What Is A Nymph Rig? And How To Set One Up

What Is A Nymph Rig? | How To Set Up A Nymph Rig? | Fly Fishing Fix

If you want to catch more fish fly fishing (and who doesn’t?), learning how to fish with nymphs will substantially increase your frequency of hooking and netting not only more fish but bigger fish as well. Thus, one of the first questions for anyone who so wants to expand his or her fly fishing knowledge and skill set is: What is a nymph rig?

A nymph rig is a specific type of rig setup fly fishers use to mimic the underwater “nymphal” stages of aquatic borne insects, which comprise the majority of a fish’s diet. Deploying such a rig with the proper casting, weighting, drifting and hook-setting techniques greatly improves an angler’s chances of landing more and bigger fish.

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Learning How To Fish A Nymph Rig

My dad taught me how to fly fish. I figure that would have been sometime in the mid- to late-sixties… over fifty dang years ago!

Back then, we wore rubber hip waders, the straps of which looped over our belts, competing for space with sheathed-at-the-hip fishing knives. We kept our flies in fly wallets tucked in our bug repellant-stained vests along with a few monofilament leaders, a stick of lip balm, a five-stick pack of Beeman’s Clove gum and, if we were lucky, one of my dad’s hand-me-down fly dressing balm tins.

Mainly, we presented flies to brook trout in beaver ponds and mountain streams, with a larger river or lake mixed in every so often. My brother and I knew how to fish dry flies correctly, but, as impatient, competitive boys, we threw Royal Coachmen, Rio Grande Kings, Adams and Mosquito patterns that were sometimes dry-dressed, sometimes not. Yet we still always managed to catch lots of beautiful Colorado mountain trout!

Somewhere along the line, I started to become aware of this thing called nymphing that other people who fly fished were doing somewhere “out there.” I heard that it was a great way to catch fish, but it seemed a rather elusive notion to me. At the time, I figured, why bother? We seemed to catch fish just fine. Besides, my dad had taught us his way, and his way was good enough for us.

So it went along like that until I got older, taller and more interested in fly fishing bigger rivers. As I did, I came to find out that more sophisticated waters demanded better skills — that unless conditions were perfectly aligned to my skill set and know-how, I wasn’t going to catch many fish. My limited ability, knowledge and resistance to learning something new made for some really boring and frustrating days. It almost cost me my love of fly fishing.

I’m not entirely sure when the switch flipped, but somewhere along the way, it just did. I decided that I better learn about this nymphing thing, or I would eventually lose my deep-rooted passion for the sport of fly fishing, and there are certain things in life you just shouldn’t abandon. Now fly fishing heavenly rivers, I know my dad approves.

Once I committed to learning how to nymph, I realized that my resistance was partially rooted in a fear of the unknown; enduring a period of awkwardness; looking like an idiot doing something I thought I knew so well and, well, not catching any fish!

Sound familiar?

You know what I did to get past all of that? I set my sights on the glorious outcome — becoming even better at the one sport I love above all others — and embraced both the pain of becoming a beginner again and the exuberance of learning a whole new skill.

As it turns out, once I committed to learning how to fly fish with a nymph rig, it came rather easy. Though outright trout-landing success came slow, I got better at setting up my rig with both single and multi-fly nymph rigs; at learning more about the entomology of aquatic borne insects; at casting, weighting and drifting techniques; at detecting underwater strikes: at hook-setting, playing and netting fish, and a lot more.

Ultimately, the learning-to-nymph adventure stoked my passion like never before. And as the success started to come more consistently, I found myself nymphing about eighty percent of the time. Oh, and I might add, I found myself catching about eighty percent more (and bigger) fish!

So, since you’re reading this post because you want to learn about fly fishing with nymphs, let’s discuss how to set up a nymph rig.

How To Set Up A Nymph Rig

At the base of every fly fishing rig is a rod, reel, backing, and line. Let’s go ahead and assume you’ve made it this far, and that your line has been threaded through all the guides on your rod. We’ll also assume that you’re setting up for a larger river that is known to host plenty of hefty, hard-fighting fish, and, thus, you are armed with a 6 weight rod, reel, and line base. From here, the elements of a single-fly nymph rig consist of a leader, tippet, fly (your selected nymph imitation), weight, and strike indicator. And though this isn’t the actual order of how they will line up, this is the order in which most anglers prefer to assemble them.

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Step 1 – Attach Your Leader

Fresh out of the box, most lines come already pre-looped at the leader-connection end. As fate would have it, most leaders come pre-looped at the line connection end. How about that? Maybe the hot dog packagers and hot dog bun bakers ought to take a page out of this book!

A river like this probably demands a fairly beefy leader, so, depending upon river depth, clarity and how leader-shy the fish in the river are known to be, you probably will want to have selected either a 7.5 or 9-foot tapered leader in 3X or 4X. Since you’ll want this leader to sink more readily and be more invisible underwater, a fluorocarbon based material works best. We lean toward Rio’s Fluoroflex leaders but several manufacturers such as Scientific Anglers, Umpqua, Orvis and others make excellent leader and tippet material as well.

I can’t emphasize this next point enough: unwind and unfurl your new leader deliberately. If you get hasty here, don’t come cryin’ to me when your brand new $15 leader gets knotted up before you’ve even connected the sucker. It happens, and when it does, it feels a whole heckuva lot like hitting that gleaming, right-out-of-the-box Titleist into the lake on your first swing.

