A True Prince of a Nymph

Guest Author:  Ron Romeis

My most frequent fly fishing companion is a quite accomplished angler. He is also maybe the most intelligent and educated fishing companion I know. He is not only a PhD, but he has also achieved the distinction of becoming a FFI Certified Fly Casting Instructor. Some folks may ask what that has to do with being an accomplished angler, and that might be a valid point. But, this particular fellow has also practiced the craft of fly fishing all over the US and abroad for several decades. So I have no qualms discussing his fish catching ability on the streams that we enjoy together.

In the dozen or so years we have fished together, we have spent time on many of the premier fly fishing waters in the Pacific Northwest. We have spent many hours debating the merits of fishing techniques, leader design; fly lines, rods, etc. We both tie flies and our fly boxes are generally filled with the flies we tie and mostly fish with the flies we tie. We generally agree on most of those topics and often you will find us using identical rigs and similar methods. However, there is one little thing we don’t seem to see eye to eye on.

My friend is a determined dry fly guy. As someone who is exceptionally skilled at casting would expect; he would rather catch a fish on a dry and will sacrifice catching any fish at all if they aren’t eating on top. That is most of the time! I did mention that he is a pretty intelligent fellow, so he will go over to the dark side and fish a nymph if he absolutely has to.

When my friend decides he absolutely must fish below the surface he will resort to indicator nymphing. There are occasions when I have been putting him to shame with soft hackles, or if I’m having one of those days drop shotting a tight line rig he’ll go “Euro” on the fish.

I, on the other hand, will only tie on a dry fly if I absolutely have to. I’m not a professional fly caster and I can hardly see a dry fly if I tie one on, unless it’s a chubby Chernobyl. I’ve found over the years that when fish are looking up, I can do pretty well with my favored style of swinging soft hackles. Otherwise, I’m more likely to be tight line nymphing rather than indicator fishing.

With this entire preamble, what’s up with the title of this little story? Recently, we made a trip to one of our favorite spots on the Crooked River. It was a good day, the flow was reasonable, and water clarity was decent. As is typical, my friend chose his spot and I took a position upstream from him. There were some small caddis and mayflies around but no fish rising. I fully expected to see my friend setting up a dry fly rig in anticipation of the fish reacting to the bugs we were seeing. But, when he starting casting an indicator into a good nymphing run I was a little surprised. When he reached for his net, indicating a good fish was on I was a little jealous because my soft hackles were producing nothing but the smaller fish. When he pulled out the net again soon after the first, I was getting more curious. And as is usually the case, he is fishing upstream and I’m fishing down so we meet in the middle and compare notes.

I asked what he was fishing with and his reply was “you know what I’m using…. It is a prince nymph on the bottom and a soft hackle on top.” “All the bigger fish were eating the prince.” Of course, he always fishes a prince nymph whether under an indicator or tight line. It’s just his confidence fly and he will use it anytime he goes deep.

I didn’t even have a prince nymph in my box. We both continued to fish and had a very successful day. I caught the typical 8-10” rainbows we’ve been seeing most of the time. My friend, however, had his share of small fish, but also landed several fish in the 12-15” range.

With that day in the books, I went to my tying bench and proceeded to add some prince nymphs and variants to my box. I tied the traditional princes, “psycho” princes, flies formally known as the Prince, and some quill bodied princes just for fun. I took a sample of these and gave some to my friend and asked for a report.

I also decided to give them a try myself.

Naturally, the next time out, my companion caught all the larger fish that day on the prince nymph. I had a nice day with soft hackles, but didn’t hook any fish of any size until…… you guessed it! I relented and put on a size 14, Psycho Prince in purple, below an indicator, and proceeded to catch about 10 fish in 12 casts. The best of the fish was a nice rainbow about 13” and a couple white fish in the same class.

The moral of this story, if there is one, go with your confidence flies. And don’t be hardheaded like me and ignore what is working. It also helps to fish with good anglers and learn from them. In the future my fly boxes will have a row or two of various princes and you should too.