Charlie Brooks Swing Nymphing Technique Question

[Concrete Pete]

I’m fishing for bass more lately. This lead me to Mr Murray from VA who wrote a good smallmouth book.

In this book, the author describes a technique called ‘swing nymphing’ that was developed by Charles Brooks (stand perpendicular to where you think fish are, cast upstream at 45, let some slack form to get nymph down, then take up slack and pivot with the rod ahead of the line).

Has anyone tried this? Are there any videos online of the technique being executed properly?

I’ve only found what amount to slide shows.

 

[Concrete Pete]

Found this

"THE BROOKS METHOD:

The Brooks method is named after Charlie Brooks who developed his technique
for taking big trout on big nymphs in heavy water. His method uses a full
sinking line tied to a stout short leader of about 4 feet. The leader is
short to keep the fly at the bottom with the sinking line. In addition he
used weighted flies to keep them on the bottom. This is a heavy duty
nymphing system and I would suggest you try it with a single fly rather
than the two fly system.

The cast is made up and across as with short line nymphing. Take up the
slack sinking line as the current brings it back towards you. There is no
strike indicator so this system relies on your skill at maintaining contact
with the fly but not taking in so much line as to move the fly.

As the entry point of the line into the water gets closer, you raise the
rod just as you would in high sticking. But don't raise your hand above the
level of your shoulder. Otherwise you will not enough lift left to react to
a strike. With the Brooks method there will be a bow in the line and you
are using big flies so you will need to strike hard and fast.

As the line comes by you, try to keep the sinking line going vertical into
the water. Then as the line passes you, you lower the rod to feed line into
the drift just as with short line nymphing. At the end of the drift, allow
the pressure of the water to lift the nymph off the bottom. As with with
short line nymphing this is the point at which you will get many of your
strikes so be alert. When the water pressure has lifted the sinking line,
you can recast and repeat the process.

It is difficult for a beginner to visualize what is happening to the fly
and line under water. We need to make our casts upstream with this method
to allow time for the sinking line to come back to us drag free. By taking
up the line as it returns toward us, we minimize the drag and allow the fly
and line to sink through the deep water to the bottom. Therefore, the
strikes will not come until the line is at the bottom where the fish are.
Once the line reaches the bottom, it is riding in a current seam that is
much slower than the water above it. The portion of the line that rises up
to our rod is pushed by this faster current into a curve. We must try to
keep that curve as straight as possible but not so straight that we pull
the fly towards us. And we cannot let the line balloon behind us either,
otherwise the faster current at the surface will pull the fly along. This
balancing act requires a skilled hand, and that is why the Brooks method is
not often used these days. But for those who are capable, it reaches and
catches fish that cannot be reached by the standard short line method."

 

[Meriwether Mike]

Sound similar to Czech nymphing for trout. It is very effective with a fly rod.

 

[Concrete Pete]

Sound similar to Czech nymphing for trout. It is very effective with a fly rod.

Yeah that’s what I thought when I read it. I’m trying to fish craw patterns better. I’ve always fished them like streamers vs letting them hit bottom and doing the short strips over the rocks. That’s how I ended up reading about this technique Brooks is know for.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I fish a lot for smallmouth. I have caught some using a similar technique to this. I still strip streamers or fish popping bugs or foam spiders 99% of the time. Because that's what works and is a whole lot more fun and effective.

 

[Concrete Pete]

I fish a lot for smallmouth. I have caught some using a similar technique to this. I still strip streamers or fish popping bugs or foam spiders 99% of the time. Because that's what works and is a whole lot more fun and effective.

Smallmout, shoal bass, etc are so much fun. They’re similar to trout, but very, very different.

I just got serious about river bass and have a ton of questions.

Do you have an opinion on using intermediate sink vs floating lines?

Let me clarify my reasoning here:

I’m switching to intermediate sink to get craw patterns like C Kraft’s crawfish laying directly on the cobbles then keeping a tight line and squirting them with short strips. It just doesn’t make sense (to me) to fish these things anywhere but the absolute bottom of the column (could be wrong).

I can pick them up on dead drifted hellgrammites and other nymphs, but my catch rate is way too low (2 fish when it should be seven).

I’ve been fishing a lot of foam / deer head streamers on the intermediate sink to get that yo-yo action (buoyant head vs sinking line). This works to an extent.

