Part five of this Troutbitten Skills Series is about finding contact. Because after the tuck cast, after we stick the landing and begin to recover slack, we need to find contact on sighter.

Contact is visual. It's about reading the sighter to know that we are in touch with the flies from rod tip to the nymph or split shot. It's not about touching or ticking the riverbed. Instead, the contact we're looking for is seen on the sighter.

With contact, we know everything about the depth and speed of our flies. We know where they are, and we determine where they are going. That's the advantage of a tight line (contact) nymphing system.

Importantly, this does not mean we are directly in touch at all times with the fly, because we often get better drifts without such direct influence over the nymphs. But without contact at points through the drift (and sometimes the whole way) we are simply guessing about the location of the flies. To take advantage of the ultimate control that tight line and euro nymphing rigs offer, we must learn to read contact on the sighter -- to know we are in touch and know where the flies are.

Reading the sighter and finding contact is critical.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me on episode five for an in-depth discussion of this technique.

We Cover the Following

• Contact is seen, not felt
• Reading the sighter
• Sighter material and construction
• The Backing Barrel
• The bow in the sighter
• Nervous sighter
• Seeing beyond the sighter
• Contact let's us trust the sighter
• Forcing contact

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ; Troutbitten | #5 Finding Contact -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Contact is Visual
READ: Troutbitten | The Backing Barrel might be the best sighter ever
READ: Troutbitten | Design and Function of the Standard Troutbitten Mono Rig

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