ROD AND GUN Nymph Brings Good Bags If Skilfully Used

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 14

ROD AND GUN Nymph Brings Good Bags If Skilfully Used

(Specialty written for “The Preu” by J. SISKS)

This year for me is going to be the year of the nymph. A nymph not fashioned as the fairies of Shakespeare's “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but the common, ugly creepers you find under stones in a streambed.

Stall, beauty Is in the eyes of the beholder and the crude imitaUon, Ued with painstaking care on a slender hook with silk-thread and fur, can have beauty close to perfection.

If one considers the real thing, the imitation looks nothing more than a sham; but as with a good actor, it is the power of suggestion that does the trick. The most exact and meticulous copy, fashioned with space-age materials and techniques, would be no good if it failed to suggest life. In this way, the deadly nymph does its job on trout, In the hands of the expert, it is one of the best bets to a full creel and a trout supper. Not that this is necessarily its chief attraction for the angler; rather, I’d say, it is the specialised technique it demands that hooks an angler to nymph fishing. The standard dry-fly unit is all you need to try your hand at nymph fishing. All that remains is to nominate the water, learn the best method of presentation to meet its requirements and you are in business.

If you are a stream fisherman, then divide your river into three parts; headwater, middle-alluvial where the stream meanders through a valley, and tidal.

In the headwaters, the trout are large and generally found one to each pool at infrequent intervals. To catch such a fish you need a bright sunny day, a good pair of polaroid glasses and stout legs for walking. The drill is to make your way upstream until you spot your fish. If he is rising, try a dry fly, if not, your nymph is about to be blooded. CAUTIONS FISH The water here is crystalclear and the fish can be expected to be cautious. The presentation, if possible should be from behind and to one side, so that you’re not directly behind the fish. The sight of your line may put it down. If the fish is holding a feeding position, presentation is a matter of casting until the nymph has come into the fish’s angle of acceptance, usually about a foot each side of the trout and at his level.

If such presentation draws no luck, change to another nymph and try again. The problem here, if the fish is in turbid water, is to spot the

“take.” Often it is a question of experience. You can not see your nymph, but you judge it to be at the spot. The tront opens its mouth and you tighten. If It wasn't a take, you’ve lost nothing, but if it was, you’ve hooked your fish. Should the trout continue to ignore all the nymphs in your selection, the dry flies and finally wet files, do not despair. Often the presentation of something like a huge Taupo turkey and red can do the trick. The chances that you will catch your trout if you have not muffed your presentation are best with the nymph in this situation. Further downstream, where the river begins to lose some of its headlong rush, the trout are on the average smaller, but in a good stream you will find many more than one in a pood, though you will not always see them. The water in this part, having lost its raindrop purity and mingled with vegetable dies and cloudy bottom, is hard to penetrate even with polaroids. To fish here you select the run-in and broken water at the head of the pool, wade in and with a very short line flick the nymph in, and after counting to four draw it out again. If a fish is going to strike, it is often on the point when the line is being withdrawn from the water, so it is necessary to move the rod with rhythm. A sharp flick and the hook will bounce out.

The fast broken water Is the most productive for this type of fishing. Sometimes you will see fish tailing at the end of the pool in shallow water. You may catch them with a nymph or a dry fly, but they are inclined to be difficult. In Deeper Water A nymph is very effective in deeper water, but the problem here Is to get it down to the level of the fish. If you are after a cruising trout, cast well ahead and let the nymph settle on the bottom in its path, and when the fish is a couple of feet away from it, give it a slight movement and watch your pulse as the trout dives down to pick it

up. The problem in nymph fishing in Ulis type of water is to detect the “take.” It’s much greater if you cannot see the fish and this Is one reason for the short line in rapid water. Your drift is so timed that you begin to tighten at about the point when a fish should be taking the nymph. In slower water, where you’ll need more length of line there are other tell-tale features to look for: a pause in the drift of the floating line, or some prefer tn use a dry fly as a dropper, which

gives them an indication of the strike. If you concentrate hard in water that is not too deep, you’ll often see a flash or as Skues, calls it, “a wink under water.” It is no more than that: a bright wink as the trout turns its side to take the nymph. Some nymph fishermen will use only the smallest patterns. An imitation in size 18 is seldom rejected once a fish has taken it and the problem of hooking a trout is solved, though there is a new one in landing it To those who fish the Nelson acclimatisation area, a reminder that there have been a number of changes in the regulations. These are: (1) Treble hooks on spinning gear are now prohibited. (2) The section of the Buller river from the first traffic bridge below Lake Koioiti to Harley s Rock bridge, has been closed except to artificial fly fishing. (3) The Pearce river has also been restricted to artificial fly fishing. (4) The Cobb reservoir lake and the Cobb river from the reservoir lake to the first gorge are now open to all legal fishing methods.