The Perils of Klink and Dink

NB - This is a slightly technical article that will be meaningless if you don’t fly fish.

The stretch of Hertfordshire chalkstream I fish most often lends itself perfectly to Klink and Dink, aka the New Zealand method. The basic premise is that you fish a dry fly and a nymph on the same line. It has the advantages that you are covering fish looking up and those feeding subsurface, the dry fly acts as a bite indicator and I have just realised the nymph anchors the dry fly in the current you are fishing avoiding drag.

This winter I tried fishing more purist nymphing setups i.e. no dry fly or indicator. I had forgotten how hard bite detection is when simply watching the tip of the line, sight fishing or trying to feel for bites.

Similarly, with the trout now looking up I decided to test myself last week by reverting to single dry fly. With the river high (by the standards of the last decade), the currents are complex and I suddenly realised what a difference the nymph I usually fish below the dry fly makes in reducing drag. All of a sudden I was thinking far harder about where to position myself before the cast, how short a line I could get away with and was focussing hard on putting mends in the line.

I am catching fewer fish (for the moment) but it will improve my fishing longer term and means I will catch more fish on waters where klink and dink is not the most effective method as well as catching more fish when I choose to fish klink and dink again later this year.