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Breaking the rule to fish a nymph short will often put you into a lot more trout.

In short-line nymphing the angler wades close to the target zone and holds most of the fly line off the water to prevent drag. But many situations call for firing long casts and nymphing with considerable fly line on the water. Let's look at some common long-line nymphing scenarios.
Long-Line Nymphing the Flats

Long-Line Nymphing the Flats
For a stream that was small enough to jump across in the riffles I was looking at a very extensive flat-probably 30 yards long and nearly 10 yards wide with several feet of depth down the center and along one bank. The current slowed to a crawl through the shaded flat, which stretched as straight as an arrow along the base of a wooded hill. Dead drifting was not an option, so I rigged for active nymphing with a putty indicator high on the leader butt, a size 12 Soft­Hackle Woolly Worm, and a single size 6 split shot positioned tight against the eye of the hook. From the shadows below the big flat I made my first cast just 30 feet upstream. My chunky nymph hit the glassy surface with a splat and I began to strip it soon after impact. Wham! A wild, spring creek brown trout pounced on it.

To long-line nymph extensive flats, work from a fixed position until you reach your casting range, then move upstream just a step or two at a time as you continue to fire long cast. When trout are active and dispersed you can often proceed through an entire flat without spooking distant fish.

From the same position I hooked another brown a few casts later, and another few casts after that. Despite afternoon air temperatures over 90 degrees, the spring creek flowed at a cool 62 and active trout were dispersed across the flat and ready to pounce opportunistically. More often than not, when I lengthened my casting to probe a few feet of new water, I saw the calm surface bulge as another trout charged the nymph. The glassy conditions and the abundance of active trout scattered across the flat kept me pinned in the tailout. Soon, I was working the little 4-weight rod at the limits of my range with a weighted nymph. When I could no longer reach new water from the tailout I slid to the shallow inside bank and moved upstream just a step or two every few casts. I con­tinued to nymph near the limits of my casting range all the way to the head of the flat, moving an aggressive fish from nearly every fresh zone.

I fish small to medium-sized spring creeks more than any other water type, and most have some sizable flats where trout really stack up. A long-line nymph delivery and an active retrieve is a super-efficient way to prospect these long slow­water zones. By working your way upstream in increments of just a few feet, and by casting near the limits of your range, you can often pick up active fish throughout a flat before they are alerted to your presence by commotion from lower in the flat.

When flats trout are active and dispersed, stripping a lively nymph at mid-depths or just subsurface often generates aggres­sive strikes. When flats trout are inactive, they're likely podded on bottom. Weight the tippet to drop the nymph quickly, then strip it with very short pulses, moving it just fast enough to keep it from hanging on bottom. If you get a strike, replicate that presentation exactly a few times; you may well have con­tacted a pod of inactive trout sitting in a confined slot.

Long-Line Nymphing for Active Trout
Inactive trout generally bunch up in deep, secure refuge water, while active trout generally disperse to relatively shal­low feeding stations. It's not a hard and fast rule, some refuge lies are also prime feeding lies, so some trout, especially domi­nant trout, do rest and feed in the same deep lies. But the majority of active trout disperse from deeper refuge water to relatively shallow feeding lies.

That shift is readily observed on many waters. When the trout in a given pool or run are inactive they're typically bunched on bottom, often in the slowest, deepest slot. When those same trout are active they are dispersed throughout the pool. Some are stationed at the foot of the entry chute or rif­fle. Some are stationed just subsurface over deep water. Some are working tight to banks. Some are working the shallow tail­out zone. We all encounter it, a stream seems devoid of trout one day, but the next day trout are seemingly everywhere. Why? Active trout have dispersed to scattered feeding lies.

Trout disperse to relatively shallow feeding stations in response to many factors. Many hatches originate in well-oxy­genated riffles, and trout often station in or just below a riffle to work an emergence close to its source. Warm summer winds knock all kinds of terrestrials into the water putting active trout on some very shallow feeding lies. Rain puts a smorgasbord of aquatic and terrestrial prey in the drift, putting trout on feeding lies. Any form of low light can acti­vate the food chain and move trout to feeding lies. Invigorating water temperatures often move trout onto feed­ing stations, even when there is no corresponding increase in the amount of food in the drift. In spring and fall, as water temperatures climb from frigid overnight lows to more invig­orating daytime readings, be alert for dispersal of trout to feeding lies. Trout banging your nymph shortly after impact, trout hitting the strike indicator, scattered rise forms, trout patrolling shallow tailouts - all are signs that trout are becom­ing active and are dispersing to feeding lies.

When trout disperse to feeding lies an angler who can stand back and deliver weighted nymphs accurately on a long line can pick streams apart on a station-by-station basis from beyond the radar range of nervous, shallow-water trout. I often nymph an entire run from a concealed position in the tail out, covering the lower and middle stations before long lining to the distant stations at the head of the run.

Long-line presentations place a considerable amount of line on the water, line that can create drag in short order, but when you're nymphing to specific feeding lies, drag-free drifts of just 5 to 10 feet are often sufficient. In fact, I do much of my own long-lining with a substantial soft-hackle nymph, moving the nymph actively as soon as it drops to productive depths. That grabs the attention of aggressive trout and con­sistently triggers strikes on the first presentation to a fish. That in turn allows me to prospect at an accelerated clip while trout are aggressive and there for the taking. Whenever trout are primed to strike on the first presentation, you want to cover as many potential lies as possible, each with a well­targeted cast or two, not pound just a few lies with a bunch of casts.

