Still water

[bwalker]

I am pretty new to the sport and have nymphed rivers and have used streamers in stillwater. I want to try some nymphs in stillwater and want to know the best way to do it. Any advise will help.
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[cclaeys]

use a sinking line and some shot and strip it slowly to bounce it, not much more than that, problem is detecting strikes in deeper water. ime, using a bugger or other streamer slow stripped will be just as effective. Nymphs work, but once the water starts getting over 10' or so it gets to be a pain in the butt.
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[Anthonygreer]

Depends entirely on the water you are fishing, and the food available, time of year, time of day, weather, etc... The more you go, the more you learn, the more fish you catch. I'd say the biggest thing to do right off is just mix it up until you start catching, then continue doing what you were doing when you were catching. Nymping stillwaters is kinda a pain in the ass. I would much rather throw on a mini bugger and get to work casting and stripping, and figuring out where the fish are hanging. Once you catch a few like that, pull out your favorite nymph, determine size by looking at naturals, or sizing to the size of fish you are fishing to, and get to work. I have found nymphing under an indicator to be very effective, but only if you are stripping or moving your nymph every five or ten seconds so your line is taut to the indicator. The biggest problem, as stated earlier, is strike detection. A lot of the time i favor a constant retrieve, such as a slow hand crawl, or twitch, just to stay in contact with the fly and "feel" for the strike, which usually comes when you pause or do something out of the ordinary. One of the most effective retrieve's for me is to strip an inch at a time or so for three strips, then pause, and repeat. Most hit it right at the end of the third strip. Again, just experiment. It pays to know the forage base in the body of water you are fishing, as well as how deep it is. A lot of the time you arent catching you just are going to fast or not getting deep enough. Also, don't rule out the strip and sink method. I've had a lot of fun just stripping a few times to pull the fly up near the surface, and letting it sink slowly in stillwaters. It works great in waters with lots of midges...
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[flygoddess]

Stillwater nymphing is AWESOME. You will need sinking line (I would say personally a TYPE II and a fast sink like a TYPE VII or better yet Depth Charge) but you can catch a bunch of fish nymphing with floating line.
You will kinda have to know how deep the water is and make a leader (regular mono or flourocarbon on a 6lb is a good start) No need for tapered leaders here.
I have used up to 30' of leader and a BREAK AWAY indicator. Tie one nymph on the bottom and if you want to get down fast, put one BB size split shot up about 6" from that fly, then put a tag and another fly about three feet up. Drop it down so you are about a foot off the bottom and watch that indicator. I have caught a lot of my bigger fish doing that.
As far as the sinking lines, they are nice to find the fish if you do not have sonar. Again I do not use tapered leaders, just Flouro about 4' to 6' long. I also do a "Y" connection and will put a woolly or larger fly on the longer tag and a nymp on the shorter to give the effect it is food being chased.
But, my flies are not weighted, I let the line put me in the zone instead of dragging the bottom with the fly. Also I am a firm believer that BIGGER is not always BETTER in flies. I have caught more big fish on #12 and smaller, but I do feel the big fly can be a good attractor.
I am not saying I haven't caught fish on big flies, just MORE on little.
Even the Carp I caught at UTAH LAKE were on TYPE II line with a Bead head Prince and a Haresear #12.
FG
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[bwalker]

Thank you guys. That info helps a ton. I'm going to try and hit Clear Lake in the next couple of weeks and I'll let you know how I do.
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