February 25, 2024

Critical Nymphing Concepts #7 -- Animating the Nymph

1 hour 4 minutes

Here we are with our final installment, part seven of our series on critical nymphing concepts.

Almost all of our focus throughout this series has been on achieving dead drifts. We aim for natural looks that imitate what the real bugs do most. So we try to stay in one lane, we try to find the right speed and the right depth. Most of the articles on Troutbitten about nymphing also assume we’re aiming for dead drifts. It's the same with the videos. Why? Because dead drifts usually work best.

But in this episode, our topic is getting something other than a dead drift. How can we add animation to a nymph that seals the deal? Something that either grabs a trout’s attention and attracts it to the fly . . . or the chosen animation actually mimics something natural that the real bugs are doing at the moment.

We spend so much time refining presentations and trying to achieve perfectly natural dead drifts that moving the nymph a bit, animating the fly, is liberating. It’s fun.

But moving our nymph at random, moving it accidentally or relabeling drag as enticing motion doesn’t work so well. Stripping or swinging a nymph like a streamer doesn't work so well. More often, subtle motions add an extra spark to the presentation. These are mostly additions to a dead drift, and not a full abandonment of the dead drift principles we try so hard to achieve.

This is our topic for part seven, this season finale.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- The Crossover Technique
READ: Troutbitten | The First Troutbitten LIVESTREAM Podcast On YouTube
READ: Troutbitten | The Big Rig -- The Two Plus One -- Two Nymphs and a Streamer
READ: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- The Super Pause
READ: Troutbitten | Natural vs Attractive Presentation