the best concentrations of trout are to be found.
 When used during any decent hatch they can prove absolutely deadly by providing a simple and effective way to fish the full depth of water and is especially useful for those "oncers" as well as for the novice who is having trouble getting the fly in front of those rising fish.

Mayflies.
What's going on under the water?
Before we look at nymphing it is worth noting what happens during the mayfly hatch. Mayflies ready to hatch will emerge from cover at the bottom of the lake, beginning their assent to the surface after swimming slowly out from the weed and rocks into clear water.
The nymph is generally a poor swimmer and it is assisted in it's struggle to the surface by a minute quantity of gas which forms in the thorax, giving it a level of positive flotation.  This produces a very slow rise that is rarely a continuous assent but rather a series of rises and slow falls, with each rise gaining further height and eventually gaining the surface where it will hatch.
This very slow lift and fall is the movement we need to imitate when fishing the nymph imitation. Once the first nymphs begins to emerge from cover, trout will immediately become focused on these to the exclusion of most other foods and in clear water you can observed them swimming in random patterns, maintaining a steady pace and taking most nymphs on the run.
This explains why we get such solid takes by mayfly feeders. It is not always clear exactly what triggers the hatch, but we do know it's a pretty fickle thing which can switch the hatch on and off at will, resulting in waves of duns and rising fish followed by periods of few or no duns hatching.
The one thing you can be certain of is that trout will continue feeding on the nymph between rises or whenever they can find them.

Where to start.
When there is little or no surface activity we have noted that once you have found good weed beds you will find fish actively feeding through the day, especially at depths of 2 to 4m even under the most trying conditions. We can only assume this at these depths trout are less affected by adverse surface conditions.
Finding these weed beds can be as simple as referring to the many books and articles written on Tasmanian trout waters. These provide an excellent reference and are generally a reliable indicator of where to start.
Once you are at the chosen water, observing the number of spinners along the shoreline as well as swallows will indicate where something is hatching or is expected to hatch.
Also, as you move around you should take special note of any spent "shucks" floating on the water, as these are another indication of recent hatches and potential trout concentrations.
Regular checks on the water temperatures around the lakes will reveal variations of 1 to 3 degrees on the surface greatly affecting the location of better hatches.

Loch style nymphing
The boat angler with a good drogue to allow for slow drifting has all the advantages and one successful boat technique is to combine "lock" style fishing with nymphing.
Like nymphing "loch" style methods have been around for many years and for those that have not tried it you will be surprised at how easy it is to master, giving you a much wider range of options to use every day.
Broadly speaking this method of fishing consists of casting up to three flies (legal in Tas) downwind from a slow drifting boat. This can vary from using a floating line with dry or wet flies to a sinking line with all wet flies.
Gear you need.
As you are targeting fish in what is essentially shallow water of 2 to 4m, no special equipment is required to combine loch style fishing with nymphing. You simply need to deliver a set of flies 10 to 15m out from the boat, so use your favourite rod and a floating line, add a 4m length of quality 6lb fluorocarbon leader, attach two droppers, tie on three nymphs and go fishing. A sink tip line or an intermediate sinking line will be an advantage if you want to fish deeper than 4m but since the best hatches occur in depths of less than 4m, there is really no need for anything other than a floating line.
When selecting leader tippet materials you will really benefit from using a quality fluorocarbon for all wet fly fishing and although I don’t believe it disappears completely in the water we have noted a definite improvement in our catch rate since we changed over to this material. Let it sink. When fishing nymphs in deeper water the best results are gained by covering the full depth of water, with the heavier point fly fished deep down in the weed followed by the middle fly covering mid water depths and finally the bob fly fished near the surface.

Let it sink
When nymph fishing in deeper water it is critical to give the line and flies time to sink down into the weeds where the fish are and this can take up to half a minute in deeper water which means controlling your drift speed and casting well ahead of the boat or to the side if the boat is likely to drift over the line during the sink period. If you don’t get the occasional weed hook up, you are not getting down far enough.
After the cast the next step is to eliminate slack from the line and leader so you are best to strip in a meter or more, just to straighten out the line, leader and flies before everything sinks too far.
Another important point is to fish with the rod tip on or in the water, eliminating any hanging loop at the tip of the rod.
Some experts will tell you to lift the tip and watch for the strike by observing the slack loop at the end of the rod, however I can assure you that when you are dealing with mayfly feeders you will miss most strikes if you give them that much extra slack and time to spit the fly out.
As the flies sinks you can expect a small number of strikes at any time and you will need to keep up a slow figure eight retrieve to eliminate any slack as the boat drifts down on the flies.
Once the flies are at the required depth it is then critical to lift the flies with a slow and steady retrieve, to represent the movements of the natural.
The strike. It is here at the first lift of the fly where 90% of all strikes will occur, just as the flies start to lift slowly up out of the weeds.

Wade nymphing
The shore based angler will not be able to access deeper water but will still find nymphing to be an effective searching technique. When hunting pockets of open water among the weeds, the wading angler will often go for the nymph as the first choice.
No special gear is required other than a floating line, tapered leader and a single fly set up. This will allow slow searches and a fair chance of landing that big one without having to worry about a second or third fly tangling in the weeds.
As with all nymphing, if the fly has not been taken on the drop then you will often induce a strike with movement and it is that first upward lift that is likely to trigger a reaction.
You should try several casts to each area before moving on to another spot, as it may be some time before the fly is spotted.
Hooking up will require minimal slack in the line and quick reflexes. In more open water there can be benefits in using a second or even a third fly to cover a wider area.

Flies
 One of the great things about this style of fishing is that almost everyone has a range of mayfly nymphs with them during summer.
If not then they are available everywhere you go and we have found that simple dark coloured, seals fur nymphs tied in two or more sizes are all that you need.
As far as matching the hatch is concerned it is rarely necessary to differentiate between the mayfly species and to keep it simple you only need to classify them as big nymphs/duns and smaller nymphs/duns.
The colour difference can be as simple as light and dark browns. This reduces the selection down to a maximum of four, big being # 12 and smaller # 14 in either brown or black.
One of the key factors in nymphing is the ability to move the fly very slowly, matching the movements of the natural whereas heavily weighted flies such as bead heads will work but nowhere near as well as lightly weighted flies.
For fishing in shallow water of 1 to 2m light hooks are perfect giving a slow sink and the time to fish the water.
For depths of 2 to 4m all you need is a standard nymph tied on a heavy hook.I feel the body material is important and even though there are many good synthetic products available, we have found that seals fur with the thorax pulled out to form legs gives the best results.
In fact the more chewed about and scraggy the better. This may be a combination of the fish mucus camouflaging the taste and smell of the imitation, or as we think, just the general appearance of the fly combined with the method of fishing it.

Finding and catching those elusive mayfly feeders on the tough days is not that difficult and the next time you find it's not happening on the surface, try nymphing in deeper water but remember to let the flies sink all the way then fish them slowly.

Bob McKinley - Fish Wild Tasmania - Hobart