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In this post I describe all the aspect of my current river fishing set up and techniques. The way I set my river fishing gear up and the way I fish has allowed me to hold my own in river sessions in Australia and overseas.

My PPE (Personal Protection Equipment)

A significant aspect of my success when river fishing evolves around PPE. When that is all in place I wade more comfortably and if I have a stumble I am less incline to injure myself, to get too wet or to loose gear.

1. For me its important not to be cold so I always wear trousers under my waders appropriate to the water and ambient the temperature. My under gear ranges from very light trousers right up to thermal polo fleece trousers.
2. I have the best waders I can afford ... 5 layer Simms are my waders of choice.
3. My wading boots are also top class Simms and have tungsten cleats ,to avoid as much as possible, slipping on the rocky bottom. I have tried other types of wading boots including the relatively new Korkers AluTrax and the Simms remain better.
4. The next item to go on is a pair of knee and shin guards. Because I don't wade as well as I used too, and would like to, (particularly as I get older) I accept that I will stumble from time to time. The ankle guards not only allow me to wade more confidently but allow me to even drop down into the water without bruising or skinning my shin of knee lowering my centre of gravity when I am in risk of stumbling and also and also helping me maintain a stealthy profile.
5. The next step is based on a trick that one of our team members employed at the 2016 Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships. What he did was tape around the top of his waders with 50 mm wide gaffer tape. This simple step mitigated the inflow of water if the top of my waders finished up below the water line. What I have done is put 5 belt loops around the top of my waders which has allowed me to thread a neoprene belt from an older set of waders and close that firmly around my chest. Same outcome ... definitely keeps the majority of water out if I have a fall. OK I still get a little wet but because I can generally now get up much quicker when that does happen, these days, it's unlikely that I will have to get out of the water to dry off.
6. My other PPE consists of appropriate shirt, jumpers and wet weather gear as well a wide brimmed hat, both reading and polaroid glasses all three of which have cords so they don't wash away. Talking about cords I note that I have my river fly box as set out below on a lanyard also so if I drop that, whist a few flies may wash out, I don't run the risk of loosing the whole box. My landing net is also on a lanyard and that attached to my waders so it will not be lost either. The landing net is a very important part of my kit and I have tried a number of options over the years. The biggest mistake I made at my last comp was to try a new net bag that I have not practices with. As it turned out, because the net bag mesh was so small, I was unable to comfortably move my net through the water. So the message there is don't change anything without testing it on a few occasions.

My fishing gear

This is my default set up for nymphing rivers and encompass aspects of traditional nymphing techniques I have used in Australia, Czech Nymphing, French Nymphing and is very similar to what is currently referred to as Euro Nymphing.

Fly rods

Specialised rods have been developed for longer leader fly techniques particularly over the last 5 years. They typically are from 9 to 11 feet long and from #2 to #4 weight (with 11 feet long #3 weight being my preferred rod choice for my longer leader fly fishing). The rods have strong butt sections to allow the angler to put pressure on fish but have very fine tips to assist with casting the leaders rather than a fly line, to allow the fly fisher to feel the fly as it bumps along and to cushion the strike and run so that fish don't crack off the fine tippet.

The leader set up I settled on for this Euro Nymphing technique is as follows.

Firstly it is designed for use with a 11 foot (3.35 meter) #3 weight fly rod. If your using a longer or shorter rod you should adjust the lengths of the leader components that you use in the leader from that detailed below.

The line I have settled on for my longer leader nymphing is a #1 weight Orvis Hydro Superfine forward taper fly line I chose this line, firstly because it’s dull olive in colour, which is prerequisite for a nymph line for me, and because the tip of the taper and the running line is only 0.60mm thick which means that it meets the FIPS Mouche competition requirement that the line be greater than .55mm thick.

That line is loaded onto a BFR 5/7 reel which many would say is better suited to a #6 weight rod. I do have smaller reels that I don't use because the slightly heavier reel helps me keep the rod tip high because it overbalances the butt of the rod. This helps a lot when your holding the tip of a rod high for a full 3 hour session.

