I did it!!!

[fflutterffly]

I finally broke down, after saving enough, and purchased a full Partridge skin. As you all my remember I had to ditch my entire feather collection due to an infestation of moths last year. So now I have a fine collection of Partridge, pheasant, teal, mallard and a few other feathers to spark my vise to action. But here is the kicker. Some of you may have remembered that I came on to this forum because I had devoting myself to fishing nothing but wet flies/ soft hackles for one year. I've done this with streamers, midges and also techniques. Well this year will be the year of European Nymphing. I'm going to dive deep into contacting nymphing! This is not to say I am giving up on my tying and study of the hackled fly, no nothing farther from the truth since early North countrymen were the first to use contact line fishing, if I'm not mistaken. 2013 is going to be a most interesting year on the river filled with one box full of wondrous subsurface wets another filled with very heavy get down deep nymphing flies. Is it sacrilegious to put tons of weight on a Pheasant Tail? Maybe, but it sure does catch fish.

[letumgo]

Please keep us updated with your results throughout the year. I would love to read about what works (and what does not work) under different conditions. Do you carry a camera with you when you fish? (hint hint)

[Smuggler]

If you're going to be nymphing, I suggest you purchase George Daniel's: Dynamic Nymphing, and The Fly Fisher's Playbook: A Systematic Approach to Nymph Fly Fishing by Duane Redford. They are some of the best books on modern nymphing techniques. Amazing reads, really.

Congrats on your partridge skin, you'll never regret it. May I ask where you purchased it from?

[hankaye]

fflutterffly, Howdy;

you may want to look thru "Tying Small Flies"
by Ed Engle.

hank

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I'll be interested to hear about your experiences fishing only nymphs. Please keep us up to date as the year goes on.

[fflutterffly]

Great suggestions and I'll check in on all of them. I do have a camera and one that films (video) underwater. This doesn't mean I'm off my flymph feed, just that I might be adjusting a few to swim deeper than usual! OY! Last week I began using my czech nymphing system I've used for years and worked out 15 12-16" fish with in 1 hour. No lie. It was mystical since I had been fishing a dry dropper with a RS2 as my point with little to know results. This was a very shallow water with few deep places for the fish to hide. Cold weather fish deep was not an option. Once I switched over it was nothing but wild browns.

[Hans Weilenmann]

Ariel,

You could of course travel via a soft (pun intended) landing by working through Allen McGee's Tying & Fishing Soft-Hackled Nymphs

Cheers,
Hans W

[fflutterffly]

Hans one of the first books I purchased and read. Well written and very information. I picked up that book before I joined this forum from my local fly shop (yeah local like 30 miles away). It still is an excellent reference book. I have so much to learn from this forum and books that I'm not stopping my education in this discipline, just beginning the next. I haven't the luxury of starting when I was 10 like so many.

[William Anderson]

Ariel, I admire your approach and wish you all the best. The Greg Daniels suggestion is a great one. The others as well. Honing in on a particular approach makes you a better fly fisher-women in all respects, I think.

Btw, my best (largest) hook-up to date with a tenkara rod was with a #12 beadhead czech nymph with a hare's ear colored yarn body. Short, stocky, heavy and deep. God aweful looking cast (you can break a tenkara rod very quickly with a beadhead - strongly advise against it... ), but the water required it and it pleased the fish.

w

[hankaye]

fflutterffly, Howdy;

I'm suprised that no one has mentioned
"The Trout and the Fly" by Brian Clarke and John Goddard.
It deals alot with nymphing .

hank