my last ice fishing trip<\/a>. This seems to be a good quality reel for a pretty good price, and I’m happy with it.<\/p>\nWith a new, smaller reel, I obviously had to buy a new fly line<\/b> (or splurge on two). I shopped around for a little while, and ended up ordering two lines from an online fly fishing store. Both lines are WF4<\/b>, one floating<\/b> and the other with a 15′ sink tip<\/b>. These lines cost me a pretty penny, but if I take good care of them I shouldn’t have any problem using them for several seasons to come.<\/p>\n
I didn’t have much luck last year at the beginning of trout season<\/b>, and I was fishing with worms at that point. I can only imagine the time I will have trying to fool a fish with a fly on high, fast, dark water<\/b>. With such a mild winter we’ve had, the water levels probably won’t be as high as they usually are this time of year.<\/p>\n
I’ve been doing some reading about nymph fishing<\/b> lately, and have decided that if I want to catch any fish this spring, I’m going to have to learn how to do this.<\/p>\n
I have an OK collection of nymphs, probably about 20 of them ranging in size from 10 – 14. This should be enough to get me started, unless I end up snagging everyone of them on my first day out (which may happen). I picked up some leaders, tippet material <\/b>and a few strike indicators<\/b> the other day, and I think I’m ready to go.<\/p>\n
If I understand nymphing correctly, I’ll be casting upstream<\/b> and trying to dead drift my nymph(s) back down towards<\/b> me, stripping line and keeping an eye on my strike indicator waiting for some unnatural movement before trying for a hookset<\/b>. I have heard of fishing several nymphs at a time, but I don’t think I’m ready for this quite yet so I’ll probably be starting with just one for now.<\/p>\n
I’ll use my new sink tip line<\/b>, and probably a 5x tapered leader to start (until I break it off enough times and have to tie a tippet on). I am a little weary of using a finer leader<\/b>, as I am not that accurate at casting yet and will probably encounter more than enough snags my first time out. Also, if I am using a sink tip line and nymphs<\/b>, I would think that I can get away with a little thicker of a leader?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Do any of you have any suggestions on what nymph patterns work well around here in early April?<\/b> I have a several Pheasant Tail Nymphs<\/i>, Bead Head Prince Nymphs<\/i>, March Brown Nymphs<\/i>, and a few Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymphs.<\/i> I don’t have a huge collection so I guess I could just try the different patterns and see what works and what doesn’t.<\/p>\n
How high up your leader do you generally put your strike indicator?<\/b> I think the first few times out I’ll be fishing on a small stream that only gets about 20 ft wide and probably has an average depth of about two feet. I obviously don’t want my nymph snagging on the stream bed all day.<\/p>\n
Does anybody have any tips for my first time out trying nymph fishing?<\/b> I’m getting antsy already and I still have 2+ weeks to wait!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So yesterday I packed away my ice fishing gear for the year. I can probably find some ice somewhere to fish on this weekend, but I’m not going to risk it. It’s time to start getting ready for opening day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fishing","category-gear-updatesreviews"],"yoast_head":"\r\n
I Bought A New Reel & Some Lines And Am Ready To Try Nymphing<\/title>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n\t \r\n\t \r\n\t \r\n \r\n \r\n \n\t \n\t \n\t \r\n