Preferred Nymphing Rig

[Texastroutfisher]

Whats everyones favorite nymphing rig? Do yall prefer to do a straight drop from your top fly or tie in a surgeons knot and trail your top fly away from your main leader? Or, do you just go with a single fly set up? The boy and I are heading back to the LMFR next weekend for our second fly rods only trip and Im just curious to everyones go to nymph rigs. Thanks....

[turfdawg]

Honestly, all the above. For me it depends on water depth, speed and if they are feeding on the bottom or a little suspended.

[jonbo]

Here's one I do sometimes: 7 1/2 foot 3x leader (store bought kind). tippet ring. (That way I can change tippet-stuff around for fishing days on end without ever affecting my leader.) 3 1/2 foot, say, of 4x or 5x flouro, maybe even 5 feet. Anchor fly, such as a Pat's Rubberlegs, weighted, maybe an egg, weighted, to attract, or a San Juan Worm, or a good sized Pheasant Tail. Whatever it is, probably pretty heavy. Something to get it down and get them to come and inspect, IOW.

Above that, about 16 inches I'll have the surgeon's knot dropper tag you mentioned. On that I might have an RS2 or a zebra midge. This might be 6x tippet if the fly's quite small. Then, to the bend of the anchor fly I might tie 16 inches more of 5x. On this trailer I'll run a reddish-brown or cream midge larva. I don't know what you call them. Mine are colored wire wrapped around a size 18 or 20 scud hook.

Then, eventually, I might get tired of my slightly complicated setup tangling and cut off either the dropper tag or the trailer. I do find that my 3-fly rigs get tangled significantly more than my 2-fly rigs. But this set-up often performs ok for me, especially until I discover whether it's the dropper-tag fly or the trailer fly that the fish are interested in most. Often, though, if I get a pretty good sized fish to bite it's on the Pat's.

[golferjeff]

I am a proponent of a weighted first fly about 9' from the fly line on either 4x or 4lb Seaguar or Vanish fluoro. From the bend of the hook of the heavy fly I put what I think the fish will be eating (Midge, BWO, caddis, MB, etc). 2nd fly is weighted or not depending on where the fish are eating.

[troutbum54]

I’m a big fan of single fly rigs. Super uncomplicated and I’ll usually swap flies for a bit in the shallow water to see what’s working. I’ll then find a solid pattern and change weight depending on depth. Worse comes to worse I have some confidence attractors, some we’ll known and some made up by me, that I’ll throw on.

[dainw]

I think generally speaking that it depends on the technique being used. For the most part, if you’re going to be suspension nymphing (using a bobber), the standard rig is tying the dropper directly to the hook bend of the point fly. Basically this is the rig Jeff described above.

I don’t think most people start using detached droppers unless they are tightline (euro) nymphing. I’m sure right after I post this someone will chime in with some crazy rig they use when bobber fishing, but I think the in-line rigging method is the most popular for suspension nymphing.

[troutbum54]

I’m not opposed to making a double rig when I need to but I like having the dropper tied off the bend. I think I’m just worried about compromising my tippet by tying a dropper off of it

[mirvc17]

I rig similar to Jeff, but sometimes I'll use a dropper tag for the upper fly (usually a lightly or unweighted midge pupae) if there's any reason to believe the fish might be off the bottom. Sometimes my rig sounds similar to jonbos. I use tippet rings on occasion too, but not every time.

Sometimes I'll rig pretty close to what Pat Dorsey does as he explains in his books....

And other times my rig sounds like Hankinsfly's bacon-greased Suppleflex long-leader with double soft-hackles (2nd tied off the bend of the first).

[hankinsfly]

JP- used that bacon grease double soft hackle inline rig this weekend on the White to great effect. Introduced my buddy to the joys of swinging wet flies. As for nymph rigs, I also tie the dropper off the bend of the first fly (first fly being the heavier one- as stated numerous times already). Tightlining- not enough experience to speak on it.

[troutbum54]

Is the bacon grease strategically placed for maximum scent trails or to keep the flies from getting too deep?

[mirvc17]

Depends on the brand.... for example Oscar Mayer vs Jimmy Dean.... its like comparing brands of indicators !

[turfdawg]

May 6, 2018 20:31:45 GMT -6 troutbum54 said:

Is the bacon grease strategically placed for maximum scent trails or to keep the flies from getting too deep?

I thought it was so you would moisten the knots better

[troutbum54]

I thought that’s what the gravy is for isn’t it?