In order to do this, you will need to learn how to tie simple droppers onto your leader, and you may either want a brightly coloured Minicopm, or to use some other form of strike indicator, for the takes are gentle, and many – one of the main reasons I love this method is that, on the right day, you can get so many takes using this Upstream Nymphing method.

So this is the first part to get right here – Tying your droppers.

Tying Your Droppers

You’ll want a leader length of about 6ft then your three droppers, spaced about 2 feet (1 metre) apart – giving you a total length of 11-12 feet – just a bit longer than your rod. You need no more than this as you want to remain in control of your flies. Any shorter than this, and your leader may not have time to sink deep enough from your floating fly line.

Water Knot

Tie your droppers using a Water Knot. To do this is fairly straightforward:

1. Cut your leader to the 6ft length you want;
2. loosely tie two half hitch knots using the end of this to your tippet material, cut to the 2-3 foot dropper spacing required;
3. Make sure you leave a “tag” long enough to act as a dropper pointing towards your point (away from the “rod” end!);
4. Tighten the whole knot in your mouth, as your saliva will make the knot slide into place much more effectively;
5. Test the point fly AND the dropper knot before moving on to the next dropper – this is important, you’d rather it was you that broke the knot than a trout or a grayling!
6. Cut away the bit of the material pointing in the “wrong” direction (back towards the rod);
7. Repeat for the middle dropper.

Pheasant Tail Nymph - Tied by David Cammiss

Another must have under the surface fly is the Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN), which, when fished upstream in a fast flowing river for brown trout is often a deadly pattern, as it is retrieved slowly on a figure-of-eight in a small still water.

Below we have a tutorial video which takes you through tying the Pheasant Tail Nymph.

This is another attractor pattern which imitates general aquatic life but doesn’t single out any one species in particular. This is a nymph attractor, as the name suggests.

I like to fish a PTN on the point fly in a three fly combo with a gold head PTN or GRHE on the top dropper and something similar on the middle dropper (usually a more imitative pattern based upon what is in the water – found through kick sampling (another future post there!)) upstream in the faster ripply rapids water of Northern English rivers early in the season (March to May/June) and this fly on point regularly takes brownies and the odd grayling as it whizzes along just off the bottom past good lies.

David Cammiss has produced yet another excellent fly-tying tutorial video, to which I need to add very little, so just watch the below video and ask any questions in the comments section at the bottom here:

GRHE - Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear

Another day, another fly-tying tutorial video from the excellent David Cammiss – today we have the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear (often abbreviated to GRHE for obvious reasons!) which is another ‘wet’ fly designed to be fished below the surface.

The gold ribbing adds ballast to the fly, making it a good top-dropper fly for you upstream nymphers in fast flowing water (don’t panic, there will be a tutorial on this soon!) due to the fact that this fly will sink fairly quickly. For the same reason, it can also be used as the point fly in a long-leader team of buzzers in a stillwater or reservoir for trout. This one also features a gold bead head, making it sink super quick for those deep days.

This versatile fly can also be inched along the bottom of the water, or dangled on its own on a slow figure of eight.

All techniques above, and more, will catch trout – making this a must have fly for your fly-box. Making the fly is almost easier than fishing it – and the tutorial fly-tying video below explains all you need to know about that!

The Diawl Bach

The Diawl Bach, or Little Devil, is an important all-round fly for fishermen of small stillwaters and reservoirs -  it will even prove a successful pattern on many rivers – for trout fishermen.

The Diawl Bach is not an imitative fly, rather it is a general “attractor” pattern which mimics key features of the intended creature – in this instance, the nymph – without actually looking like any particular species. The intention of the Diawl Bach fly is to trigger the killer instinct in the salmonoid fish: which is does very effectively, fished in a variety of ways below the surface.

Throw one of these out when all else fails and it will often prove effective.

In the below video, David Cammiss – fast becoming one of our favourite video tutorial providers – shows us how to tie this killer pattern.