Active nymphing

[Mark Hanes]

This is something I have played around with in the past ans I thought I would see what others think of the tactic.

I have from time to time actively worked nymphs to induce fish to take my fly.  One way I do this with a lot of success is using a dropper dry set up and almost jig my fly in front of the trout to get an aggressive strike.  There is also the "Sawyers Induced Take" I think i said that right.  Another tactic that works really well during a hatch is the "Leasuring Lift".

It is much different than the dead drift or even some of the Euro methods.  Has anyone else ever played around with this with any success?

[Todd Oishi]

I typically utilize the Leisenring Lift at the end of my drift, in order to represent nymphs and pupae that are rising towards the water surface. It is an important component of my complete presentation, which typically goes as follows: Czech Nymphing; induced take; Leisenring lift; recast.

You are failing to take full advantage of your drift if you aren't incorporating it into your presentation. I couldn't begin to count the number of fish that I have taken while performing the lift or pausing to assess where to place my next cast...

[Adam Wellington]

I have never messed around much with active nymphing, but it seems to have a history of success. I have only started using nymphs seriously this past season (over 15 years of flyfishing... what was I thinking???). In the past I have never had any confidence in them while using them, so if dries weren't working, I would just use a streamer/bugger. This Spring I will definitely try these techniques, I am already daydreaming about when, where, and how sunburned my arms will be at the time...The cabin fever is bad this time of year 

Here are a couple links with explanations of both techniques:

Leisenring Lift

Sawyer's Induced Take

A technique that I have used with success is when I am fishing dries and have a trout refuse my fly, I will sometimes pull the fly just under the surface after the cast, and swing the fly over the fish just below the surface of the water, this will usually induce a violent take to a fish that was refusing the dry on a previous cast. 

[Mark Hanes]

Good point Todd! 

You can really apply more than one technique to each drift.  It really helps key in on what the fish want. 

[Loren Williams]

Wha???  You mean bugs don't just drift in a uniform straight path?  You mean they can move up/down or side/side and trout will still eat them?  Hogwash I tell you! 

[Don Strandberg]

The Leisenriging lift. I dont know how this got so popular. Mostly a waste of time.
As far as teasing. The entire drift should be a strip tease of sorts. From dead drift, to twitch, to swing. Maybe within the same cast.

[Chris Smorul]

I can't tell you how many strikes I Got this past season by simply raising my nymphs slowly at the end of the drift and bouncing the dropper off the surface a few times.  I discovered this by accident one day at the KLG when I was busy looking for my buddy upstream.  A brown took the fly as I was letting it hang just under the surface at the end of the drift.  Someone told me there was a name for this technique but I can't remember what it was, I just know it works.

[Mark Hanes]

Loren thanks for the laugh needed that.

[Arron Varga]

I would suggest don't be afraid to impart movement during your drifts as well.

During my first competition on the Grand, 4 years ago, I watched one of the better czech nymphers here in Canada do something to induce takes...during the drift he would wiggle his rod tip and boy was it effective.  Now the river was stained and the fishing had shut down...that wiggle caught him an extra 2 fish which gave him #1 for the session and left me with number 2.  Learned a lot that session.

In Tremblant two years ago, I noticed that fish had a habit of almost always taking at the end of the drift when the flies started lift...I thought maybe I could catch more fish in more areas of the pockets if I imparted small lifts into the drifts...it worked.  I increased my catch rate 3 fold...I gave up some contact/control with my flies for more chances at fish...its a trade off.

Imparting movement does not always work but when the conditions are right can mean the difference between blanking or winning a session.

Loren summed it up though.

[Torrey Collins]

Charlie Brooks, who wrote "Nymph Fishing for Larger Trout" said of the Leisenring Lift, that it was "Almost 100% effective if performed properly".  He also went on to say that it was one of the harder tactics to execute correctly.  To do it as Leisenring did, you have to know the exact location of the trout.  Then you dead-drift your fly near the bottom, and stop your rod when your fly is about 1 foot in front of the trout, causing it to rise up right in front of their nose.  I guess it's a reaction strike of sorts, kinda like a car suddenly appearing in front of a sleeping dog.  I think that often when we get strikes at the end of the drift it's commonly an "accidental" Leisenring Lift- as our line tightens, our fly ends up rising off the bottom right in front of the trout by dumb luck.  Sometimes it's good to be lucky!  

It is both funny & interesting how often we catch fish by accident when our fly is dragging.  I lived briefly by the Battenkill years ago, and I can't tell you how many nights the "fish of the day" came when my dry fly was dragging below me in the current & I was looking for my next target to cast to.  There were a lot of active egg-laying Caddis, and this may have been why.  Caddis dries often worked way better there when you intentionally skated them.  

[Dejon Hamann]

it's commonly an "accidental" Leisenring Lift

Good points Torrey. Seems to explain why you often find a trout on your line when you "blind set" just because you think there might be one there.  And when you do the snap set too at the end of your Czech Nymphing drift. 

[Torrey Collins]

I think the trout we get on the snap set at the end of the Czech/Polish drift are the ones that already have our fly in their mouth, but they drifted back with it at the same speed as the current, so we didn't detect it.  Of course, sometimes you do the set and then a fraction of a second later your rod doubles over when a trout whacks your suddenly moving fly.  Both those are 2 very different scenarios.

[Domenick Swentosky]

Lots to think about here.  Thanks guys.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick