About the Author

Joe Rotter

Joe is the "blogger in chief" here at Red's in addition to being our guide service manager and partner here at Red's. He is a father of 3 spunky children his wife Kelly can only be found fishing when the temperature gets above 85 degrees and the fish are gobbling up dry flies.

In addition to being a fly fishing junkie, Joe is a hard core bowhunter, is a volunteer Hunter's Eductation Instructor, and loves riding horses with his kiddos. Joe still guides a small part of the time but spends most of his time working on web marketing, travel, and helping customers find the right tools and information for the job.

Nymphing Nerds Podcast // 5 Nymphing Strategies

March 6, 2019

"If someone could learn more about how to catch trout on flies in 90 minutes... I'm not sure how." Listen to this entire podcast.

I thought years ago I was a pretty good nymph fisherman. I started guiding in 2000, so this marks my 20th season as a fly fishing guide. That's a lot of "watching". I'm constantly getting better at understanding drifts, and presenting flies under the surface. I'm also learning new techniques to make this sport more fun, interesting, enjoyable, and hopefully for your sake PRODUCTIVE. We want you to catch fish and we're dedicated to improving your skils.

Yesterday I sat down with Craig Chittenden, one of our top guides and a fishing genius. Craig posesses the rare gift of balance. There is a fine line between practicality and technicalities as they relate to fishing. Especially nymph fishing! Some anglers overthink it, some grossly underthink it. After recording this Podcast which outlines the 5 main nymphing strategies, as we see them, Craig and I deemed ourselves the Nymphing Nerds. We could have gone on for hours on the subject.

Controlling small nymphs, subsurface and out of site, and getting them to present naturally to a discerning trout is a challenge. It's interesting to me because I've watched litterally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of drifts with nymphs. Some work, some don't. There is an extremely high rate of nuance that takes place in a fly drift and with nymphing, that nuance is at a premium.

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5 Nymphing Strategies Discussed

The important thing here is learning the "why and when" you might use these various techniques. Different conditions, flies, temperatures, and river structures may lend themselves to one technique versus another. Listen to the Podcast to better understand when you might employee these techniqes.

Drop Shot Nymphing
ESN or Czech Nymphing
Dry Dropper (aka "Hopper Dropper")
Suspension or "Short Line" Nymphing
Traditional Nymph Setups

For the love of god will please do a podcast on steelhead!?!
The drop shot info really helped a lot. And appreciated both of your thots. Watched Kelly Gs video and you did simplify and answered questions that I had. Many Thanks.
Want to get better and know more about sub surface nymphing