My leader set up is very simple and starts with 10 feet of .30mm yellow coloured monofiliment that is nail knotted to my fly line. Below that I have 60cm of 3.5 kg (0.25 mm diameter) Maxima Ultra Green monofiliment followed by 50cm of 4.6 kg (0.25 mm diameter) Hanak tricolour indicator line with a 0.20 mm micro ring at the business end.

My tippet attaches to the micro ring.

Tippet

I carry Shogun Tippet materials from 0.10mm to 0.16mm thickness and always use the thinnest I think I can get away with which is usually 0.10mm.

The length of my leader varies on the depth and speed of water that I am fishing but for water up to say 1 meter deep that is has an average run I start with the top fly being around 80cm from the O ring and the quicker sinking point fly being 60cm below that. Even when three flies are allowed I generally stick with just the two and evn drop down to one in skinny pocket water.

Technique

It is always best to set yourself up in the river so that you can target the best holding water in fron but of to the side of where your standing. If you cast directly above yourself chances are that you will struggle to keep contact with the flies and miss hits.

The actual presentation is more of a lob than a cast.

The cast starts after always fish your drift out because sometimes the hit is as the flies swing around at the end of the previous drift and the lob cast is easier and more effective when the rod is loaded up. Once the trailing line, leader, tippets and flies are fully extended down stream and the rod is loaded lift the flies forward in an arc toward your target increasing the speed of your rod tip as as you proceed and then stop the forward movement of the rod at about the 10 o'clock position allowing the rod to then unload and lob your fly or flies forward to your target position. A benefit of the 10 o'clock stop is that it gives you time to control your line so that only the tippet goes below the surface and the coloured indicator, and leader never go below the surface. As the flies are sinking into the target zone manage you leader so that its facing forward at around a 45 degree angle and keeping pace with the flies below. Watch and feel for anything that could be a strike and wrist strike at everything. You can also impart a little up and down action during the retrieve to make your offerings more attractive.

I coat the all of the leader right down to the micro-ring with floatant so that it doesn't sink if I inadvertently loose contact with the flies.

Making these changes has allowed me to fish much more intuitively as I am not as focused on the bi-coloured indicator as I used to be and I find that the coloured monofiliment is sufficient guide to allow me to focus on my tippet which I keep well greased at least for the first foot or so.

If you do need to cast to fish that are outside the distance you can lob then you do have to revert to traditional casting methods and this set up is at home with that and gives me well balanced leader that is 4.3 meters long, very easy to handle and of course compliant with FIPS Mouche competition rules.

With little or no line outside the rod tip this set up allows me to fish water from relatively close ina Euro nymphing way to further away in a French leader way from where I am standing. Whilst the pure French leader system was designed for inducing strikes by putting different flies in front of targeted fish for only a few seconds and then if the fly is not taken repeating the process with a different fly or flies I prefer to in all but the clearest water to fish the full drift out including the swing. Fish will often follow the nymph right through the passage of the drift and only take the fly as it swings or rises just before you recast.

Excluding the swing and the lift because the fly or flies are being led just a little fish seem to hook up easier and often without having to strike at all. Hits on the swing are the same as my previous set up and it remains a good practice to hold a little slack line in the hand and give that to the fish, when you see, feel or perceive a hit, so as to encourage it to fully take the fly rather than pulling it from its lips.

Flies

I mentioned above that I now carry my river flies all in one box tethered to my fly vest. When I started to look closely at flies for river fishing I found that something in excess of 80% of my fish landed came to less than 20% of the flies I carry.

I have taken that on board and over the last year I have reduces the number of different flies that I carry and these days concentrate only on the following 20% of flies that have always worked for me and carry, and instead of having a lot of alternative flies I now concentrate on the flies in that 20% of fish catching flies but with a wider range of weights and sizes.

So this is my basic fly suggestions for rivers.

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