TIP OF THE WEEK: Float Your Sighter Material when fishing ESN in Winter.

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When nymph fishing, in the winter, we typically find our fish in the deeper slower slots that are not easily fished using a tight-line method. It’s just hard to fish that deep and slow with long drifts. 

The tip here is to float your sighter on an ESN setup rather than transition to an indicator set-up. Your sighter material is now a 2-3ft long indicator that floats on top of the water 😉. When the sighter changes angles or gets pulled under, set the hook. I was fishing 2x sighter material yesterday with a beaded worm and small streamer pattern and my sighter stayed on top well. I reapplied the wax after a few fish and we were good to go. You will want to focus on lighter flies when doing this for the most part.

Give this a shot next time you are out fishing this winter. We found a pod and were hooking fish after fish using this method.

SUMMARY:  Float your sighter material with some wax or chapstick when fishing ESN in the winter and use it as your indicator.  

We teach the above technique and many more in our Fishalong Courses.  Come join us in one of these to squash that learning curve.  This is just one of the hundred skills that you could gain by joining our University of Fly Fishing.  

UPCOMING COURSES TO HIGHLIGHT 

ENTIRE COURSE CALENDAR HERE 

Trout Spey and ESN Fishalongs will continue throughout Fall/Winter.  

CALL OR MESSAGE US TO REQUEST FISHALONGS THROUGHOUT WINTER AS WE ARE WEATHER BASED.