Charity and Shrish Rane teamed up to get this photo a few days back on Little River. Charity held the leader and acted as art director, instructing Shrish on the best way to get this underwater photo.
Shrish was excited for the opportunity to do some dry fly fishing since he doesn’t get to do that much on his home waters. As it turned out that day the water was pretty high nymphing was a more reliable means of getting into fish. Charity set Shrish up with a dropper rig consisting of a Stimulator and a Copper John.
Most of the takes came on the nymph, but there were enough rises to the dry fly to keep it interesting.
Nymphing has been the way to go on the tailwaters, even when trout are up dimpling on midges at the surface. I’ve always hated the fact that a dry fly wasn’t the best way to catch these “rising” fish and regularly use a dropper rig for midging fish. A Stimulator or Parachute Adams works very well as a strike indicator and I’ll fish a Zebra Midge or Skull & Bones about 18″ under. Even though fish on the Clinch have never seen a stonefly I’m always surprised that at least a few fish will take the Stimulator every time I pull it out.
