Lift

At the end of the fly’s drift, raise the rod high and let the current pull the fly up to the surface. This imitates the rising emergence of an insect. It is simple to do and effective. The fish targets on the nymph’s rising action. Mayflies and caddisflies are effectively fished with this lift method.

During insect emergence, fish often feed upon the nymphs transforming into adults. Fish can become selective and prefer eating these helpless emergent nymphs rather than the mature adults. Adult flies can flutter and this movement makes it difficult for a fish to catch them. Some fish, during heavy insect hatches, specialize in feeding upon the transforming nymphs and the cripples. These fish can ignore the moving adult insects. Carefully observe rising fish to see what insect life stage is being ingested.

Surface film nymphs are fished the same as dry fly presentations. That is upstream,

7/8, natural drift, Young’s, and all of the downstream presentations. Simply fish the nymph the same as the dry fly.