Fishing Report:
No fishing report today – Tongariro (and other rivers) hopelessly flooded. Find a good book – like Volcanic Trout? Rest and prepare for great fishing conditions next week…
Question:
Hi Ross,
Can you please put the following question to your two fly fishing professionals. “Can you please run through the technique for casting heavy nymphs – not only to get the nymph in the right place but also to prevent the need for surgury in order to remove an offending bomb from ones person?” Thanks
Paul
Answer 1 (from TRM fishing guide Andrew Christmas – photo on right with clients):
Hi Paul,
This is a great question and I knew it was only a matter of time before someone shot this one into the mixer and needed some advice on how to cast heavy weighted nymphs/bombs. We all hate casting heavy bombs in order to get our main fly or target flies to their desired depth and as it makes for heavy fishing and a long frustrating day if you are trying to keep them air born. There are indeed a select few anglers with the right equipment and perfect casting technique which can keep these flies in the air and generally landing in the right direction or spot that they wish them to end up but they are few and far between. You have not really fished the Tongariro until you have been belted in the back or lodged the bomb into your hat so you are purely going through the “Tongariro Initiation”
In saying that I am a firm believer of using heavy nymphs or even split shot when fishing certain areas of the Tongariro as you simply will not catch those trout hugging the bottom which are in the deeper run or pools of the Tongariro. There is a heap of riffley water and shallow runs which will allow you to use smaller weighted flies or even simply 2 small bead head nymphs but you will have to adjust when fishing a place like the Stag pool or Admirals pool for example. When fishing summer conditions it is obvious you will need different flies and no where near the same amount of weight so it really is just applying to the winter conditions when we are targeting spawning fish hugging the bottom.
The most effective and easy way to learn to cast these flies or bombs is to use the water load cast. This cast is messy and ugly and you may think you are doing the wrong thing by slapping the water with your cast but it is not going to scare any fish and you will keep those flies out of your hat. I teach this to all my clients regardless of their experience levels as it usually creates less tangling of the leader and flies and gives the anglers more distance on their cast.
The perfect scenario to use this cast is a right hand caster casting on the true right hand side of the river which he can wade out to his or her knees in. If you are one of those back to front anglers or you find yourself on the left hand side of a river this cast will be the same but should be done as a back cast. A perfect pool to talk about would be the Stag pool or Judges pool as you need to just get out in the water a wee bit before you start your casting. When water loading your cast I keep my flies up in the air on the forward motion and drop them in the running water below me on the backward motion. You will find you will not have to do this while the cast is short as you will be able to keep it up in the air safely but as you get a reasonable amount of line out this is when most anglers struggle and should be dropping it on the water below them.
Like all fly casting before the forward motion should be done you should be making sure the line and flies are straight behind you with no slack line – running water or river flow will help with this also. Once you have dropped it behind you and have the desired length cast a large windmill arm motion should be put into place to lift the line, indicator and flies to propel them up river. The friction from the line and water will load the rod and almost catapult your line and gear forward. The cast when you get used it will be or can be accurate and you will be surprised how much more distance you will get on your cast.
[SinglePic not found]The key to this style of casting is to take your time and don’t force or rush things, like all fly-casting it is not how hard or fast you throw it – simply keep the momentum and timing within the rod and your arm and you should solve your problem. You might not look pretty or elegant and some anglers may look at it as a cast for those who cant fish, but trust me they will soon catch on when they return home with lumps and bumps on their heads.
See you on the river.
Andrew
Answer 2
TRM’s second guide is on R&R leave, sunning himself on a beach in Samoa or somewhere. So tomorrow will be the last question for this series.
Winning Question:
TRM and the guides offered a half day guiding package with one night’s accommodation for the best question. As there were too many good questions we drew them out of a hat and the winner is… Vic from Chicago. (Photo on right) Many thanks for all the interesting questions and thanks to the guides for their contribution and explanations.
The last question for this series will be posted tomorrow. This question was almost too complex for the TRM fishing guides to answer or explain or find a solution..? True!
Don’t miss it…