Skip Morris caught himself dropping names and apologized to the fly fishermen assembled Monday at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission auditorium.
“I shouldn’t be bragging about 3-pound trout to people who have the White and Little Red rivers in their back yards,” he said abashedly.
Morris, a fly fishing author and fly tier from Port Ludlow, Wash., offered his widely traveled expertise Monday in a seminar on nymph fishing to the Arkansas Fly Fishers. He prefaced his remarks by showing a ring on the surface of a trout stream.
“That ring is caused by a trout sticking his nose up out of the water to eat an insect,” Morris said. “I don’t know if I love the dry fly more than the nymph, but I do understand why people become dry fly purists. People have given up their jobs, their marriages, everything for that little ring.” Fly fishermen also become dry fly purists, he said, because wet flies, or nymphs, intimidate them. A dry fly sits on the surface. You can see where it’s going and what it’s doing, and there’s no doubt when a trout bites it.
A nymph works below the surface, and you have to work to get it in a fish’s strike zone. By the time you perceive a bite, it’s often too late.
“I stayed away from nymphs,” Morris said. “It wasn’t because of my high morals or my philosophy. It’s because I was afraid of nymph fishing. A lot of people talk about how great dry fly fishing is, but they’re afraid of nymphs.” One way to conquer that fear is to realize that nymphs are the best flies for catching big trout, and also for catching trout in the widest variety of conditions.
“It works on little streams. It works on big streams,” Morris said. “Anywhere you have moving water or even still water, a nymph can be effective. Eighty percent of the time, if you really want to have great fishing, you need to fish a nymph.” Morris diagrammed the basic components of any stream, and though his subject was trout, everything he said applies equally to fishing for smallmouth bass and goggle eye.
One main feature of any stream is the riffle. Morris described a riffle as being a fairly wide stretch of lively water with a uniform depth of 1-4 feet. Some riffles are smooth, he added, and some are broken.
“In a smooth riffle, trout will be there because there are a lot of things there for a trout to eat,” Morris said. “There are a lot of depressions where a trout can hold and not work too hard to feed.” A broken riffle has boulders and other rocky features. They’re great places to fish because they have so many places that offer a fish refuge from the current, Morris said.
Below a riffle are pools, which naturally attract anglers because they have wide, deep, fairly calm water. Morris defined a pool as a wide expanse of calm, deep water at the end of a riffle. Sometimes a pool can have multiple inlets, like the head of the swim area at Albert Pike Recreation Area on the Little Missouri River. Fishing a pool first can be a mistake, Morris said, because riffles often hold more fish, and anglers don’t fish riffles as hard.
In contrast to the riffle is the run. Morris described a run as a section of stream that’s shallow on one side, but deep and swift on the other side. A run is a great place to find trout, he added. Even better is a run with a cut bank, especially an undercut bank with an overhang.
“There’s a lot of cover, and undercuts are where you often find big trout,” Morris said.
Finally, you’ve got pocket water. Morris defined pockets as a section of stream with a lot of boulders. Current gouges out holes, or pockets, behind the rocks, and they are great places for trout to hide.
“Almost everybody ignores pocket water,” Morris said. “If it doesn’t look like a pool, people don’t want to fish it. It takes forever to fish them all, and a lot of times there are fish in all of them.” For nymph fishing, Morris said he prefers a 9-foot rod with a tip that’s not too fast. He said a fast rod has a stiff butt, so most of the flex is in the tip.
“When you’re out there fishing and you have a really fast rod, it throws narrow loops, and that’ll get you in trouble nymph fishing,” Morris said.
Many fly fishermen favor really light tippets, but Morris said he prefers heavy tippets, as thick as 3 X or 4 X if the water is really clear. He says the thicker tippet helps land bigger fish, and contrary to tradition, a thicker tippet doesn’t spook fish.
Hitting the right depth is key for nymph fishing, Morris said. The rule of thumb, he explained, is that the nymph should be twice the distance from the strike indicator as the depth of water you’re fishing. If the water is 3 feet deep, the fly should be 6 feet from the strike indicator.
To fish deep, fast water, Morris said he uses a weighted nymph and split shot to get the nymph down fast. Sometimes he also uses a tandem rig with two flies. He likes a big stone fly with a smaller nymph tied to a dropper line.
When the stone fly touches bottom, it makes the little nymph wiggle, like it’s struggling to get to the surface, ” Morris said. “It looks so good I’d eat it myself, but don’t hurry your casts or you’ll really regret this rig.” To cast a nymph effectively, Morris advised taking your time and casting slowly. That will produce the wide loops necessary to prevent tangling.
“The moment it touches the water, nothing else in the world matters but that strike indicator,” Morris said. “If you look away for even a moment, that’s when the trout will hit. If the indicator stalls or jiggles, you have to assume it’s a fish and set the hook immediately.” Morris paid homage to the White and Little Red rivers several times. If our summers weren’t so hot, he said he might even move to Arkansas.
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