"Discover The Hidden Secrets of Fly Fishing and How You Will Use Them…….To Catch More Fish!"

"The Cove nymph - a simple but deadly fish catcher

…With A Well Chosen Nymph

The nymph is the underwater stage of an aquatic fly. Nymphs spend two to three years living under rocks on the bottom of the stream, encased in a sort of shell, then at various times they struggle to the surface, break their cases, and emerge as flies.

Nymphs appear in many different forms, some flat-bodied, some round-bodied, and others appear to have built little houses around themselves, or put up nets to catch food. Nymphs differ in the way they act prior to emerging as flies. Some crawl out on the rocks, while others go up the reeds alongthe shore and when the fly appears it lays its eggs there. When the eggs hatch, the little creature that is born crawls down the reed again to hide itself in the mud till it is time for the cycle to begin all over again. Still other nymphal forms are often seen floating downstream, riding along the surface as the fly works out of its shell and finally breaks free and flies away – if some hungry trout doesn’t get it. And so it goes, through a vast array of underwater forms of life which for fishing purposes we class together as nymphs. As a result of the great variety, it takes a close study of nymphs to match them with artificials and the tying of good nymphs is one of the most difficult phases of fly tying. Some of the products turned out are also the prettiest things in a fly man’s book.    

Since the nymph is usually underwater when the fish takes it, or barely to the surface, it should carry a little more weight than dries, and most commercially tied nymphs are weighted. In the case of some of the lighter, unweighted ones, however, anglers frequently pinch on a split shot about a foot above the fly if it becomes necessary to get them down to reach a feeding fish.

"Mayfly nymph, a fussy nymph to tie - but well worth the effort"

 The Mayfly nymph (left), a highly respected fish catcher in the UK. This is a nymph which often has lead wire added, under the dressing materials to get the nymph down quickly to the trout’s larder near the bed of the stream or lake.

"A Wooly Worm Type"

…….Wooly Worm

Practically all the standard wet-fly patterns do a good workmanlike
job. They catch fish and they catch them almost every time you use them. Most wet fly anglers have a favorite fly which they are sure is deadly poison to the trout population, and with which they do take more fish than with others. There is a simple explanation – they fish that fly more often and they
fish it with confidence, and hence they give it everything they
have when they show it to a trout. Believing as they do that this
is the fly trout have a yen for, they are more alert for the strike,
more ready to take full advantage of every opportunity.

My favorite wet fly is a coachman, size 12. I can readily believe
that a trout will see that white wing sooner than any other
color, I believe that trout like a combination of brown and
white, and I am sure that when I retrieve that fly in short
jerks, it looks exactly like the small minnows so often found
in trout waters.

Just as with dry flies, a wet fly that is good in one part of the
country is usually effective in other parts, too, so that any division
into Eastern and Western flies is impossible. However,
there are a few ties entirely Western that are a bit too big for
Eastern fishing. This group could really be called bi-flies because
they can be fished either wet or dry. In fact many fishermen
use them as a dry for the course of the downstream float
then yank them beneath the surface and bring them back in
short jerks, as a wet fly. Outstanding among these ties are the
Silver Invictor, Mallard & Claret, the Wickham’s Fancy and that hot favorite the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear.

Perhaps the all-time great Western wet fly is the wooly
worm. Many Rocky Mountain anglers will tll you that the
wooly worm is the one and only fly for that part of the country.
It is tied in many sizes and colors and combinations of colors.
The orange and black with a few sprigs of white mixed with the
black at each end is probably the best of the lot, being a true
imitation of the wooly bear, a caterpillar which appears in
the fall. Weather-prophets claim to be able to foretell the
severity of the coming winter by the width of the orange band
around the wooly bear’s middle. Regardless of the width of
the band, the trout bust it with vigor and it is one of the most
successful wet flies in use today.