When fly fishing a nymph or some
other fly that needs to be submerged to get to the fish, small
weights or split shot can easily be added to the end of the fishing
line either on the leader or tippet anywhere from 8 inches or more
above the fly. Using these fly fishing weights will enable you
to get the fly to the fish.
A friend of mine was fly fishing the
White river in Arkansas a while back. On his way down to the
river he met up with some locals that gave him the fly that they had
much success with but they failed to mention how to fish it.
All the trout in that river where feeding on freshwater shrimp and
could be caught left and right on an imitation shrimp. Cast
after cast for more than an hour he delicately presented this fly to
the fish only to have them turn and look at it then ignore it.
Up the river, a friendly fly
fisherman noticed his lack of success and waded over to offer some
advice. He looked at my friends fly, agreed that it was the
correct pattern but noticed he had no weight on his tippet to help
get the fly down to the fish. He explained to my friend that
the trout sit and wait for these shrimp to jet out of the rocks
below and in order to get the fish to hit his shrimp imitation he
would have to add a little weight to get the fly to bounce along the
bottom. Shortly after this
tiny piece of advice and few casts later, he landed a 27 inch, seven
and a half pound brown trout.
Sometimes it is necessary to change thing up a little. Try
different flies, add a little weight or take off a little
weight. Its a good idea, as you can see from the above
scenario, to always carry the necessary fly fishing accessories when
on the river. Check out all of these fly fishing
gadgets and more 
here.
