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High-Stick Nymphing
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Have you ever watched a fly fisherman angling from atop a boulder, holding his rod high, moving it from side to side like a maestro's baton, then sling his presentation back upstream only to conduct it downstream again?
You must have wondered, what in the world he is doing? I can answer your question: That angler is catching more trout than you are.
I am a dry fly kind of guy. I like fishing pocket water pools the size of a washtub with big attractor dry flies and watching a trout shoot from the depths to wreak carnage on the offering.
But catching trout is more important to me than maintaining my dry-fly-purist ethic, so I too occasionally hop atop a boulder and conduct a water symphony. It's called high-stick nymphing, and if you fish swift streams with multiple currents, plunge pools, or long deep runs where the fish stay deep, it's something you need to learn.
High-stick nymphing gives you greater control of the fly, reduced drag, more sensitivity to strikes, quicker hook-setting, the ability to move the fly through the trout's strike zone, and gets you close to the action.
Simple but Deadly
The techniques of high-stick nymphing are simple but deadly. You need to sneak up on the trout, hold your rod high, and maintain total line control.
Trout in these swift streams hold under foamy, deep, or broken water, and cannot easily spot an angler even at close range. Since they can barely see you, it makes dry-fly fishing on this kind of water iffy at best.
The key to success is to reach the fish where they are holding and to present the fly in a natural manner. To do this, the fly needs to be moving at the same speed as the current where the trout lie, with as little drag as possible.
Most of the time, this means effecting a dead-drift presentation (moving the fly at the same rate of the current), but during caddis hatches, it can mean you'll need to use a downstream-and-across-and-up presentation (called the Leisenring Lift).
Walk the Dog
I liken high-stick nymphing to "walking the dog" with a yo-yo. You keep the end of the string high enough so that the yo-yo walks along the ground. The same holds true for high-sticking, but you vary the height of your hand depending on the terrain.
Keep the line somewhat taut and the rod held at a 45-degree angle as you guide the nymph from an upstream cast through a downstream drift, constantly adjusting the tension, depth and speed to match the current.
For my high-sticking, I use weighted flies on 4X to 6X leader on a floating line. I like beadhead flies because they get down deep when they hit the water on my upstream cast.
Two things here: One, it's not as much a cast as it is a sling, fling, lob, or flip with weighted flies. Two, the trout tend to take the fly just after you upstream fling, so you need depth and line control.
Control Your Line
Most beginners will miss strikes because they aren't controlling the line from start to finish. They should fish with their rod-hand forefinger held tautly on the line to ensure good line control.
For the more advanced, make sure to strip in loose line with your line hand as it moves through the air on your upstream cast (fling, sling, lob, etc.). Move the rod from side to side to control excess slack.
During your forward cast, eyeball the amount of line you need to mend. Then, in what will become second nature, pull in slack with your left hand and abruptly stop your forward cast, driving the fly into the water and removing most of the slack, allowing you to control the drift.
Sometimes referred to as short-line or tight-line nymphing, high-stick nymphing is an effective method of catching more fish by conducting your own trout symphony.
Article © Mark D. Willliams, 2000
Details mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication
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