The nymph rig

What it's for

Trout and grayling feeding below the surface, which is most of the time. A nymph is a fly that imitates the underwater stage of an insect, before it hatches to the top: a mayfly nymph, a caddis larva, a midge pupa. Trout do the great majority of their feeding underwater on these, so a nymph drifted near the bottom catches fish when nothing is rising. You can fish it two ways. Under an indicator, the nymph drifts at a set depth below a small float on the leader, and you watch the float for the take. Euro nymphing, also called tight-line or contact nymphing, uses a long thin leader and a heavy nymph fished close in with no indicator; you stay in direct contact and watch a bright section of line called a sighter. Indicator nymphing suits longer drifts and broken water you can read; Euro nymphing suits close, pocket water where you can reach the fish and want the most sensitive contact. Both work the year round and out-fish the dry fly on most days.

The rig at a glance

Two builds, drawn side by side. The indicator nymph rig reads from the rod end: the fly line, joined loop to loop to a tapered leader (9 ft / 2.7 m, tapered to about 4X), then a length of tippet (4X to 5X) to the weighted nymph. An indicator, a small foam or yarn float, clips onto the leader at roughly one and a half to two times the water depth above the nymph, so the nymph drifts near the bottom while the indicator rides on top. When a fish takes, the indicator dips or stops. The Euro / tight-line nymph rig is different: a long, thin leader (often 6 to 9 m of level mono) runs to a bright two-tone sighter (about 50 cm of high-visibility line that you watch), then to a tippet ring, then to 1.2 to 1.5 m of fine tippet (4X to 5X) and a heavy, weighted nymph on the point. No indicator. You hold the rod high and lead the nymph through the run with the sighter just off the water, feeling and watching for the take. Either build can carry two nymphs: a second, often heavier, nymph on the point and a lighter one on a dropper tag above it.

The leader system, explained

Both nymph styles join the fly line the same way the dry fly rig does, loop to loop, and both step down through a tapered leader to a fine tippet. The shared idea is the same: thick butt to carry the cast, a taper through the middle, a fine tippet at the fly. The difference is at the fish end. For indicator nymphing you keep a normal tapered leader and add a tippet ring or just tie tippet to the fine end, then set the indicator above the nymph. For Euro nymphing the "leader" is mostly a long, thin, level mono with a bright sighter built in near the end, because you are not casting fly line weight, you are leading a heavy nymph on a near-weightless line.

A tippet ring, a tiny metal ring, is worth adding at the end of the sighter or the tapered leader: it gives you a clean point to tie fresh tippet to with an improved clinch, so you renew the fine end without shortening the leader, and it stops the join creeping up the taper. The loop-to-loop join at the fly line, a perfection loop in the leader butt through the fly line's tip loop, lets you swap between a dry fly leader and a nymph leader in seconds.

How to build it

1. Loop the leader to the fly line. Tie a perfection loop in the thick butt of the leader, then join it to the fly line's tip loop, loop to loop: pass one loop through the other and the whole leader through its own loop, then snug it down. For Euro nymphing, the long thin leader joins the same way.
2. Add a tippet ring (recommended). Tie a small tippet ring to the fine end of the tapered leader, or to the end of the sighter on a Euro leader, with an improved clinch knot. The ring gives you a clean, hard point to tie fresh tippet to, so you renew the fine end without shortening the leader. For Euro nymphing, add the bright sighter first (about 50 cm of two-tone line, joined with a blood knot or surgeon's knot), then the ring on its end.
3. Tie on the tippet. Tie your tippet to the tippet ring with an improved clinch knot, or, if you are not using a ring, join it to the fine end of the leader with a surgeon's knot. Use 4X to 5X, longer for deeper water. For a two-nymph rig, leave a long tag end (or tie in a short dropper with a surgeon's knot) to hang the second nymph from, above the point fly.
4. Tie on the nymph, and set the depth. Tie the weighted nymph to the end of the tippet with an improved clinch knot. For the indicator rig, clip the indicator onto the leader at roughly one and a half to two times the water depth above the nymph, so the nymph rides near the bottom. Add a small split shot above the nymph if it is not getting down. For the Euro rig, use no indicator: the heavy nymph is the weight, and you watch the sighter. Choose a nymph heavy enough to tick along the bottom in the flow you are fishing.

How to fish it

Get the nymph down to where the fish are, near the bottom, and drift it at the speed of the current with no drag, the same dead-drift idea as the dry fly but underwater. With the indicator rig, cast upstream, let the nymph sink, and watch the indicator track down with the current. Mend the line to keep the drift natural. When the indicator dips, pauses, twitches or moves against the current, lift the rod to set: a take underwater is often just a hesitation, not a thump. Set the indicator deeper if you are not touching bottom, shallower if you keep snagging. With the Euro / tight-line rig, fish close in. Lead the nymph through the run with the rod tip high and the sighter held just off the water, keeping a straight line to the fly so you feel and see the take instantly. Watch the sighter for any check, stall or twitch and lift into it. You are in direct contact, so the takes you feel through a Euro rig are ones an indicator would miss. Cover the water methodically, working likely runs, seams and pockets, and change the weight of nymph rather than thrashing the same drift if you are not getting down to the fish. On rivers, work upstream so you approach fish from behind.

Where this rig works

As the atlas grows, the trout, salmon and grayling waters that fish a nymph will link to this same page. The waters lined up for it are the Bighorn River in Montana, a cold tailwater where nymphing under an indicator is the bread-and-butter method for fat brown and rainbow trout; the Soča in Slovenia, fly-only pocket water made for tight-line nymphing for marble trout and grayling; Arthurs Lake in Tasmania and Lake Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains for wild brown, rainbow and brook trout; Þingvallavatn in Iceland, clear water you wade for trout and char; and the Kenai River in Alaska, where big native rainbows take egg-imitating beads under an indicator in autumn. Each guide will tell you when to reach for the nymph, and which style suits the water, by season and flow.

Nymph rig questions