I am not ashamed to admit that I prefer dry fly fishing to nymphing any day of the week. I also like wet flies just under the surface, so if a fish is in the top foot of the water column, he's mine. If he's goes below that, you can have him. Effectively speaking, that philosophy takes away about 80 % of the fish catching opportunity. I've been fly fishing 52 years and I know all about fish, especially big fish feeding on or near the bottom and I will readily admit that nymphing is much more productive than surface fishing for that very reason. I just don't care! I fish because I enjoy seeing a trout tip it's nose up out of the water and take my fly. I like to see the spray off the fly line as I lift it slowly to set the hook. Without that, I'm missing something. I don't mind fishing #24 dry flies as opposed to big ones; it's the take that's stunning. So now we enter my season, the season of top water feeding and I'm a happy man. Watching a trout rise is one of the most artful events of nature. I literally live for it. You may think I'm a sick man and I probably am. I am convinced that God made trout to rise and he made single malt scotch for me to sip while I watch.
