If you fly fish in saltwater, you are aware of what the words “nervous water” mean. If you only fly fish in freshwater, you may also be aware of the term. However, if you don’t fly fish you are probably thinking, ‘Don has lost his mind.’ How can water be nervous?
To help you understand what nervous water is, I found a definition from the ever-truthful and reliable Google. It says nervous water is, “Dimples, splashes and wakes are the surface disturbances that define nervous water. They mean one or more fish is displacing water volume in a specific area by moving around.”
Nervous water is usually used when a saltwater guide while standing on a poling platform, tells you he sees it way off, and to get ready to cast. If you are like me, you do not see it until it is 20 yards from the boat. The distance lapse gives me plenty of time to do all sorts of things to mess up my cast and miss the fish.
So, how does the term nervous water help someone fly fishing in warm freshwater? I contend that instead of just blindly casting and hoping for a strike if Google’s definition is applied in warm water situations, your skills in seeing and catching fish will be enhanced.
If I am standing on the deck of a bass boat, or sitting in my float tube, watching the surface of a lake or pond where there is no wind, the first thing I look for is dimples.
Dimples are the disturbance small bait fish, minnows, make as they move just below the surface, looking for anything to eat. They will also move when a larger fish, looking to eat them, is close by.
If the pod of bait fish appears to be staying in one spot chances are there are larger fish holding below them waiting to move in for dinner. When I see this, I will cast a sinking fly that looks similar to a minnow in hopes that whatever is swimming around under the pod will attack my silver imitation. Or, if I am feeling really lucky, I will put a bass popper in the middle of the dimple in hopes something big will come and see what all the commotion is about.
If the wind picks up, I will move closer to the shore in search of a windbreak that reduces the wind to a gentle breeze. My plan is that the breeze will move the surface of the water in one direction while the wake caused by feeding fish moves in the opposite direction. If I see a larger wake, my thoughts go to either small bass or carp working the shoreline or sometimes a large school of pan fish following grasshoppers or ants the wind has blown into the water.
A splash, the bigger the better, can occur anytime in any condition. The big splash is usually a large fish engulfing something floating or swimming on the surface. When I see a big splash I will always head to it.
Being the optimist that all who fly fish are, I am always thinking that whatever just showed himself will be on the hunt for dessert. I will spend a good deal of time, probably using several different flies, offering up dessert. I will not go into the number of times the big fish decided to go elsewhere.
If you are thinking all the above is well and good, but I only get to fly fish in cold water for trout, do not be discouraged. Google makes no distinction to water temperature. Use these tactics when you find a beaver pond or a high mountain lake you hiked into to get to. When standing in a stream, I pay close attention to steep banks or banks having a deep undercut.
Since you can fly fish for anything that swims, do not be afraid to put nervous water tactics to the test wherever you find yourself. I bet it will help you find more fish. Catching them will be up to you.
