Troutbitten Domenick Swentosky
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- Sports
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Life on the water. Troutbitten is a deep dive into fly fishing for wild trout in wild places. Author and guide, Domenick Swentosky, shares stories, tips, tactics and conversations with friends about fly fishing through the woods and water. Explore more. Fish hard. And discover fly fishing at Troutbitten.com — an extensive resource with 900+ articles about trout, friends, family and the river.
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Catching Up -- Patagonia, Leader Sales, Live Streams, Beer, Hosted Trips and More
In this interim episode, Becky and I look back on what has happened in 2024 so far, and we set the table for what’s to come. We talk about Patagonia, videos, articles, podcasts, livestream podcasts, one-on-one sessions, hosted trips, guide season, the next Troutbitten Leader Sale and a Troutbitten beer.
Thank you for being part of this Troutbitten community.
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | One-On-One Virtual Skills Sessions
READ: Troutbitten | The First Troutbitten LIVESTREAM Podcast On YouTube
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Critical Nymphing Concepts #7 -- Animating the Nymph
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
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Critical Nymphing Concepts #6 -- Line on the Water
This episode is about tension and slack. It's about how we manage fly lines and leaders on the water while nymphing.
Remember, each of these episodes — all of these concepts — apply to all styles of nymphing. So we might choose to lay line on the water with an indicator rig (and sometimes mend it) just like we might choose to float the sighter with a tight line rig.
My friend, Austin Dando, joins me to walk through the tight line advantage of keeping line off the water and what happens when we give that up. Fishing greater distances often requires laying line on the water, and how we manage that line, how we plan for it, makes all the difference between a great drift and a poor one.
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | The Tight Line Advantage Across Fishing Styles
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing the Mono Rig -- Versatility and The Tight Line Advantage Taken Further
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Casting -- Five Tips for Better Mending
VIDEO: Troutbitten | The Hop Mend
READ: Troutbitten | Regarding Classic Upstream Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | You Need Turnover
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Critical Nymphing Concepts #5 -- Weight: The Fundamental Factor
This discussion is all about weight. It’s the fundamental factor in nymphing. Because as soon as you choose to leave the surface, once you clip off the dry fly and fish anything else . . . weight is necessary.
Even wet flies have some weight. They’re designed not to float but to break the surface with at least the weight of the hook. With streamers, of course, weight is required to get the flies to whatever depth is necessary — and we do that with all types of weight, whether that’s a sinking line, split shot or weight built into the fly.
Then of course, with nymphs, we need weight, just like streamers, to get the flies to some kind of depth and actually fish them.
You can’t avoid it. Weight is the fundamental factor. Meaning, it’s probably more important than the fly itself. More weight or less is more consequential than what dubbing, feather or ribbing is wound around the hook shank.
We use all types of weight, and there are good reasons for all of these: tungsten beads, split shot and drop shot. Our topic is how each of these weight choices, along with the decision for more or less weight, helps us match river situations and meet the trout with a presentation they're looking for.
This is a technical topic that is built on many Troutbitten resources that have come before it . . .
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | No Limits -- Use Every Type of Weight Available
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Weight In Fly Fishing: Beads, Shot, Sinking Lines and More
READ: Troutbitten | Series | Drop Shot Nymphing on a Tight Line Rig
VIDEO: Troutbitten | Don't Hate the Split Shot - Have a System
READ: Troutbitten | Pattern vs Presentation
READ: Troutbitten | Split Shot vs Weighted Flies
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Three Ways to Dead Drift -- Critical Nymphing Concepts #4
This episode features what might be the most important concept of nymph fishing. There are three different ways to present a dead drifted nymph to the trout -- three ways to imitate what trout commonly see from the naturals. While trout eat dry flies in one plane (the surface) the complexity of currents underneath introduces more difficulty, simply because trout might be looking for food in multiple ways.
My friend, Austin Dando, and I break down one of my favorite topics in fly fishing -- the three ways to dead drift nymphs: bottom bouncing, strike zone rides and tracking the flies.
All three of these methods are viable. All of them produce. A nymphing angler dedicated to improving should consider what level to focus the presentation and how those nymphs might best look natural within that level.
This is a technical topic that is built on many Troutbitten resources that have come before it . . .
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | Nymphs: Three Ways to Dead Drift: Bottom Bounce, Strike Zone Rides, Tracking
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Locating the Strike Zone -- Tight Line Skills #6
READ: Troutbitten | The Water Column and the All-Important Strike Zone
READ: Troutbitten | Drop Shot Nymphing Series
READ: Troutbitten | Tight Line and Euro Nymphing: Leading vs Tracking vs Guiding the Flies
READ: Troutbitten | That's Not a Dead Drift
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Suspender Advantages -- Critical Nymphing Concepts #3
In the third part of this critical nymphing concepts series, we consider the advantages and disadvantages of fishing with a suspender.
We cover the following
Indicator styles and why the type mattersNot all indicators are created equalChoosing tight line or indy, or combing bothWhat you lose by adding and indyWhat you gain by adding an indyComplications of an indy styleWhat is commonly missed when using an indyReading an indicatorA few more tips . . .
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | It's a Suspender, Not Just an Indicator
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Nymphing Tight Line to the Indicator Style -- Tight Line Advantage to the Indicator
READ: Troutbitten | The Backing Barrel Might Be the Best Sighter Ever
READ: Troutbitten | Tight Line to the Indicator -- a Mono Rig Variant
READ: Troutbitten | Your Indicator is Too Big
READ: Troutbitten | The Dorsey Yarn Indicator -- Everything You Need to Know and a Little More
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Customer Reviews
Tightline nymphing
Their explanation of tightline nymphing is one the best (two episodes) explanations of how to, what to do, anf why. Thanks Dom et al.
Season 10 on Critical Nymphing Concepts is really good. It is about ALL forms of nymphing. It is the complete guide. Not to be missed. I have all the episodes downloaded so I can listen to them multiple times. Still 5 stars.
Great fun and learning!
Very organized, informative, instructional and mostly it’s a fun and warm group. Thanks for bringing it to us, Dom!
Great Podcast
This is an enjoyable and educational podcast for the fly fisherman in the pursuit of trout. Started listening over a year ago and have gone back to listen to many of the past episodes. A great job by Dom and his Troutbitten Team!