Nymph Casting Techniques

The lob cast is the easiest cast for delivering nymphs upstream. This is not your elegant, tight D-Loop dry fly presentation. It’s pretty ugly. But it works. Roll cast your flies slightly upstream. When your flies are even with you, lift your rod and let the flies trail slight downstream. Sweep the rod upstream on a level plane with the water.

You want an exaggerate stop with this cast. This will flip the flies, and prevent tangles, so they tuck under your indicator. Now you’re fishing. Following the indicator downstream with your rod tip…. lather, rinse, repeat until fish on!

I’m not sure what the name of the following cast is, but I call it the sling shot cast. Why the sling shot cast? I’m paying homage to one of the greatest movies of all time…. Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby of course. This is my method of avoiding catching tree trout. It’s for tight quarters with treacherous trees trying to snap every fly in your box. Simply let you line drift straight behind you. You want to use the water to load you rod.

Water loading is a concept often used in steelhead and salmon fishing, not so much in trout. The tension of the water and the current can actually be used to load your rod. Remove any slack you have. Using a side arm motion, sweep your rod upstream and accelerate to a tuck finish. Delight in your cast and scoff at the trees.

Another method tight lining. High sticking, Polish nymphing, Czech nymphing…. all variations and improvements upon the same principle. These methods came out of competition fishing where you’re not allowed to use and indicator or a weight. Just the fly, leader and line. You nymphing close, very close. You flip the nymph upstream and raise your rod as the nymph drifts downstream. You want to maintain contact with your fly at all times…. hence the name tight lining.

That’s it my fishy friends, until next time! Tight Lines and Screaming Drags.