Once out of the package and cleanly unwound, attach the leader to the line with a simple Loop-to-Loop (a.k.a. Handshake Loop) knot and pull the knot snug.

At this stage, I also like to gently stretch the curls out of the leader so that it hangs nice and straight. A line straightener  comes in handy for this purpose.

Step 2- Attach Your Tippet

The leader-to-tippet connection comes next.

Why use tippet?

The primary reasons are: 1. To lengthen your leader — or refresh the length of a leader you’ve cut down changing out flies — so that you can extend the life of your more expensive cost-per-foot leader but, also, so that you may, 2. Present your flies to fish as invisibly and naturally as possible.

For our basic nymph rig setup, you’ll want to continue the taper of your leader out to the end of your section of tippet. In our example, if you attached a 3X leader, you’ll want to attach a section of 4X tippet. Or, if you’ve attached a 4X leader, you’ll taper to a 5X tippet. Yes, leader and tippet X values feel very counterintuitive so, just remember this quip: The larger the “X” the thinner the string.

You may also attach a level section of tippet; for instance, a 3X section of tippet to the 3X leader, but avoid adding a higher test tippet to a lower test leader. In other words, don’t add a 2X tippet to the end of a 3X leader.

The tippet to leader connection is typically done with a simple, clean and strong Surgeon’s Knot. Once tied, trim the tag ends down, leaving just a tiny amount of each tag end so that, when a giant rainbow decides to dart hard away, this knot will have room to tighten, not unravel.

Just above that knot (leader side) is where, in step 4, you’ll add your weight. The leader-to-tippet knot serves as a barrier to keep your weight(s) from slipping down toward your fly.

The length of tippet you attach will vary based on situation but, generally speaking, this first section of tippet will be between ten and eighteen inches long.

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Step 3 – Tie On Your Nymph

Although there are several acceptable ways to tie your nymph imitation to your section of tippet, the most common is the Clinch Knot. You may also choose to go with the slightly stronger version, known as the aptly named Improved Clinch Knot.

Some anglers use forceps to hold and help tie on their selected fly, but we recommend the Ty-Rite tool. Looking a lot like the top half of a typical pen, when you push its plunger, the Ty-Rite tool extends a little hook that, when looped around the bend of your fly’s hook (with plunger then released), holds the little guy right in place while you proceed with knot twisting and tying. If only there was such a magic tool for changing a tire!

Step 4 – Add Weights

Now that you have your tidy little nymph rig nearly ready for action, it’s time to attach weight, although, not every nymph rig will require weighting. For example, if you’re fishing a comparatively shallow river with tungsten bead-headed nymphs, adding extra weight would be a lot like me getting plastic surgery…unnecessary. Most nymph rigs require some weight, however, so you’ll want to attach your weights just above the leader-to-tippet connection, so that they, in essence, rest above and on the knot.

There are a plethora of different weighting products on the market. From simple split shot and split shot with wings (think Pac Man) to bullet and egg shaped weights, line-coating sink putty and more. Because we like how easy they are to add and remove, we recommend Water Gremlin Split Shot.

Step 5 – Attach Your Strike Indicator

Since your nymph rig will be drifting and drawing strikes under the water’s surface, you’re going to want to know when a fish has taken your offering. Although it can be more challenging to fish a nymph rig without an indicator (a.k.a. “naked nymphing”), most standard nymph setups include one.

As with most fly fishing gadgets, strike indicators come in an extensive variety of types, mechanisms, sizes, colors and more. Some are more suited for stealth while others are perfectly acceptable in faster-moving, deeper, murkier conditions.

Though we use various types of indicators here at FFF, we usually prefer the Thingamabobber. Since they’re basically small, water-tight, durable plastic balloons that sit high in the water, they serve as a rather useful aid to depth control and provide more obvious strike indication.

A good starting rule of thumb is to attach your strike indicator about two-thirds of the way up your leader. The idea is to position your strike indicator so that it isn’t too close to your rig (and, therefore, sinking with it) but to keep it just high enough on your leader to:

  1. Allow plenty of room for your nymphs to sink to or near the river’s bottom
  2. Not be so high that there’s too much lag in your line between strike and clear indication

In other words, if your indicator is too close to your set of flies, it will cause them to ride higher in the current than you want them to. In such a case, your indicator will be more apt to sink and, thus, be less visible. If it’s too far away from your fly set, you will likely be late in your set or miss strikes completely. Strike indicator placement has a lot to do with fly depth control, so don’t attach it and forget it. Vary its position on your leader to help you float your fly at the target depth.

Final Thoughts

Now that your fresh nymph rig is all set and ready for casting, I like to give the whole length of my nymph rig, from just above the weight to my end fly, a gentle, non-abrupt stretch. I do this to make sure all of my knots are seated and that my rig is straight.

Once you’ve taken that last assuring step, relax, pull a deep breath, patiently survey your intended casting target and drift range, then make your first cast. And here’s the only warning you’re going to get from me about this: be ready for an immediate strike. First cast strikes on a brand new nymph rig happen rather often, even on less-than-perfect casts. So when your indicator gives you that first twitch or, even better, a hard jerk one way or the other, be quick on your set and enjoy the ride… for the rest of your fly fishing life!

Tight lines!

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