Customer Reviews

Active Nymphing: Aggressive Strategies for Casting, Rigging, and Moving the Nymph

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rich Osthoff grew up fishing the driftless area of southwest Wisconsin. He spent many years backbacking the alpine lakes and streams of the Rocky Mountain backcountry. He is as consumate a fly fisherman as there is writing today. In this book Osthoff gives the most relavant and complete account of nymphing as a true sport that I've read. He relates how to rig a fly line for the various strategies an angler can employ. He advises on how much weight to use in a given situation,how to apply weight,how to position weight,remove weight, which leaders,tippet, indicators,line tapers,rods and reels to use. All this in the first chapter. In subsequent chapters Rich edifies on casting,moving the nymph,downstream strategies,upstream strategies and other practical applications. Osthoff also argues the long standing confict over whether nymphing should be considered true fly fishing. I regard "Active Nymphing" as the best and most complete book on nymphing to date.

I enjoyed Osthoffs comprehensive treatment of agressive nymphing in this book. Osthoff deals with every aspect of his technique from tying to rigging to casting and presentation to fighting and landing fish. The overall organization of the book was fine, but at times it progressed counterintuitively. In any case I got really excited about trying out some the techniques. I think the most valuable idea here is the concept of prospecting - strategizing and moving (yourself as well as the nymph) to maximize opportunities to trigger aggression in fish. Osthoff does an excellent job in explaining his ideas and the illustrations are very effective. If you are like me and spend most of your time dead drifting nymphs and want to expand your repertoire into active nymphing this is a great book at a great price.

Outstanding book for those interested in advanced nymphing techniques; for the kind of fisherman who mostly nymphs and is interested in all phases of emergence and freshwater environments.

Excellent book. Rich thinks outside the box and describes alternative nymphing techniques besides dead-drifting. He believes that an angler should often add action to a nymph, and Rich provides in-depth, easy-to-follow descriptions of when and how an angler should do this.

The book also contains a wealth of practical information like how to put on split shots and how to simply build leaders.

I think this book is a must for anyone who wants to become a more rounded nymph fisherman.

Rich proposes quite a few different nymphing methods that I had not used before. To some up his philosophy: fishing bigger, bolder nymphs on mostly tight lines, with little use of tandem flies. For 99% of fly fishermen, this is the exact opposite of how they usually nymph: long line, dead drifting double nymph rigs. I definitely fall into that 99% and look forward to utilizing some of his suggestions this season. Highly recommended!

Nice reading when not possible going fishing but I expected more from the title. It is all about nymph fishing with split shots and floater not considering other nymphing techniques.
Few innovative ideas and often wandering....
From the same author much better buy "No hatch to match"

The information was interesting, but too difficult to visualize. A video presentation would be beneficial.