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Simple Tenkara Nymphing Anthony Naples
I rarely nymph on the mountain streams that I most often fish in southwestern PA — it’s usually just not necessary. But when I head to the limestone streams of central Pennsylvania or the spring creeks in the Driftless region of Wisconsin I like to have the nymphing card to play. Tenkara nymphing has resulted in lots of excellent fishing days for me and the main purpose in this article is to emphasize the idea that you can have great success with tenkara nymphing without the need to add complication to your rigging and gear.
The Nymphing Goal
In rich aquatic environments like spring creeks, trout are often content to sit tight in feeding stations near the bottom of the stream, have food drift to them, and not move much to chase flies. When they’re
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sitting tight and not actively moving for flies that’s when nymphing is a nice skill to have in your tool box. At its most basic, nymphing for trout in moving water is designed to target these fish by casting upstream and drifting a nymph with the current. The goal is for your artificial nymph to mimic an insect larva, pupa, nymph or even aquatic worm that is drifting helplessly with the current near the bottom of the stream. If you just toss a weighted nymph, or beadhead fly into the water unattached to a tippet and line it will sink pretty well. Tie it to a tippet and a line at the end of a rod, and suddenly it’s not going to sink as well. The tippet, and the line will work against your goal and try to pull the fly to the surface. The water velocity varies from the top of the stream to the bottom. Generally the water will be fastest at the surface and slowest near bottom. Figure 1 illustrates the basic idea of the current velocity gradient.