Nymph rigging

[Troutbum15]

Hi,

I've been following this form for awhile and thought that it was time to join. Seems like a great place to learn more about fly fishing and an awesome site.

I've been fly fishing for about 4 years now and just got really into for a for the past two. I'm mostly a trout fisherman.

My question is about nymph rigging for fishing multiple nymphs. Since I started doing this I've always tied off another nymph at the bend of my hook or through the eye of the first fly.

However, after talking with the owner and a few guys at the local fly shop, they introduced me to using a surgeon knot above a dropper nymph and said this is really the way to go in terms of rigging. The Czech style basically. I've sorta been throwing into the mix but I've been wondering if there is an advantage to using this instead of tying a nymph off at the bend of the fly?

I mostly high stick in close or indicator nymph when needed if that helps. Is there certain situations when one is better?

 

[ryansheehan]

Advantages of tying above: better strike detection, varying flies in the water column
Disadvantages of tying above: much easier to tangle, need a thicker stiffer tippet.

Im sure others will add to the list. I use both rigs you described and a few more. It all depends on the situation. It takes experimentation to figure out what works best for you in different streams and conditions. Most of the time I tie a dropper off the hook because I like using small midge patterns as my dropper. Its tough to fit 3x through a size 22 ;-)

 

[afishinado]

Troutbum15 wrote:
Hi,

I've been following this form for awhile and thought that it was time to join. Seems like a great place to learn more about fly fishing and an awesome site.

I've been fly fishing for about 4 years now and just got really into for a for the past two. I'm mostly a trout fisherman.

My question is about nymph rigging for fishing multiple nymphs. Since I started doing this I've always tied off another nymph at the bend of my hook or through the eye of the first fly.

However, after talking with the owner and a few guys at the local fly shop, they introduced me to using a surgeon knot above a dropper nymph and said this is really the way to go in terms of rigging. The Czech style basically. I've sorta been throwing into the mix but I've been wondering if there is an advantage to using this instead of tying a nymph off at the bend of the fly?

I mostly high stick in close or indicator nymph when needed if that helps. Is there certain situations when one is better?

I agree with the local fly shop. A long time ago I puzzled over this very thing. After a lot of experimentation with both rigs, the fish told me, for nymphing, tying a fly on a dropper (the bottom tag of a surgeons) works much better than tying on the hook bend or eye.

I will tie on the bend or eye to a dry for a dry-dropper rig, but for nymphing and also for wets; the dropper method works best.

 

[foxfire]

I tie off the second from a long tag end of a clinch knot. I find this fastest and easiest along the stream and on my 55+ eyes.

 

[bigjohn58]

IF the water is high enough and current strong enough I often use both methods. I use 3 nymphs if whenever possible. The first one up my line I have tied on the tag end of a blood knot. It is usually a slightly weighted fly (small bead). The second fly is tied to the end of line I tied in with the blood knot. That is usually my anchor fly and is my heaviest. Off the bend of that fly I usually tie a weightless fly on a lighter pound test or tippet. That fly just drags along and is usually my walts worm or something very simple for me to tie. If I break that off so be it! If the water is extremely low or slow moving I just use the 2 fly method of the blood knot tag end and the anchor fly at the bottom.

 

[Troutbum15]

Thanks for the good advice. I think I have a better idea of why I was recommended the surgeons knot sit up. I drove up to spring the other day and was having a lot success with this rig. 3 browns and plenty more of strikes picked up and near misses. That's a good day for me. I really like it the only pain is a tangle with this set up by hey it's nymphing and it can happen with any of these I guess. I'm going to keep messing around to find the idea spot on the rig of add weight