Long-Lining Small Streams
Don't fall prey to the myth that fishing small streams requires only short-range casting. Actually, it's often easier to approach trout on big rivers than it is on small streams because on rivers you can usually lower your profile signifi­cantly by wading. Even when wading is an option, small streams do not mask wading disturbances to nearly the degree big rivers do.

 To take your small-stream nymphing to the next level, hone your ability to fire weighted nymphs accurately on a long line. On small streams with their compressed features and small tar­get zones, accuracy very quickly enters the long-lining equation - often at ranges as little as 30 feet. That may not sound like "long-lining", but 30 feet can be a long way to present a weight­ed nymph very precisely - say tight to a short section of cut­bank on a narrow chute. In my small-stream guiding and angling I fmd that few anglers deliver weighted nymphs very precisely at even short range under fishing conditions. Gusty winds, obstructed casting lanes, casting across the body, casting from the knees - all have a way of derailing accuracy. If you can drop weighted nymphs right on the money at just 20 to 30 feet you'll hook a lot of small-stream trout that most anglers wind up bungling with errant casts or ill-advised attempts to sneak closer. If you can deliver weighted rigs pretty much on target at 40+ feet, you can consistently work small-stream trout from concealed positions beyond their radar range. If you can deliv­er weighted nymphs with decent accuracy at 60+ feet, you're prepared to milk the long flats and major refuge runs where small stream trout really stack up.

To long-line nymph active trout dispersed throughout a typical run, work from a concealed position in or near the tailout. Target all closer stations before long-lining to more distant stations of the head of the run.

Long-lining Big Rivers
When big-river trout are active they often move toward banks, riffles, boulder pockets, and other relatively shallow feeding lies. When I bump into active river trout, I often long­line nymph them just as I do active small-stream trout, staying well away from the fish and dedicating long casts to probing specific stations. Many times I've enjoyed terrific long-line nymphing in the thin water where most guys were wading.

The biggest strategic difference between nymphing rivers and small streams is that rivers provide ample opportunity to present across current without looming right over the trout. Cross-current nymph presentations are rife with advantages. For starters, the nymph is in the point position and typically reaches the trout ahead of the line or leader. Also, swinging or stripping the nymph across current allows you to manually slow its downstream progression, giving trout in fast or dirty water more time to detect and strike. Conversely, moving the nymph in slow water prevents trout from getting a static look at the fly and forces them to react more reflexively Ultimately, it is moving the nymph on a tight line, not dead-drifting on a slack line that gives you precise control over the speed and the path of the nymph, in any water type on any angle of presentation.

Moving the nymph, especially a substantial nymph, appeals to instincts beyond simple hunger, including predato­ry aggression. While it seems counterintuitive, fishing the nymph actively often generates reflexive strikes from inactive trout that are not particularly interested in feeding.
Moving the nymph on a tight line allows you to detect strikes by feel, which frees you up to watch the zone around the nymph instead of the indicator. When you watch the zone around the nymph you will see the take or some sign of a take much of the time, which allows you to set the hook immediately and before a trout's keen sense of taste and tex­ture inform it that your nymph is a phony. A strike to a mov­ing nymph usually involves a moving trout and is more visible than a subtle take of a dead-drifting nymph. Fishing nymphs actively brings much of the visual excitement of dry-fly fish­ing to nymphing. 

If you can long-line nymph with several sizable shot on the tippet to achieve fast vertical drops in distant pockets and against far banks, and if you can skillfully manipulate the path and speed of the nymph as you swing or strip it back across current, you can prospect even brawling freestone rivers with surprising efficiency 

Casting Weighted Rigs
Forget everything you've heard about lobbing weighted nymphs. Work on firing weighted nymphs with high line speeds and near dry-fly accuracy-it's your ticket to more tar­geted and engaging forms of nymphing.

If your dry-fly casting is fundamentally sound, you'll have little trouble learning to sling weighted rigs with real authori­ty. Accelerate smoothly, open your loops a bit, and haul to completely energize the fly line. Haul at all ranges to straight­en your initial backcast with sufficient speed and loft. Haul on the forward cast to maintain line speed and turn weighted rigs crisply. If line speed falls off accuracy falls off with it, which is why lobbing nymphs is no more conducive to accu­racy than it is to distance.

For long-line nymphing I run a streamlined putty strike indicator high on the leader butt where it doesn't interfere with leader turn over. Running the indicator high on the leader also reduces "bopping" - dropping the indicator direct­ly on top of shallow-water trout, especially when prospecting with upstream presentations. A floating line and an unweight­ed or lightly-weighted nymph with shot on the tippet is by far the most versatile and efficient rig for dropping a nymph ver­tically in current - and in long-lining to specific stations, drop­ping the nymph vertically at the head of pockets is often critical.
 

Rich Osthoff is author of Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry and No Hatch To Match His new book, Active Nymphing: Aggressive Strategies for Rigging, Casting, and Moving the Nymph, will be published by Stackpole Books in January 2006.

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