Nothing in the outdoors quite compares with catching wild brook trout on a small dry fly. V. Paul Reynolds, Outdoors Columnist For me, sight fishing — seeing the fish feeding on the surface and trying to place a No.
16 Adams softly on a “target riseform” — is an exciting challenge that never wears thin. The trouble is that the conditions for fishing dries on top are not always right. Sometimes there is no hatch, or the wind makes casting difficult to impossible.
When conditions don’t cooperate, the angler has two choices: give it up or get the artificials under water and fish “wet.” The most effective underwater fly fishing lashup for trout that I have found is a big fluffy indicator fly on top with a nymph dropper fly hanging below the surface. If you have never tied on a dropper, you simply tie 1 foot or so of tippet to the bend in the hook of the indicator fly with an improved clinch knot, and then tie the nymph to the other end.
Copper John. Submitted photo What to use for a nymph? The choices are many, but there are some favorites. The Copper John nymph is the rage these days, and is purported to be the most-used nymph artificial in North America.
This little beauty was concocted by John Barr from Boulder, Colorado, in 1993. The Copper John features a tungsten bead head and the body is wrapped with copper wire. It is a fast sinker and is exceptionally visible to fish, even in murky water.
If the Copper John doesn’t do the job, there are a number of other .