Guadalupe River Nymph Fishing

One of my most asked questions at this time of year is "What’ya git'em on?" My most common answer is “A little number (smaller than an 18), (fill in the blank) nymph.” The most common response to this is “Geez, I hate those little flies.” This is followed by some head shaking by the angler as he digs in to his boxes to find the few small nymphs that were bought five years ago when fishing on the San Juan, South Platte or Frying Pan.

For various reasons, many fly anglers in Texas have a deep fear of little flies and light tippet. When I first began fly fishing for bass on the Llano River I would walk into a fly shop, see the trout nymphs and shake my head, wondering how anyone would think that a big fish would ever want to eat such a little bug. As time went on and I began expanding my fishing horizons a few of the smaller flies found their way into my boxes. I still have trouble with the idea of fishing anything smaller than a size 16 for bass and to this day refuse to tie any fly smaller than a size 18. I have gotten over my phobia of small flies for trout, partly due to my fishing on various tailwater trout streams, where you have to go small on your fly selection, and if you look in my trout boxes you will find that most of my flies are smaller than a size 16 and quite a few are in the 22-26 range.

To most fly anglers, and certainly those who have read anything on trout fishing, the term “match the hatch” is an accepted fact of their fishing life. Unfortunately, for many this knowledge is separate from their practice. On any given day on the Guadalupe I will see at least one angler who will stand in one spot and fish the same flies on the same feeding line for 20 minutes without a change. Quite often the angler is making good drifts on a good feeding lane but is fishing to fish that have been beaten over the head by their flies. I am certain that most of these anglers are fishing their “confidence flies,” or that set of flies that have worked well for them on the river in the past and possibly even produced a fish or two in that spot earlier in the day. Unfortunately for the angler, the fish also know these flies and will move away from them the more often they are shown that particular fly.

Confidence Flies

I do believe in confidence flies on any stream. They are the flies that are proven to catch fish throughout the day and throughout the season. On the Guadalupe, my confidence flies include #18 hare’s ear nymphs, #18 and #20 pheasant tail nymphs in both natural and black, #20 and #22 gray RS2s and various colors of #20-24 zebra midges. These are patterns that I will often start out the day with; if they are not producing I will change away from them but will often come back to later in the day. These are flies that on slow fishing days will fish longer and harder than other flies but, unlike the angler who stays with them in the same spot for a very long time, I will change away from, especially on those days when there are a number of other anglers on the stream.

As the season progresses, I add in other flies such as graphics caddis, more midges such as rainbow warriors, WD40s and black beauties, baetis emergers such as mercury baetis, biot emergers and other patterns in olive and gray, trico emergers such as #24 black RS2 and, later in the season, sucker spawn patterns in pink and yellow.

As a general rule, I will fish a confidence fly for four dozen drifts before changing. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, but it does give me a finite measure of how that fly is working on that day compared to other days on the river. If the last time I fished the river any particular fly produced a hookup every 20 drifts and today it is producing every 30 drifts, my confidence in that fly will change relative to other flies in my box. When you consider that most drifts on the Guadalupe last less than 20 seconds, the 48 dozen drifts rule works out to about 15 minutes of fishing time before changing flies. When it becomes time to change flies I have a progression of flies that I will go through, based on the other confidence flies I have yet to try, the bugs I am seeing on the water, water conditions and the all important, “let’s give them something different” factor. There are times in the season where I will rest a pattern for a few weeks, letting the fish forget the pattern and hopefully making it once again a successful pattern in my box. Bead head patterns tend to be the first patterns that get rested, and there are many years where I will not fish a fly with a bead head in the latter months of the season in favor of more natural looking patterns.

Stocking Your Box(es)

For many people, walking into a fly shop and looking at trout flies can be a little overpowering, especially when you walk into a shop without your boxes. I almost always know what flies are in my boxes but quite often will, shortly after restocking my boxes, find that there is still a gap in my box of a certain fly that, at that very moment is my best producing fly, leading me to dig deeper into the boxes to find another pattern that is similar to that fly and hopefully just as productive. Sometimes this digging can lead me to finding a new favorite pattern; often it leads to more fly changes as I keep wishing that I had remembered to get the better pattern in the first place.

When you do your fly shopping, consider getting a few extras of each of your best producing patterns. Buying one or two each of a half dozen patterns will get more types of flies in your boxes but also means that you will run low on a particular fly much sooner. For the better producing flies on the Guadalupe, I suggest that people get at least four each of three or four patterns. After you have those flies taken care of, get a couple each of two or three new patterns to add to your selection.

Another advantage of taking your boxes into the shop is that it allows you to show your flies to the sales associate in the shop and will give them an opportunity to make suggestions on the gaps in your box. This is especially helpful if you are just getting into fly fishing for trout or if you are going to be fishing a river for the first time. Rather than guessing as to which flies you have in your boxes, it will allow you to make certain that you are picking up flies that you are low on addressing those gaps in your boxes.

Rigging Up

Fly selection as the season progresses on the Guadalupe is often more a matter of going smaller on your flies and lighter on your tippet. In the early parts of the season, it is possible to be very successful on your standard patterns in sizes ranging from 14 to 18, fished on 4x tippet. As the season goes on, I will get progressively smaller on the fly sizes, down to size 24 or smaller, fished on 6x tippet. This is partly due to the fact that the bugs (especially the tricos and midges) in the latter part of the season are smaller and also because many other anglers on the river are still fishing the larger flies on heavier tippet. Once a trout has been hooked on a 16 bead head pheasant tail a few times they will remember the fly and will refuse it in favor of smaller and more natural looking flies. I do still keep my standard selection but often go one size smaller (#18 instead of #16) and fish that pattern as my attractor, upper fly on a two fly rig, with the smaller, more natural looking pattern as my trailer.

When setting up my nymph rig for the Guadalupe I tend to fish a two fly nymph set. In setting up the rig I will typically take a 9 foot leader to start and will immediately trim off the last 12 inches of the leader. I will then take 18 inches of tippet and tie on to the leader. The purpose for this is to 1) create my preferred leader length 2) put a tippet knot onto the leader to create an anchor point for my weight. For my weight I prefer a moldable tungsten putty that allows me to quickly change the amount of weight but will sometimes use a piece of split shot as a base weight and then add additional weight with the putty over the shot.

At the end of the tippet I will tie in my first fly, which is typically a larger attractor or confidence fly pattern. After that fly is tied on I will take an additional 15 inches of tippet, tie in my smaller, more natural looking fly and then attach that fly onto the attractor fly with an improved clinch knot at the bend of the hook. If I do want to change flies, I will start by changing the trailing fly, nipping the tippet between the two flies just above the knot on the trailer fly and retying a new fly as a trailer. With the 15 inches base length between the two flies, I will trim and change flies to the point where there is 8 inches of tippet between the two flies. Any less than 8 inches and I will trim out the tippet between the two flies and start again with the 15 inches of tippet. Other people I fish with will go as little as 6 inches between flies and there is no fixed rule for the distance between the two flies. If, after about 48 drifts, I don’t have any success on my any of my offerings I will nip off the entire rig and start with a new attractor pattern and cycle back trough my natural trailers.

The only remaining part of the nymph rig remaining is the indicator. For nymph fishing on the Guadalupe I am almost always fishing an indicator. The exception would be if I am swinging soft hackles or swinging a nymph behind a small streamer. Unlike some tailwater fisheries, I have not found that the type or color of indicator on the Guadalupe matters much. I prefer a smaller ball indicator that is visible in all light conditions, typically in bright orange. I will set the indicator at a distance from my weight, which will change based upon the speed of water fished and the depth of the water being fished. The general rule is to have a leader length 1.5 to 2 times the depth of the water you are fishing. More practically, if your flies are not hitting the bottom every few drifts, increase the distance between your indicator and flies and possibly even add in a little more weight to make sure you are getting down to where the fish are. If you are hitting bottom every time, shorten the length between your indicator and flies and/or remove some weight. Many times this is the most important change you can make to your rig throughout the day. You do want to check your flies every so often to ensure that your bottom bumps are not resulting in your flies getting slimed by the algae along the bottom of the river. There are many days when simply adding a little depth or weight will mean the difference between catching a few fish and having an epic fishing day.

On the Water

On the water technique is another important aspect of successful nymph fishing. Many anglers in who fish for bass in the summer months will want to fish the water away from them, forgetting that many trout can be caught at your feet. Learning where the fish hold is often as simple as seeing where the water is flowing. When you approach a section of water, looking to see where the predominance of flow is going through is important, as these lanes are often where the natural bugs are flowing in the water column. Look for the foam on the water or debris such as leaves or sticks are flowing down the river will show you the predominant flow on the river. Start on the near side of the flow, often on the near edge of the current. Make a handful of drifts on the near side, looking to ensure that your flies are getting down to depth, to see if the trout are on the near edge of the seam. When the bugs are not very active, trout will often move to the edges of the flow to wait out the slow periods of the hatch.

After having made a series of casts on the near edge, work your next series of casts slightly further into the current, progressing across the current methodically. If you find a fish on a certain lane then you can start focusing on that type of water. If you don’t find fish after a series of casts, adjust your weight and depth to ensure that you are getting down. If you don’t have success after a couple of dozen drifts, start changing flies. If you still are not having success, move upstream or downstream (preferably upstream when nymph fishing) and see if the fish are holding in different parts of the channel. I don’t know how many times in a season that I see someone with their feet anchored to a spot, refusing to move despite the fact that they haven’t had a hookup in over 30 minutes.

It is also important to get a good drag free drift. Work on making your mends as soon as you make your cast, keeping the fly line in a straight line between the tip of your rod and your indicator. Many times on the Guadalupe I see people who mend too much, sometimes making as many as six mends along a drift. If you can keep your mends to a minimum (two or three at the most) during a drift you will keep your flies floating along with the current much more naturally. This can be accomplished by getting one good mend at the beginning of the drift and then adding an additional mend as the flies go past you.

Final Thoughts on Nymphing

Fly fishing is a nuanced sport, and many people who fall into the dry fly only category look down on nymph fishing as chuck and duck, blind casting. Many of these people fail to see that the variables involved in nymph fishing make it a more technical aspect of trout fishing when compared to most dry fly fishing situations. Trout feed below the surface the vast majority of the time and, when you consider the fact that trout see many different natural bugs as well as artificial nymphs they can be much more discerning when it comes to artificial flies fished below the surface.

Nuanced nymphing is especially true on the Guadalupe in the later months of the season and focusing on making good drifts as well as changing your flies and depth will help anglers to become more proficient in their fishing technique so that their days on the Guadalupe are more productive. As a bonus, all of these techniques can then be carried over to other trout streams, making those summertime trips to Colorado or Montana more rewarding experiences. And remember that most fellow fly anglers are a friendly bunch and the occasional "What'ya git'em on?" is part of the continual learning process that is inherent in the sport of fly fishing.