What exactly is "Nymphing"?

[midge1]

As you can tell from many of my posts I'm still in the beginning stages of this great hobby, but I'm determined to master everything about it. I've dived right in however. I hear a lot of terms related to fly fishing but one I hear and don't understand is "nymphing". what exactly is it?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[346xp]

Using Flies sub surface in (mainly) a dead drift.

Its more complicated than that, but thats the short version.

 

[el jefe]

Smarter and more articulate folks than me may weigh in, but nymphing is one of three sub-surface methods to fish, the other two being fishing wet flies, and fishing streamers. Nymphing seeks to imitate the larval or pupal stage of the insects, and sub-surface is where the fish do most of their eating. Nymphs can be fished tightline (a la the Czech and other European styles of nymphing), or dead drifted with a strike indicator (also referred to as a bobber by dry fly snobs, or a suspender) and usually some weight, either in the form of a beadhead on a nymph, lead wrapped hooks, or split shot placed on the line below the indicator and close to the flies. For a good treatise on nymphing, look for George Daniel's book Dynamic Nymphing, which covers just about every aspect of that technique. I wish that book would have been out years ago; it would have saved me a lot of trial and error. I am reading it right now, and he sums up things very neatly, and makes a lot of connections between things that are forehead slappers when you read them, but not something you will necessarily think about when you are on the water chasing your quarry.

 

[ia_trouter]

It's just spin fishing with a fly rod. You are still allowed to wear all the cool gear on the stream.

opcorn:

 

[silver creek]

el jefe has correctly given you the short version. Here is the longer version.

The key is the word nymph. A nymph is the immature stage of an aquatic insect. The immature stage is what hatches from the egg. There are 4 main aquatic insect classes = mayflies, stoneflies, caddis flies, and midges. There are other aquatic insects, but for simplicity these are the main ones we will consider.

The immature stages are as follows: Mayflies and Stoneflies = nymphs, Caddis and Midges= larva

Caddis and Midges have an intermediate stage between the larva and adult, called a pupa. So caddis and midges are like the butterfly life cycle = egg to larva to pupa to adult.

Mayflies have an incomplete cycle missing the pupa stage so the mayfly life cycle is nymph to dun (subimago = sexually immature adult) to spinner (imago sexually mature adult).

Stoneflies also have an incomplete cycle so they go from nymph to adult. They do NOT emerge under and at the water surface like the other three aquatic insects. They crawl to shore or on a bolder and change from nymph to adult above the water

So nymphing is fishing with an imitation of a nymph or pupa. Although for classification purposes we separate the stages of development, there MUST be a transitional stage from as these UNDERWATER insect stages change to the ABOVE WATER insect stage. This transitional stage is called an EMERGER because the mayfly nymph emerges at the water surface as a mayfly dun/subimago. The caddis and midge pupa emerges at the water surface as the adult caddis fly and midge fly.

Nymphing is fishing the immature nymph or larva underwater, most often dead drift with or without a strike indicator. Some will also call fishing the emerger as nymphing. I prefer to call it what it is which is fishing emergers. Emergence is not a single stage but a process so a mayfly emerger pattern can have a varied appearance.

 

[kevind62]

Man!! I'm glad y'all cleared all that up. I always thought it meant checking out all the hot chicks on the river. First time Larry told me we were going nymphing I made sure I told the wife we were going fishing. As you can probably tell by now, I'm kinda new to this too. So much to learn!! And I thought my industry jargon was confusing.
:doh::teef:

 

[el jefe]

Man!! I'm glad y'all cleared all that up. I always thought it meant checking out all the hot chicks on the river. First time Larry told me we were going nymphing I made sure I told the wife we were going fishing. As you can probably tell by now, I'm kinda new to this too. So much to learn!! And I thought my industry jargon was confusing.
:doh::teef:

Well, if you're fishing by the hot springs on the San Juan in downtown Pagosa Springs, CO, then your initial definition is correct. See, the term nymphing covers a lot of water.

 

[brownbass]

It's just spin fishing with a fly rod. You are still allowed to wear all the cool gear on the stream.

opcorn:

It is a requirement that fly fishermen wear either a pack or vest that weighs a minimum of forty pounds. And if fishing with one's better half add ten pounds.

