Nymph theory

Fred Lebow wrote:
What is a Crazy Charlie?


It's a bonefish fly, usually tied with hollow chain bead eyes.
But for use as a fish-catching sinker on large western rivers,
I tie them with heavier nickel barbell eyes.

http://business.virgin.net/british.c...inkbeadeye.jpg

Since I'm a relative newbie, allow me to fullfill my duty as relative
newbie and ask a dumb question.

Recently I was fishing a warm water stream for smallmouth and I was
using a little split shot about 8" up from the fly on the tippet, and I
found after a while, I got a nasty tangle in my tippet around the split
shot. It was like a wind knot but worse? How does everyone avoid nasty
wind knots when using split shot? Or is it just a fact of life, and the
reason we carry extra spools of tippet?

thanks
-Ethan

salmobytes wrote:

3) Split shot 12-24" up the leader allows the nymph
to drift naturally,


A solution:
Stick with the *extra-short* leader, but put it on a dry line.
Put an extra-big, pea-sized split shot at the junction
of the end of the fly line and the leader butt. It's not a
perfect solution.

"Ethan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Since I'm a relative newbie, allow me to fullfill my duty as relative
newbie and ask a dumb question.

We've had some dumb questions over the years, this isn't one of them.

Recently I was fishing a warm water stream for smallmouth and I was
using a little split shot about 8" up from the fly on the tippet, and I
found after a while, I got a nasty tangle in my tippet around the split
shot. It was like a wind knot but worse? How does everyone avoid nasty
wind knots when using split shot? Or is it just a fact of life, and the
reason we carry extra spools of tippet?

You probably need to adjust your casting stroke, probably slowing down a
little and even expanding your backcast to let your rod load fully before
beginning the forward stroke. If you're doing any false casting your chances
of this happening are greater too. When fishing with weight, especially with
a softer action rod, the operative words are slower and smoother. I was
taught to not even try a typical cast when I was starting out and using
weight, more of a "swing" but it kept me from false casting too much and
getting some significant bird's nest in my leader. Pick up your fly at the
end of the drift, backcast once and place your fly on the next cast, even if
you have to do this a few times to get to your target.

boy thinking about nymphing problems makes me think about a leader design I
picked up in Trout by Ernest Schwiebert
I think it was called a nymphing leader, it was 13 feet and the middle
section had a 3 foot section of 0.13. you could lay out a fairly long cast
and the nymph would swim more naturally.the fly is some what detached form
the rest of the rig. I liked it. I have the formula someplace I'll dig it up
if any one is interested.

"Wayne Knight" wrote in message
. ..
"Ethan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Since I'm a relative newbie, allow me to fullfill my duty as relative
newbie and ask a dumb question.

We've had some dumb questions over the years, this isn't one of them.

Recently I was fishing a warm water stream for smallmouth and I was
using a little split shot about 8" up from the fly on the tippet, and I
found after a while, I got a nasty tangle in my tippet around the split
shot. It was like a wind knot but worse? How does everyone avoid nasty
wind knots when using split shot? Or is it just a fact of life, and the
reason we carry extra spools of tippet?

You probably need to adjust your casting stroke, probably slowing down a
little and even expanding your backcast to let your rod load fully before
beginning the forward stroke. If you're doing any false casting your
chances of this happening are greater too. When fishing with weight,
especially with a softer action rod, the operative words are slower and
smoother. I was taught to not even try a typical cast when I was starting
out and using weight, more of a "swing" but it kept me from false casting
too much and getting some significant bird's nest in my leader. Pick up
your fly at the end of the drift, backcast once and place your fly on the
next cast, even if you have to do this a few times to get to your target.