What is a Strymph? –A cross between a streamer and a nymph!
Many years ago I was in the habit of fishing for smallmouth bass every morning before I opened the shop. Some mornings I found them chasing minnows in the shallows and I’d catch them on streamers. Other mornings I’d find them in the riffles feeding on large aquatic insects and I’d catch them on nymphs.
I decided that if I could develop one fly that would match the minnows that I could fish like a streamer as well as permitting me to fish it as a nymph which would match some of the aquatic insects, I’d be able to catch more bass and save time experimenting. After a great amount of experimenting I came up with the Strymph. The final materials selected and the manner of tying it enabled me to fish it as a streamer and nymph.
In order to broaden the many uses, I decided to tie it in three different colors—black, olive and cream.
The Black Strymph
The Black Strymph #4 is very effective when I fish it upstream dead drift and let it roll back downstream. This acts just like a real hellgrammite. It is also great when I fish it across stream below heavy riffles on a sinking tip III fly line and swim it deeply along the stream bottom like a sculpin minnow.
The Olive Strymph
The Olive Strymph #4 helps me catch many bass that often feed in the tails of the pools at dusk on dace minnows. Wading upstream in the shallow pool tails and fanning casts throughout the knee deep to chest deep water upstream gives me many large bass every evening. Size 4 also helps me catch many bass that feed on natural madtoms throughout the cobblestone sections of the river just before dark. The #6 is a match for the dragonfly nymphs that hatch from the grassbeds along the sides of the rivers. Cast it tight against these grassbeds and strip it out with a slow spurting action. Most of the strikes come within 5 feet of the grass.
The Cream Strymph
The Cream Strymph size 4 is a good match for the creek chub minnows that live in many rivers. I start by wading into the shallow side of the river where the riffle flattens out into the large pool. I cast this across the stream and allow it to sink deeply. Next I swim it slowly back across the stream bottom by stripping it 4 inches every ten seconds. Pausing every ten feet to repeat this technique as I wade slowly down the whole pool has given me many large bass.
The size 10 passes well for the emerging white miller mayfly that hatches on many mid Atlantic rivers in mid July. Some of the most exciting smallmouth fishing I’ve ever had has been on the Potomac River at pack horse ford in the summer when these flies are on the river the last two hours of day. The molting, mating, egg laying and spinner fall all occur the same evening. I like to wade downstream and cast my size 10 across stream at a 10 degree angle downstream. Retrieving the Strymph with a two inch spurting action is very effective all the way to dark. I make repeated casts wading downstream.
Strymphs have added greatly to my personal fishing and have helped many students in the bass schools.