Lesson 8: Weight Is Pivotal
Weight is an enormous part of the equation in nymph fishing, especially when you are "prospecting" by fishing attractor-type patterns like Prince nymphs and Copper Johns. If a substantial hatch is happening, or a prolific number of bugs are washing through a run, trout will key on those insects and make more effort to eat. When fish are just hanging out in the water column, however, and merely feeding on opportunity, you have to hit them in the head.

I saw the fish bob and weave left and right, a few inches at a time, picking off nymphs but flatly ignoring bugs that floated overhead. One time, though, we had the weight just right: Two flies floated by a trout on either side of its mouth, the tippet "flossed" it, and the current pulled the trailer fly (and stuck it) right in the corner of the fish's mouth.

In another instance, we use the remote video to monitor a group of massive (20-plus-inch) brown trout feeding in a pool below a waterfall. Because the fish were feeding on the upwelling current, they were literally suspended in the water at a 45-degree angle, noses down. We over-weighed the tippet to "smart bomb" the flies straight to the bottom, then lifted them gently toward the surgacce. One of those big browns hammered a Barr emerger as it fluttered upward.

Here's the point: You should change your weight three times before you change your fly pattern.