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Nymphing for Pullers

By Simon Newman (Simon of Bewl)

 In the beginning there was the puller.

God created the puller from a ball of fritz that only God had. No one else could buy it because God had found a deadly miss dyed batch of coral fritz and bought every packet in existence. God won every competition that year

God created the puller on the 3 rd day (after Heaven and Earth). On the 5 th day, God invented the Nympher. The nympher looked just like the puller, but was much more advanced. On the 7 th day, God rested because he’d gone fishing with the puller and was too knackered to do anything else. As it turns out, this was a great tragedy; God had intended to introduce the upgraded Eve on the 7 th day, removing all the faults he overlooked in the first version. (And according to Gods Department of statistics, calls to Gods Helpdesk regarding Eve problems outnumber all of his other creations by at least 2 to 1!)

Referring to the Fisherman’s guide to the Galaxy. On entering Puller it quotes:

The Puller. Normally human, often with strangely long arms, likes windy days and pretty colours.

Entering Nympher it answers…Normally human, strangely short arms, likes calm days and dull colours.

Examining the differences between pullers and nymphers, there are a few seemingly simple observations.

Most nymphers think pullers can not nymph.

Most pullers think nymphers can not pull.

Most nymphers think they can pull well, but can’t be bothered, or are just too old and don’t want to risk a heart attack so far from a defribulator.

Pullers think they can catch stockies faster than nymphers.

Nymphers don’t want to catch stockies, they want overwintered grown on bars of silver.

 IT’S ALL A LOAD OF TOSH!!!!

 Pullers catch just as many grown on fish on blobs, lures and boobies as nymphers do on buzzers. Nymphers catch stockies just as quickly as pulling can. It’s all about what is the best method on the day and the anglers preferred method of choice!

There is also an element of snobbery. Pulling is not regarded as the finest form of fly fishing. This I also find odd. The style of fishing traditional wet flies in a big wave on an Irish loch involves pulling like the clappers all day long, but hey, that’s traditional innit!?

What does tend to happen is that those new to the sport and especially those new to big reservoirs tend to start off pulling lures. If you’re only using one or two flies because you can’t cast very well, what gives you more confidence, a nice mobile tadpole or a size 12 olive buzzer?

This, I think is the main difference between pullers and nymphers. Confidence in the method. If you start your fly fishing career using lures, you develop a confidence in lures and as you get more experienced you develop ways of catching fish on different lures and in different conditions; instilling more and more confidence in lures and pulling techniques.

It is only when someone purposely starts fishing nymphs instead of lures, that person has any chance of developing their repertoire, confidence in nymphs and their ability to switch successfully between the two, based on the best method to catch fish on the day as opposed to that persons preferred method.

Now, I started off as a puller. If there wasn’t a cats whisker on my cast it meant I was cod fishing (and I still think I could get a cod on a cat from a boat over a wreck!?). However, now my preferred method of fishing is nymphing (after dries), but will happily switch to lures or a combination of the two as best fishing method dictates.

I’ve won several competitions ripping blobs, cats and boobies for all I was worth, so I’m not a purist that’s for certain.

So how do you develop confidence in nymph fishing?

There is only one way, and that’s to fish them.

 Choosing when?

If you’re just starting off nymph fishing, don’t do it when it’s windy. Pick a nice calm day with a gentle ripple. The more wind and wave you have, the less effective nymph fishing is because you have less control, poorer presentation of the flies and the boat is drifting too quickly so the flies don’t have enough time in the water. If you want to practice nymph fishing in the wind then either anchor or fish from the bank.

 The flies.

There are several nymphs that I would never be without. Black, olive and claret buzzers in various sizes, Diawl Bachs in various styles and crunchers. The overriding factor with fishing these flies, is that I fish them either static or very slowly. I am fishing either on the drop, or on the lift. Midge lava do not move quickly in the water and tend to swim either up or down, very rarely across. Now of course we have all caught on nymphs retrieved at speeds other than dead slow but that is the exception rather than the rule and I put that down to the dyslexia in the trout population. Just in case your sitting there contradicting what you have just read, there have been times when trout would not look at a fly rising or falling but would kill with ghusto anything moving slowly horizontally, but the up and down rule is most common.

Starting Off

 Leader set up.

