There are two ways to achieve this ideal method of fishing near the bottom. Firstly,
a slow sink line can be used and the fly line is allowed to sink through the water
before the retrieve begins, keeping the flies as close to the bottom as possible.
As described elsewhere, this requires a good knowledge of the sink rate of your fly
line, the depth of water you are fishing and how long your cast should take to be
retrieved - the further you cast, the longer it will take to retrieve it. An error
in calculating this will result in your fly hitting the bottom and either snagging
or being smothered in bottom mud, weed, slime, etc. Having said that, it is not really
very hard to work out this timing using trial and error. I advocate this counting
system because I believe it adds to the fun and interest if you adopt a more scientific
approach to your sport - and you'll certainly catch more fish.
A nymph is the generic term that describes the larval stage of many aquatic creatures.
Mayflies, dragonflies, stoneflies, damselflies and many more all go through a stage
in their life cycle when they live underwater as a nymph. Also included in this category
are other invertebrates, such as coryxa, hoglouse, shrimp and virtually anything
else that swims, wriggles or crawls around the bottom of the lake or river. Finally,
the pupal stage of many flies are also found in this section. My very first reservoir
caught trout, when I had no idea of what I was doing, was taken on a green hoglouse
imitation that I had allowed to fall to the bottom of the water for no other reason
than that I was tired of trying to cast the darned thing and which duly got picked
up by a very obliging fish. And the only reason that particular fly was on the end
of my line in the first place was because it was one of only three flies that I had
purchased in a shop that had even less idea than I did. So my choice of ammunition
had been somewhat limited in the first place