Have I been getting lazy?

My fishing companion made a comment to me on Sunday that really took me off guard.  He said "You aren't really nymphing, are you?".  What he meant, was that I am spending a lot of time with the flies on the swing rather than in a dead drift.  I've been thinking about this all week and thinking about my fishing the past couple years.

I do know that in my initial response to the comment, I got a bit defensive, talked about some topics from the book Dynamic Nymphing, which I've been reading recently.  But, I never really answered the question.

I remember two years ago, in the autumn, I caught some really nice fish, including the 2 biggest rainbows I'd ever caught in VT.  I was using strike indicators a fair amount, doing lots of high sticking, and really working on a nice clean dead drift.  My success rates were going through the roof, and I remember telling a guy at my gym, who also fly fishes, that I felt like I was finally "getting it" with nymphing after all these years.

Early last season, I had a lot of success with fishing buggers on the swing.  I do remember the first half of the day of a local fly fishing tournament, when the fish were being picky, I had to really go for that dead drift with a high stick.  But then, I caught fish through most of the season without having to use the high stick or a strike indicator.  I completely stopped thinking about strike indicators, to be honest.


In the autumn last year, I took 12 days off work to fly fish.  My success rates were pretty low.  I had one really good day on the Winooski, but other than that, I had lots of days of zero or 1 fish.  I was fishing on the swing quite a bit by then.

This spring, I've fished 11 days so far and landed 5 fish.  At this point in time last year, I'd probably caught 60 fish. There is no doubt that we had a more "normal" spring last year, and conditions were easier last year.  But, all spring, I've felt like something else was up.

Maybe I got the answer on Sunday.

"You're not really nymphing, are you?"


I can't fish until Saturday, but I guarantee that I'll be on the water with a different mindset, and most likely, a strike indicator, this weekend.  Fly selection this weekend should be easy - a 3 nymph rig with a Prince nymph, a PT, and a green caddis emerger.  If I can get the presentation right, maybe I'll find out that it isn't about luck so much as presenting the fly properly.  Maybe I won't forget it this time.