Trying Something Different Can Mean Success  By Ye Huang

Many people think that luck would play a major part in the success of
competition fishing, but actually when you run out of luck you are still
able to do well when you have a technical advantage. We used a method called nymphing to help us win the recent National Pairs Fly Fishing Championships
held at Lake Rotoaira, Tongariro National Park.

Nymphing is generally referred to in river fishing, however it can be highly productive when it’s used in the right way for lake fishing. In New Zealand we typically have two types of lakes. One is a smelting lake and the other is a nymphing lake.

The majority of a trout’s food source in these insect lakes is made up of damsels, midge, dragonfly larvae and caddis fly. The midge, dragonfly and caddis are seasonal insects and these imitations can be used only at certain times of the year.

Few anglers are actually aware of the fact that damsels are active all year around even during the winter months and this is great news for the keen nymph fisherman who just simply enjoys the style, technique and satisfaction that comes from this contact sport.

My way to fish a damsel imitation is usually on a slow sinking line like the Airflo clear intermediate. The key to fishing this technique is keeping contact with the fly through a straight fly line eliminating slack and putting you in touch with what is happening at the business end.

Upon casting out the fly line out, give it a couple of quick strips to take
up any slack, then let it sink down freely for around five seconds. Now you can begin your retrieve, remember that unlike smelt, damsels are slow swimmers and make little spurts of movement in a stop start motion.

My way to retrieve the damsel is to give it little twitches just enough to move the fly a couple of inches. You will find most of the fish will take the fly after twitching the line while it is sinking. The take can be very gentle and it is easy to mistake it for weed.

When your fly has hit the bottom, quickly retrieve it up then stop and wait another ten seconds. Sometimes you will find that a fish will follow your fly and take it when it is static. This technique works well both on a boat and on the shoreline. So next time you visit an insect lake be sure to try the nymphing, you’ll be surprised often it works when luck runs out.

Tight Loops
Ye Huang