Tight lines
A twist on European fly tactics makes nymph fishing a contact sport
MILESBURG, Pa. — Among trout anglers the world over, central Pennsylvania is famous for its temperature-controlled limestone streams that pour fromsprings year-round at a uniform 52 to 54 degrees. In the 1600s when Europeans first plied those creeks with specialized fly patterns (that still work), they also fished the limestone-influenced freestone waters of Bald Eagle Creek in present-day CentreCounty.
Another stream of the same name flows to the southwest from just across the Blair County line. The northeast-flowing Bald Eagle drains the agricultural valley separating the Allegheny Front and Bald Eagle Ridge. Originating some 5 miles upstream of PortMatilda, it winds slowly and sun-warmed until its confluence with the smaller and aptly named Spring Creek at Milesburg. There Bald Eagle Creek absorbs the cooler water, acid-busting pH and other limestone attributes, continuing through the valley like an extensionof Spring Creek.
For the next 5 miles it picks up additional springwater tributaries and supports stoneflies, significant mayfly and caddisfly hatches, native brook trout, feral browns and stocked rainbows until washing into Foster Joseph Sayers Lake atBald Eagle State Park.
It was on those limestoneinfluenced waters where George Daniel chose to meet to discuss contact nymphing. A two-time Fly Fishing Team U.S.A. national champion and fifth-place winner in World Fly Fishing competition,Daniel now is promoting his third book. Released weeks ago by Stackpole, “Nymph Fishing: New Angles, Tactics, and Techniques” updates some of the high-sticking techniques championed in his well-received “Dynamic Nymphing” (Headwaters, 2011), and expands upon tactics used by fly line-averse Europeans to increase angler contact withthe nymph.
“When I wrote my first book it was mostly on my own experiences — things that I saw and problems I had with nymph fishing,” Daniel said last week, sitting back on a streamside log after two morning hours of fishing and instructing. “Since then I’ve been guiding full-time spending 200 to 250 days a year on the water withclients. I’ve coached the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team and adult team members — I think I’ve learned more in the last three years from observing some of the best fly fishers in the world asa coach.”
Rather than riffing on established European narratives, “Nymph Fishing” explores compromises and adaptations that are practical when competition rules are not in play. Daniel puts his Penn State masters degree in education to use, articulating and contextualizing successful approaches to fly fishing that might at first seem counterintuitive to experienced American fly line casters. But as explained by Daniel the new physics of drag-free fly fishing make sense.
“It’show my 7- and 9-yearold kids are fishing now,” he said.
There’s no need for deep pockets and a snarky attitude to fly fish sans fly line. Anystandard 9-foot 5-weight rod capable of throwing streamers and dries will do thejob.
“But if you find yourself doing one technique the majority of the time you might consider specialized equipment,”Daniel said. “Most fly rods are designed to cast fly line. I’m basically casting leader, so I’m looking for a rod that has a softer tip designed to cast less mass and that’s really sensitive to allowme to see and feel strikes easier.”
In recent years most fly rod manufacturers have come out with “European nymphing rods” designed to loadwith a minimal amount ofbackstroke power.
“All you need to do is flip thewrist,” said Daniel.
He stripped line off the reel to help explain his rig. Most European competition anglers use fly line as backing.But because seven out of 10 clients prefer to feel fly line between their fingers, he said, Daniel strings their rods with a level 0.022-inch competition line poking about 6 inches beyond the rod tip. To that he ties a rod’s length of level 15-pound-test monofilament and 2 to 3 feet of colored 8-pound-test sighterline.
“Within the sighter I tie three blood knots about 12 inches apart and leave the tag lines on,” he said. “The tagends make it easier to see the knots, which are used to aid in depth control. With a suspensionsystem [or strike indicator], you’re rigged for fishing at one depth. The knots in the sighter give you pretty accurate depth flexibility through the drift. As the rod advances the line in the current, raise or lower the tip to keep the flies near thebottom.”
Below the sighter Daniel ties on several feet of level tippet material in delicate 5x to7x, and attaches droppers.
“InEurope most of the top comp anglers are using anything from 6x down to 8x tippet. Not because of an invisibility standpoint,” he said, “but because they believe it gives their flies a lot more natural movement in the current and gives them greater contact with the nymph. Less mass means lessdrag.”
Duringa heavy hatch, the most aggressive trout rise off the calm bottom into the conveyor current to snack on passing food items, Daniel said. Deviating from competition rules, “Nymph Fishing” proposes a dropshot bottom-bounce weight system. At the end of his tippet Daniel ties no fly. He pincheson lead shot.
“I think one of the mistakes I’ve made as a nymph fisher was thinking I always had to be bouncing flies on the bottom and hanging up constantly.I found that quite often I was fishing below the feeding fish,” he said. “This way keeps the bottom fly at least 6 inches or so off the bottom. Instead of using a heavy anchor fly as you would in European nymphing, where the weight has to be built into the fly, this allows you to fish two smaller flies that both have a chance of catching fish. And if it hangs up, you just pull the lineout through the shot.”
The “Nymph Fishing” index commits about onesixth of a page to entries describing“casting.”
“You might not even want to call it casting. It’s more of a lob,” Daniel said. “I don’t use this system where it requires long casts, just when I can get within 15 or20 feet from the fish.”
Most traditional fly casting uses the weight of the line to create the tension that loads the rod. With no flyline, the water current behind the angler is used to pull on the leader to load the rod.
“Wherever you want the flies to go on the forward cast, your leader needs to be 180 degrees in a straight line behind you pulling, bending the rod tip,” he said. “That createsthe anchor point.”
As Daniel demonstrates, just cock the wrist back, feel the tension of the water pulling the leader and lightly flip the rod forward. The pliant specialized rod tip does the rest. Even for a novice lobber, fishable accuracy is possible within a shorttime.
“I hate rules in fly fishing. In this book what I stress are suggestions,” said Daniel. “I’ve found you can have some of the best anglers in the world fishing the same water coming at it in different ways from different approaches and often they’re going to yield similar results.”