I think the Charles Brook nymph swing (or whatever you want to call it) will help with depth on the really pushy fast water.

Are there any streamers you like in particular?

 

[NCHillbilly]

Smallmout, shoal bass, etc are so much fun. They’re similar to trout, but very, very different.

I just got serious about river bass and have a ton of questions.

Do you have an opinion on using intermediate sink vs floating lines?

Let me clarify my reasoning here:

I’m switching to intermediate sink to get craw patterns like C Kraft’s crawfish laying directly on the cobbles then keeping a tight line and squirting them with short strips. It just doesn’t make sense (to me) to fish these things anywhere but the absolute bottom of the column (could be wrong).

I can pick them up on dead drifted hellgrammites and other nymphs, but my catch rate is way too low (2 fish when it should be seven).

I’ve been fishing a lot of foam / deer head streamers on the intermediate sink to get that yo-yo action (buoyant head vs sinking line). This works to an extent.

I think the Charles Brook nymph swing (or whatever you want to call it) will help with depth on the really pushy fast water.

Are there any streamers you like in particular?

Depends on the water. Sinking line is often the way to go, especially here in our deeper, swifter rivers. I also often fish a floating line a lot with the fastest-sinking 7 1/2' poly leader they make, it'll get down several feet. I like that combo to fish unweighted streamers. Smallmouth usually aren't too picky, but some days one fly is definitely better than others. Some I tie and fish a lot are Mini Sex Dungeon, Zoo Cougar, Drunk and Disorderly, Clouser Minnow, Bennett's Lunch Money, Tequeely, Kraft's Klawdad, and a couple of my own design. Wiggle Minnows work well too sometimes.

 

[Concrete Pete]

Depends on the water. Sinking line is often the way to go, especially here in our deeper, swifter rivers. I also often fish a floating line a lot with the fastest-sinking 7 1/2' poly leader they make, it'll get down several feet. I like that combo to fish unweighted streamers. Smallmouth usually aren't too picky, but some days one fly is definitely better than others. Some I tie and fish a lot are Mini Sex Dungeon, Zoo Cougar, Drunk and Disorderly, Clouser Minnow, Bennett's Lunch Money, Tequeely, Kraft's Klawdad, and a couple of my own design. Wiggle Minnows work well too sometimes.

Thank you

 

[gobbleinwoods]

Depends on the water. Sinking line is often the way to go, especially here in our deeper, swifter rivers. I also often fish a floating line a lot with the fastest-sinking 7 1/2' poly leader they make, it'll get down several feet. I like that combo to fish unweighted streamers. Smallmouth usually aren't too picky, but some days one fly is definitely better than others. Some I tie and fish a lot are Mini Sex Dungeon, Zoo Cougar, Drunk and Disorderly, Clouser Minnow, Bennett's Lunch Money, Tequeely, Kraft's Klawdad, and a couple of my own design. Wiggle Minnows work well too sometimes.

curious as to how many ips does the leader sink? Especially on the mountain streams you fish.

 

[NCHillbilly]

curious as to how many ips does the leader sink? Especially on the mountain streams you fish.

I don't remember the exact number, but it's about the same as using a fast sink-tip line.

 

[GLS]

I was taught the Brooks method by a late friend while fishing with him over 40 years ago in Yellowstone in the fall of the year. Vic was a retired Air Force Colonel who with his wife, would spend the summer at the Wagon Wheel Trailer Park. Vic and Gerry would start their annual trek towing their Holiday Rambler out of Warner Robbins and would loop through Canada down into Yellowstone. Their return trip hastened by the first snowfall in Yellowstone, would send them home on the southern route. There are a series of pools "behind the barn" on the Madison just inside the Park where the Brooks technique shined. When the fall runs of Browns out of Hebgen began their run into the park, anglers would line up to fish the technique beginning at the top of one of four holes. A cast was made, then the angler moved downstream repeating the upstream cast with the full sinking line curling downstream with the short leader and weighted stonefly nymph trailing behind, just upstream, bumping bottom. It was a deadly technique and I caught fish using it. The regulars encouraged those in front to not hog the pool and courtesy demanded compliance with the unwritten rule of fishing the three to four holes. When an angler finished the holes, he'd head back upstream, get in line and start over. Hole four is smaller and many believe there was only three holes. At the time, we used the large weighted Brooks' stone fly pattern which was tied "in the round." Gil