The large trout in our streams feed heavily on natural caddis larva, natural stonefly nymphs and natural mayfly nymphs. In order to take advantage of this exciting action I fish a three nymph rig. This includes a Murray’s Caddis Larva size 14, Murray’s Dark Stonefly Nymph size 14, and a Mr. Rapidan Olive Soft Hackle Nymph size 14. I use my Trout Nymph Leader 9ft 4X with the built in Murray’s Fly Shop Indicators which help greatly in strike detection.
I attach the stonefly nymph to the leader, then tie 2 feet of 4X mono to the bend of that hook with an improved clinch knot. Then I tie a Caddis Larva to this. I tie 2 feet of 4X mono to the Caddis Larva with an improved clinch knot and tie the Mr. Rapidan Olive Soft Hackle to this. This shows the trout one of each of the major insect groups they find in all trout streams.
When I’m fishing streams which are more than 30 feet wide I cast across stream. After my flies sink deeply I swim them back across stream by stripping them 3 inches every five seconds while wading slowly downstream. On streams which are 20 to 30 feet wide the swing nymphing method developed by Charlie Brooks is very effective in both an upstream and downstream approach. On streams which are 10 feet wide or less I use an upstream presentation with a slow bounce retrieve.
All of these methods are very effective, so use a slow methodical approach to cover all the water.