The title pretty much sums up the content in this piece, but in all honesty I like many feel if you consider yourself to be a well rounded trout angler, you would be remiss in not fishing with an indicator under the right circumstances. I realize folks, tight-lining, euro-nymphing czech-nymphing or whatever coined term used to fish weighted nymphs is the “cool thing” these days; many think it is the only way to present nymphs. I see many anglers on my home waters regularly fishing exclusively in this manner. And in many situations they do very well, but when they begin to fish this way in some varied water types, their productivity often goes down as they stubbornly will not stray from this method of angling.
I will say, it is a highly effective and productive method when employed by the angler who is extremely adept and efficient at (1) controlling depth, and (2) maintaining that fine line between staying in contact with your flies at the correct speed without literally dragging them through the water column. But, from a guide’s perspective, often it is a difficult concept for many anglers who have minimal experience fishing with nymphs in general. Depth control is often a subject that many struggle with regardless of skill set or experience.
I had this conversation with good friend and Pennsylvania Guide Lance Wilt of Outcastanglers just the other day. We were discussing how the masses of anglers we encounter solely wish to fish nymphs in a tight line set up as they have been led to believe that this is the only way by which to fish nymphs if you want to have maximum success. As stated earlier, this is true if the angler can consistently control the depth of their flies, come in contact with them at the onset of their drift and never lose that contact, (which can be inherently difficult with a variety of variables, wind being the most common, or using improper angles with the rod tip while working a particular piece of water). If the angler doesn’t perform any one of these things, they will either lose flies continually as the system hangs bottom and snags, or they miss many fish as they fail to detect the strike of a fish as they never fully have control of their system.
Look, let me set the record straight, I am by no means denouncing the use of a tight line nymph rig in favor of the indicator (“suspension”) rig. What I am trying to convey here is experiment a little more and don’t be locked into fishing your flies in just one way. Oh I know, now you might have to spend some time re-rigging your entire leader, pinching on some added weight and a dreaded indicator to your line. First world problems I know, but hold on a second. You very well may not have to do nothing more than change the distance between your flies and adding an indicator, and you might even find that you will most likely be fishing lighter flies as well.
I’ll give you a scenario and see if you can visualize it. You’ve been fishing a moderate paced section of broken water somewhere in the vicinity of the gut of a run to start your day. There has been little to no insect activity so you have been working your two fly rig through this middle portion of the run right at the current seam, which has an average depth of about 3-4 feet. Your success has been relatively consistent, but it took some moving around a bit to locate the fish in what has typically been a productive run. The fish are positioned here as a result of the lack of insect activity and are currently not being super selective as a result; more so opportunistic. Your tight line rig under these conditions has your sighter approximately 40 inches above your dropper as a result of the aforementioned water type.
Slowly you start to realize you’ve stopped catching fish in that exact water type, and the insect activity has now started to increase as you begin seeing the flanks of fish in the shallow margins at the immediate head of the run you are fishing. Now the average depth is anywhere from a few inches to no more than 2 feet and the current speed is much slower from what you were currently fishing. Due to your current position, you could cross the river and put yourself in arms length of that water, but you would seriously run the risk of ruining that water entirely by crossing the river or walking up the bank. What you also realize is the bulk of the fish are situated and feeding in that slow seam at a constant depth of approximately 2 feet, and due to your position and the slower current speed, it is rather difficult to maintain a good drift with your nymphs without actually pulling your flies through the water column.
This is where a small indicator and either a single lightly weighted nymph or a pair can really come in handy, and you really do not need to change your leader or alter much, or even add weight for that matter. What I have found seems to work well in this particular setting, and I was doing this with clients way before “euro-nymphing” was even popular mind you, is keeping your presentation in a vertical position, in essence just like a drop shot system. The best way to achieve this with more than one fly is to make sure that your heavier nymph is on the bottom of your rig, with they lighter or unweighted nymph off a dropper tag above. What makes this system very deadly is you can literally split the water column in a variety of ways with 2 flies while also having maximum strike detection once you set your indicator to the proper depth. By using weighted flies and not added weight, you achieve a very high level of sensitivity and strike detection, and this can be fished in a variety of systems to include a mono rig if you are one of the prescribers to this controversial style of flyfishing. (That is a whole other topic that you can read up on, but I will save that for another day).
As a good rule of thumb I will set my indicator just shy of the depth of the water that I am fishing when encountering this type of scenario. In other words, if the water is 2 feet deep I will aim to put my indicator a few inches shy of that depth from the bottom most fly so that while it is drifting it is slightly off the bottom. Granted, in a perfect world the bottom may stay constant, if it changes then I adjust accordingly. Often however, the trout I am targeting are in a feeding mode and will move to intercept my flies, so if they are not exact to the depth don’t worry, just adjust accordingly until you start to have success.
What you also should try to achieve on every drift of your flies is a dead drifts, an elementary concept we all have pounded into our heads. This is often easier to do with a longer rod when fishing a seam across river from you as you can position the rod tip much higher thus keeping all of the line from the end of the rod tip to the indicator off of the water which in turn defeats any sort of potential drag as long as you track the rod tip with the indicator as it flows downstream. By simply continuing to follow the indicator with the rod tip you can slow your flies down to match the current speed and subsequently increase your chances of fooling the trout that are feeding in that particular water.
So the next time you’re encountered with a situation like the aforementioned, don’t just go through the motions and stubbornly struggle, lose the stigma and give the indicator a try, it might just save the day. And for the record, this is a very viable option when the river conditions are lower like they currently are in the summer months on your favorite tailwater fishery. There’s some other great options that I will articulate in future pieces, but until then go out and catch some fish, but first be sure to respect those fish by checking your water temps. The best bets this time of year are early in the morning or later in the day when the sun goes down, but if the water temperatures are too high, give the fish a break.