Swymphing: A Hybrid Technique for Catching Wary Trout

Swymphing is a great low-water technique for trout and other salmonids, such as this steelhead, which ate on the swing. Photo: Kubie Brown

Some of my favorite fly-fishing methods are when you combine the best aspects of two different techniques to create something new. Like mixing peanut butter and chocolate or blues and bluegrass, these blended fishing techniques form their own delicious harmony on the water and can help you catch fish when more traditional methods just aren’t producing like they should.

Many anglers understand the principle behind how and why these mixed techniques work and are happy to drift a streamer beneath an indicator like a nymph or to strip and twitch a dry fly on the surface of the water like it’s a streamer. One of the more effective and versatile of these combo techniques is also one of the more underutilized. It’s called “Swymphing” or “swing-nymphing,” and it can completely change your trout fishing—and even your salmon and steelhead fishing—game by helping you catch more fish when other techniques aren’t working.

What is “Swymphing?”

Swymphing is a simple enough technique that combines both nymphing and swinging. It involves using a nymph or a pair of nymphs to cover a lot of water by both drifting them with the current and then swinging them across the river with a single cast.

Use mends to allow the flies to sink quickly in the deepest part of the run. Photos: Charles Hildick-Smith

To start a swymphing presentation, find a long, shallow stretch of river that’s flowing at about a walking pace and is between 2 feet and 5 feet deep. Using a weighted nymph or a pair of weighted nymphs, make a long cast upstream and across the current into the head of the pool or run, and then make an upstream mend to allow your flies to sink. Next, raise your rod tip and let the flies dead drift through the water on a tight line, setting the hook any time the flies stop or stutters, just as you would when tightline nymphing. Once the flies have drifted past, add a few feet of extra slack into your drift, and then lower your rod tip and tighten the line so that the flies swing across the current like a streamer, opening up the opportunity for a grab. Once you’ve swung through the water, turn to the other side of the river and repeat the process until you’ve presented your flies to every inch of water within your reach. Then step downstream and do it all over again.

Swymphing a fairly simple but highly effective technique that allows you to fish all the water around you with two different presentation styles. It works with a single-hand rod as well as a Spey or switch rod, and it can be equally effective with both floating and sinking lines. However, while it is versatile, swymphing is not a magical “works every time” sort of method. Just like with every other fly fishing technique, there are certain conditions when swymphing is going to be most effective and certain flies that are going to work best for the presentation.

Low Water is The Right Water

Swymphing works best when the water is low and clear water, especially during fall, winter, and early spring. During these times, fish such as trout, steelhead, and even salmon can be spread out in the shallows, holding in small pockets of slightly deeper water that are harder for anglers to approach. In these conditions, fish can be wary of larger flies like streamers, especially in heavily pressured rivers, making both drifted and swung nymphs especially effective.

When the water starts to shallow, add some slack and then tighten up to allow the nymphs to swing across the current. Photo: Charles Hildick-Smith

Swymphing is ideal for these sort of conditions because it allows you to make longer casts to cover water with smaller, more natural-looking flies. Try to fish in areas with a lot of long, slow moving runs where fish are holding in around current breaks, and at the heads and tails of pools. Then work over each area by dead-drifting your flies through the deepest sections and swinging them out through areas where the water begins to shallow.

The Right Nymphs

Using the right nymph or combination of nymphs is vital to swymphing success. You don’t want to use flies that are too heavy, which will constantly hang up on the bottom, nor do you want to use nymphs that are too light, which will only sink a few inches below the surface and run over the fish’s heads. Use nymphs that are fairly large and lightly weighted with brass or glass beads, so they will both drift and swing through the middle of the water column, right where the fish are most likely going to feed or grab.

Useful swymphing nymphs include (l to r) Top: Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail, Soft Hackle Hare’s Ear, and Prince; Middle: Small Black Stonefly and Pat’s Rubberlegs; and Bottom: Spring Wiggler, Senyo’s Wiggle Stone, and Kaufmann Stone.

Select flies that are appropriate for the fish species you are pursuing. My favorite patterns for swymphing for trout include Bead Head Soft Hackle Pheasant Tails and Hare’s Ear Nymphs, as well as Prince Nymphs and Small Black Stoneflies. All of these patterns imitate several different insects that trout hunt in low-water and can be drifted and swung with equal effectiveness.

When I’m swymphing for steelhead or salmon, I like to use slightly larger flies that make an impression, while still maintaining their natural shapes and colors. These can include Pat’s Rubber Legs stoneflies, as well as the Kaufmann Stone in brown, black, or tan. Generally, I’ll use these larger patterns as my lead fly and then I’ll add a slightly smaller, flashier pattern such as the Fly Formerly Known as Prince, Spring Wiggler, or Senyo’s Wiggle Stone, as a dropper for a little extra action and attention.

Swymphing allows you to cover a lot of water, especially useful when you don’t know exactly where trout are holding. Photo: Kubie Brown

It’s All About The Grab

While watching a fish rise to the surface to sip or dry fly or seeing your drifting indicator suddenly vanish beneath the surface can be thrilling, neither compares with the feeling of getting a tightline grab. It drops you immediately into the middle of the fight, letting you feel the strength, power, and will of the fish right off the bat, which is probably the reason I enjoy swymphing so much. Whether the strike comes off the drift or on the swing, it’s a technique that puts you in the center of the action, giving you the very best of both worlds.