nymph size

With flies, in the film, and with dries, I feel confident saying that "a
little smaller is better than a little too big" in reference for patterns
fished to selective situation fish.

My question is this. If you are fishing a nymph deep to imitate a specific
insect, at a time that insect is active and emerging ... i.e. a "selective
nymphing" situation .... and your box is empty in the correct size ....
would you put on bigger or smaller? I don't have a lot of confidence
in my nymphing, though I usually catch some fish when I resort to it.
Your, in depth, experience can help me make decisions with more faith, and,
right now, decide which end of the size spectrum to emphasize as I stock
boxes for the season. Thanks.

"Larry L" wrote in
:

. If you are fishing a nymph deep to imitate a specific
insect, at a time that insect is active and emerging ... i.e. a
"selective nymphing" situation .... and your box is empty in the
correct size .... would you put on bigger or smaller?

Why not go one of each, and let the fish decide?

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

"Scott Seidman" wrote

Why not go one of each, and let the fish decide?

--


good, practical, suggestion

but

"mucking with tackle" is 99% of what I don't like about nymphing, and two
flies is more than even double mucking ...at least in my tangled hands


plus, my current decison is what sizes to tie and stock

lets take PMDs, the most widespread bug I fish over .... you find them in
the 16 to 20 range ... and my dry fly selection is heavy on the 18s and 20s
since I 'know' that Mr Trout will eat an 18 if the real thing is a 16 but
not always the reverse ....

Based on your ( all readers) experience, can I plan on the same size bias at
the deep nymph level?

"Larry L" wrote in
:

"mucking with tackle" is 99% of what I don't like about nymphing, and
two flies is more than even double mucking ...at least in my tangled
hands

You're right-- nymphing, at least to me, seems all about mucking with
tackle to get a drag-free drift at the right depth, and its a lot of work.

When you have two nymphs, oddly enough, its less work! You double your
odds of having a pointy hook in the right place without mucking around with
your tackle. I particulary enjoy a beadhead nymph up top, sometimes
tungsten, with a trailing nymph of the same style trailing.

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

On Apr 3, 5:09 pm, "Larry L" wrote:
With flies, in the film, and with dries, I feel confident saying that "a
little smaller is better than a little too big" in reference for patterns
fished to selective situation fish.

My question is this. If you are fishing a nymph deep to imitate a specific
insect, at a time that insect is active and emerging ... i.e. a "selective
nymphing" situation .... and your box is empty in the correct size ....
would you put on bigger or smaller? I don't have a lot of confidence
in my nymphing, though I usually catch some fish when I resort to it.
Your, in depth, experience can help me make decisions with more faith, and,
right now, decide which end of the size spectrum to emphasize as I stock
boxes for the season. Thanks.

A lot depends on where you are fishing, the prevalent insects, and how
you are fishing. Usually, as other posters remarked, nymphs are larger
and sometimes darker just before they hatch.

Many people rely almost entirely on generic nymph patterns for
mayflies and indeed other nymphs, things like Pheasant tail nymphs,
hares ear´s and similar stuff, and this works quite well, but more
specific patterns tend to work better. In some cases, very much
smaller nymphs may be successful. Personally I never go below a size
18, as I dont like fishing very small flies. On occasion, fish are
fixated on very small stuff like chironomid pupae and similar. In such
cases a very small imitation may work very much better than a large
one.

Here is some general info;

http://www.first-nature.com/insects/...is_rhodani.htm

Nymph shown here;
http://fdf.flies.tripod.com/sitebuil...odaninymph.jpg

Here are a few more images;
http://images.google.com/images?q=ba...-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Or the BWO Blue winged olive;

http://www.ifly4trout.com/hatches_in...eal_baetis.htm

You really need to know which insects you have where you are fishing,
how they behave, and tailor your artificial accordingly.

TL
MC

wrote:

... Usually, as other posters remarked, nymphs are larger
and sometimes darker just before they hatch. ...

LOL !! "As other posters remarked". One other poster and
that poster was His Loony Mikeness hisownself. Sad, sick
and pathetic, Mike.

--
Ken Fortenberry