I read about right angle nymphing a couple years ago and I was very excited to try it. For those of you that don’t know what right angle nymphing is, it is essentially a standard nymphing rig set up with the use of a thingamabobber, yarn, or cork indicator. Instead of threading your leader through the indicator, you cut it at the desired depth and tie each end directly to the indicator ring. This results in approximately a right angle forming at the indicator, while a hundred and eighty degree angle normally forms while threading your leader through the strike indicator normally. After trying this nymphing style out, I think there is one big advantage to this nymphing style but it is outweighed by two big disadvantages.  

The major advantage of right angle nymphing is that the rig drifted more naturally than your standard nymphing rig set-up. Since your leader is drifting at about a ninety degree angle, the leader below the indicator wants to go straight down to the bottom. It’s harder for your nymphs to sink to the bottom when normal indicator nymphing because the one hundred and eighty degree angle creates a lot of tension between your leader and water currents. The right angle allows your nymphs to quickly drop to the bottom, and your nymphs also tend to stay on the bottom a lot more than they otherwise would.

This first and biggest disadvantage of right angle nymphing is that you cannot adjust your strike indicator easily– and you need to constantly adjust your indicator to the depth of water that you are fishing in order to effectively nymph. In order to adjust your indicator when right angle nymphing, you have to cut one of the knots off, remove or add a section of line, and then tie it back on again. This becomes a huge pain when you’re constantly moving to different sections of the river and need to constantly make depth adjustments.

The second disadvantage of this rig is that it tended to get tangled a lot at the indicator. Because of the ninety degree angle that forms when right angle nymphing, the top of your leader and bottom of your leader are on two different planes instead of in a straight line when regular nymphing.

The third disadvantage is that the indicator tends to break off, causing you to lose your entire entire nymphing rig. Because your line is tied directly to the indicator, after enough wear and tear it tends to cut through the circle connecting ring and break off at the top section. The top section takes the most force every time you cast so it tends to break at this location rather than the bottom section, causing you to lose everything, including the strike indicator. When you attach an indicator to your rig normally, you loop it through and over which tends to spread the force across several bends in your leader line so that it doesn’t break off as easily.

More information on trout nymphing can be found in my guide book SIMPLE NYMPHING FOR TROUT IN RIVERS & STREAMS.

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