Early Spring Nymph Fishing
As much as I love to see trout take a dry fly off the surface of the water I learned years ago that to catch a lot of trout, and to extend the season from very early spring to well after the dry fly season has ended, I had to learn how fish nymph flies. Many of the nymphs spend the entire winter under the surface of the water before they hatch into flies. Even though the trout’s feeding patterns slow during the colder months they do not hibernate. They continue to feed. I have actually caught Trout in the North Carolina Mountains in January, and I caught them on nymph flies. Now, in the spring as the days become longer and the water begins to warm, what we traditionally call nymphs start to go through the three stages of development before they hatch into an actual fly on the surface of the water. Please keep in mind that when we see a hatch on the surface of the water, the actual hatch might only be on the surface a few hours before the flies fly off, but the stages before a bug becomes a fly they could well have been under the surface for over ten months. What I suggest is that you fish nymphs in the spring, until at least may in the southern Appalachian Mountains and June in the New England States while at the same time looking for hatches that are actually occurring at the time. Trout are opportunists and will feed on what is most plentiful
Tags: Add new tag, fly fishing, nymph fishing, nymph flies, nymph fly fishing
March 25, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Hi, this is a comment.
To delete a comment, just log in, and view the posts’ comments, there you will have the option to edit or delete them.