How to locate Spring Nymph Water
Lots of discussion every morning at the shop about How to locate Spring Nymph Water here fishing Montana’s Missouri River.
I fully understand the confusion. Sometimes we are all confused as to where the trout are living, eating, holding.
The key to finding that Spring Nymph Water is to break it down into depth, drift, and location.
Headhunters Tips for finding Spring Nymph Water
Depth: Any great nymph angler will tell you that the first key to first find out the depth the fish are currently holding at. A simplistic way to look at this is to think about where the bugs are. The fish are generally near the bug life.
Mornings on any river will usually put you into a zone near the bottom. Bugs are cold, the light has not penetrated for long enough to give the insects the proper energy to move far from their household. Bugs live in the weeds so the the trout are near the weeds. Which are near the bottom.
So start deep in the morning. As the bugs make their journey towards the surface the fish may follow. Not always. But a simple way to realize a consistent bite.
Get to the zone with heavily weighted nymphs, tungsten beads and/or split shot. Try a straight nymph leader reducing the number of knots along the way to increase sink rate.
Adjust the depth with your bobber suspending the flies at the depth you desire. The common math is to rig your nymphs 1 1/2 to 2 times the depth you want to achieve. So if you are fishing in 4′ of water the distance from indicator to split shot, or top fly, should be 6′. You can fiddle around with the equation depending on the actual weight of your lead fly, or you spit shot weight.
Fish the right depth and you are on your way to finding the right spring nymph water.
Drift: The key here is to continually get good drifts. Mending is always important. Fish and mend like you want to catch fish. This is the easiest of the three tips to achieve. This is angler dependent. Focus and get in the game.
Good drifts catch fish. If you do not have good drifts the entire deal is moot.
Good drifts catch fish.
Location: Finding the right type of Spring Nymph Water is due in larger part to the location that you are dunking those flies. You here conversations in the bar about where you floated, how deep you were, and of course location in the river itself. You already know that we are not glued to the hard ants until the water temperature rises considerably.
So where do we locate the flies for Spring Nymph Success? A few places are common int he winter and spring months. The inside bends in the soft water. Usually across the river from where most anglers like to fish.
Not in the hopper like water!
You have read on this blog/fishing report that the fish have been found in the medium speed water, medium depth. Also the medium slow deep. And the slow deep. The patterns seems to be the slow/deep in the am and the medium speed/medium depth late in the day.
But that may not always be true. That of course is a generalization.
The best way to find the fish is to toss your flies in all of the water types and depths. Keep changing it up if the fish are not responding to your efforts.
Make some sort of plan in the morning and attack Search out the location. Chat with your friends and narrow it down. And by all means if you ain’t catching them keep changing your location.
Headhunters Spring Special
If you need help or would like to view the fishing world through a guides eyes you can this Spring. Finding Spring Nymph Water is what we do on a daily basis. Take advantage of the $350 guide rate through the end of the month. Couple that with some cool rates at the Craig Trout Camp starting at $125/night.