Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
From a drift boat, a forward mend throws the indicator ahead of the flies, shortening the effective depth so the rig rides over shallow riffles without hanging up. A back mend does the reverse, letting the flies sink and lead the indicator over the shelf into deeper water.
Bill Nolan is the owner and operator of PA Troutfitters, guiding trout and smallmouth from a drift boat on the Lehigh and other Pennsylvania rivers.
Also on Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube
Why should you learn more than one fly fishing style?
Anglers who fish only dry flies, or only streamers, give up water every day they are out. When nothing is rising and no hatch is coming, a dry fly angler stands there while the fish feed below the surface. The argument this guide makes to every beginner and every client is the same: each style is a tool for a specific piece of water, and the more styles an angler is competent in, the more of a river becomes fishable.
How does a guide plan which style to fish on each section of river?
The plan gets explained before the boat reaches the water, section by section, so nothing is a surprise mid-float. The upper Lehigh holds deeper water and relatively few bugs, so that stretch gets streamers on a rod already rigged and ready. Riffles and runs below get nymphs, with the guide calling which bank to fish and how. The lower, calmer water is where the dry fly rod comes off the rack. Rigging every rod ahead of time is what makes the switches fast enough to be worth making.
What streamer leader gets flies down fast from a boat?
The streamer setup here is an 8-weight with a full sinking line and a short, heavy two-section leader: roughly two feet of 20-pound to two feet of 12-pound, joined with a double surgeon's knot. That combination gets the streamer down quickly, which is the whole requirement on a moving boat. It also casts well for anglers who came from spin fishing, because the weight of the line and fly loads the rod in a way they can feel, so timing errors cost less.
How do you rig a two-fly nymph setup with an indicator?
The nymph rig starts with a nine-foot 4X leader down to a tippet ring, then four to five feet of 5X. A blood knot roughly eight inches above the first fly gives the split shot something to sit against so the shot cannot slide down onto the fly. The dropper is tied off the bend of the first fly, which only works reliably with barbless hooks. An adjustable split-style indicator finishes the rig, because sliding an indicator up or down is a change clients can make themselves without cutting anything.
How deep should you set a nymph indicator, and when do you adjust?
One and a half times the water depth is the starting point, treated as a guideline rather than a rule. Flies hanging up on every drift means moving the indicator down six inches or so; drifts with no contact at all mean moving the indicator up. Starting every client at one and a half times depth and then adjusting together is deliberate, so the client learns to read what the rig is telling them rather than being handed a finished setup.
How do you teach a client to feel whether the nymphs are deep enough?
The first step is asking directly whether the flies feel like they are ticking the bottom. When the answer does not match what the guide can see, the fix is to drop the anchor, stop the boat, take the rod and demonstrate: throw the mend, then point out the tick as the flies find bottom. Stopping costs a few minutes of drift, but drifting a badly set rig through the best water on the float costs far more.
How do you set up a dry fly presentation from a drift boat?
The dry fly rig is a floating line with a nine-foot 5X leader straight to the fly, which is fine tippet enough for the Lehigh. The boat gets positioned above the rising fish so the cast comes down at about a 45-degree angle, landing the fly five to ten feet above the rise. Reading the fish's rise cadence matters as much as the cast, because a fly arriving a second after the fish came up is a wasted drift. Mend upstream only to the first loop of line, feed line as the fly comes down, then stop moving anything once the fly enters the zone.
What is the most common mending mistake on a dry fly drift?
Over-mending is the error that costs the most fish. A mend thrown too aggressively lifts the fly and drags it upstream, pulling the fly out of the feeding lane entirely. Brown trout in particular hold a lane and will not cross a current seam to chase a fly that has been yanked three feet off line, and the disturbance can put the fish down for a while. Once the fly is in the zone, the better move is to leave the drift alone and deal with an imperfect presentation rather than fix it.
How do you cover a deep pool with streamers from an anchored boat?
For a large pool, the boat anchors at the head and the anglers fish five to ten casts to each side. The guide then lets out rope slowly, dropping the boat a few feet, and the anglers repeat. That cycle continues to the end of the rope, at which point the anchor comes up and the process starts over lower in the pool. The result is complete coverage of a big piece of water. Where tributaries dump in and the current is too fast to anchor safely, the approach flips entirely: hammer the banks, a few strips, recast.
Key takeaways
- Throw a forward mend heading into a riffle to shorten the effective depth and keep the flies fishing instead of hanging up.
- Throw a back mend as the indicator crosses onto a shelf so the flies sink and lead the indicator into the deeper water.
- Rig streamers with a full sinking line and a short leader of roughly two feet of 20-pound to two feet of 12-pound, joined with a double surgeon's knot.
- Put a blood knot about eight inches above the first nymph so split shot has something to stop against.
- Start the indicator at one and a half times water depth, then move it down when the flies drag and up when they never touch.
- Once a dry fly is in the feeding zone, stop mending and let the drift finish, even when the presentation is imperfect.