Bill

 

[bigjim5589]

Kevin, what really makes it confusing, is your subsurface methods & techniques are all about the same as far as performing them. There's some variance between how the difference fly types might be fished, with length of line used & so forth, but the basics are the same. The primary issue that most beginning fly anglers have is with deciphering the terms & jargon.

It's done that way so you newbies can ask all these questions & we can justify having such a cool forum as this one for us older & experienced guys to be able to pass on our vast accumulation of knowledge!



BTW, :welcomean to fly fishing & this forum! :thumbsupu

 

[midge1]

It's just spin fishing with a fly rod. You are still allowed to wear all the cool gear on the stream.

opcorn:

Pheeeew, that's a good thing, because if not I wasn't even going to get involved.

 

[ia_trouter]

Pheeeew, that's a good thing, because if not I wasn't even going to get involved.

I didn't mean to sidetrack your thread midge. Just trying to earn my first forum dislike and I can't even buy one. I am fishing the next three weeks so I'll try again later lol. I don't personally enjoy nymph fishing but occasionally do it. It's a very effective method most of the time.

 

[bloomagoo]

I found the easiest way to get started with nymphing was to hire a guide and ask him to take me nymphing. After a smokin' half-day on the water with him I had enough of a basic foundation that I could understand enough of the other conversations for it all to start making sense. In some ways it's all so simple -
just drift a fly through the feeding zone - and yet it can get technical and complicated quite fast.

 

[Hombre06]

As you can tell from many of my posts I'm still in the beginning stages of this great hobby, but I'm determined to master everything about it. I've dived right in however. I hear a lot of terms related to fly fishing but one I hear and don't understand is "nymphing". what exactly is it?

Thanks,

Tom

Nymphing occurs around, "Last Call". It's late, you've had too many, and the chica grande at the end of the bar is looking satiable. She's a big girl but your beer goggles say different; it's time to wander over. The challenge is you need to slur the right words to make it happen. It?.. the strike, the take, set the hook. It's a lost art but I'm certain you're up for the challenge. Good luck my friend.

 

[ia_trouter]

Nymphing occurs around, "Last Call". It's late, you've had too many, and the chica grande at the end of the bar is looking satiable. She's a big girl but your beer goggles say different; it's time to wander over. The challenge is you need to slur the right words to make it happen. It?.. the strike, the take, set the hook. It's a lost art but I'm certain you're up for the challenge. Good luck my friend.

Not to put words in your mouth but did I read this correctly. Nymphing is best for those who are desperate?

And I just read your profile and see you were/are an Infantry Officer. Much respect. I am a retired Field Artillery officer.

 

[Matt4.0]

, but I'm determined to master everything about it.

I have bad news for you....it took me almost a year to master everything that is fly fishing. I find most people take 18 months or so though.

 

[jonbo]

The way I understand it for practical purposes, it's fishing with your flies along the bottom. Usually that means larvae, of one sort or another, imitations. It's become popular because it tends to be a productive way to fish. The fish spend the majority of their time along the bottom. I don't know if they feed near the bottom mostly, but if you can get the bait down to where they usually stay, you'll tend to have good luck.

Because it's difficult to keep the flies as deep as you would like and stay "connected" too, that is, know when a fish has taken the bait, there's several somewhat specialized ways. Together, these are what people mean by "nymphing" (I mean when they're actually talking about fly-fishing). They can probably be broken into 2 main categories, indicator (bobber) fishing, and "tight-lining" or "euro-nymphing". I'm basically a bobber fisherman. I keep trying to tight-line but I haven't made it work for me very well, yet.

My favorite way to fly-fish is to swing a soft-hackle or "emerger". When the fish start feeding on emerging nymphs or pupae it works great, but I've learned not to waste productive time with it until I see some movement of the trout near the surface. Till then, it's usually bobber fishing (I call it that because that's what I consider it to be, having done quite a bit of different styles of fishing before taking up fly-fishing.) with pheasant tails, copper johns, caddis larvae, pupae, etc. Or, I get our my 10 ft rod and try to practice tight-lining for a couple hours for about 2 fish, usually.

I don't prefer to dry-fly fish much because my old-man vision's a little poor and I tend to strain my eyes trying to pick out my fly on the water! But I have been in a caddis hatch or 2 that was glorious, also an ant-fall once that was tremendous fun.