The most important point of all is to use a fluorocarbon leader. You will catch 3 times as many fish using fluorocarbon than when using nylon. A slightly more advanced leader is a copolymer leader with 12” long fluorocarbon droppers as this allows the flies to sink more slowly, which is handy on a calm day or when the fish are up in the water and you don’t want to put a booby on the point. Try to use copolymer and fluorocarbon of similar diameters and use a 3 turn water knot. (I’ve lost a lot of droppers working that out! It’s also a great dry fly cast)

I nearly always use a 20ft leader with 4 flies. 8ft from the fly line to the top dropper and 4 flies 4 ft apart. If the fish are particularly difficult I’ll switch to 3 flies 6ft apart. If I’m on the bank I make my leader slightly longer than the depth of the water I’m fishing and space the flies evenly so I’m covering all the depths.

Fly positioning

Put your heaviest fly on the point, usually the buzzer, then the next heaviest and the next heaviest with the lightest on the top dropper. Typically I’ll have a buzzer on the point, the next dropper a slightly smaller buzzer then a Diawl Bache and a cruncher on the top dropper. If you’re fishing with a booby on the point, the position of your heaviest fly will dictate the speed and angle your leader sinks and where it hinges. The heaviest fly nearest the booby will mean a less pronounced hinge in the leader and the flies will get deeper than if the heavy fly is on the top dropper. If all dropper flies are the same weight, the leader should sink with an increasing bow in the middle. If the fish are very high in the water, shorten the distance from top dropper to fly line to as short as 2-3ft. If they are very deep, do the opposite.

The retrieve

“On the drop”

From the moment my flies hit the water, I’m watching for a take on the drop. It is important you get your leader to land in a straight line, so I’ll give the fly line a little tug just as the tip turns over to help it all straighten out. Let everything settle and don’t move anything at all! Let the little bit of memory in the line create the snake effect and watch the end of the fly line like a hawk. Any movement at all and strike. Remember, the fish could be swimming towards you or to the side which will create only the slightest movement in the fly line. If anything just looks a little odd then strike, more often than not there will be a fish there!

“The 5 and 5 retrieve”

This is my favourite, mainly because I only have to use the fingers of one hand.

Once the flies have sunk to the required depth or I think the point fly has hit bottom, do 5 slow figure of eights. Drop the rod tip slightly at the end of the retrieve as this stops the flies dead in the water. Watch the fly line again while you slowly count to 5 and then repeat.

Basically what you are doing is fishing the flies sink and draw. Don’t use too light a leader (9.5lb Grand Max is what I use) as the takes can be savage! Next few casts, I’ll vary the time I fish the flies on the drop before starting my retrieve and vary the pauses between “the draw” until I start to get takes. If you’re in a boat, remember to fish the flies all the way back, a surprising number of fish come on the final lift as you draw the flies right up, vertically through the water. Some days most takes will come on the drop, other days when you start moving the flies.

If you haven’t had any interest after 30 minutes either move or change flies, if you are on feeding fish you should have caught one by now.

A few variations!

1. If it’s a bit slow but you are confident you are on fish, stick a blob/attractor fly on one of the middle droppers to act as an attractor, but still fish the same on the drop 5/5 retrieve.

2. If you’re using the washing line but nothing is taking the booby, try changing it to a greased up hopper, bibio or black and peacock spider. This will still slow the descent but may give you a bonus fish.

3. If you’re fishing the washing line, try putting the booby on one of the middle droppers. You can then fish (if your using 4 flies) one up and two down or two up and one down. For example, if most of your fish are coming on your middle droppers, this means the fish are lower in the water so put the booby on your third dropper down, the point fly will get down to the fish quicker, giving you more flies in the action zone for longer, the booby still slowing it’s fall with the top two dropper slowly following it to the hot depth.

4. If you think that wave action is spoiling your presentation, use an intermediate line and fish the “swing tip”. This will allow the fly line to get below the waves, keeping everything static rather than bobbing up and down. Watch where the fly line enters the water for takes. If the fly line is pointing away from you, you’re moving the flies, if it’s slightly towards you, the flies are static. If you have just moved the flies and the fly line doesn’t slowly return to vertical, STRIKE!

5. If the water is very clear, think about only using 2 or 3 flies.

6. If you’re in a competition and catching fish static nymphing, pretend to figure of eight with the odd long slow pull to throw the competition off what you’re really doing! They won’t watch for long enough to realise you haven’t cast for 5 minutes!

The windier it is, the more difficult it is to achieve good presentation and spot the more delicate takes. Therefore, if it’s too windy to nymph comfortably, START PULLING BOYS!

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