"I wrote before about sensitive take detection and its importance in hard fished waters where we have to present small, imitative nymphs on fine tippets. I gave the general construction of a long (necessary) leader for this, as used by the top European fly fishing teams. I have been experimenting for some time with these and have added certain refinements. To be more precise, I have been fortunate enough to see or use several other anglers’ ideas on this, including those of Luois Otano Perez, of the Spanish First Division of competitive fly fishers."

Read the full article inside and learn the secrets of the "Stren coil indicator"!..........

In this installment of his 'Fishing on the Frontier' column, Jeremy Lucas looks at the various styles of leader construction and how they can improve your odds in specific circumstances. We are also introduced to the "next level of take detection" - the coiled leader indicator! More of which is planned for future installments also.

This month, England fly fishing international and Fish&Fly team member Jeremy Lucas moves on to look at a techinque often used on rivers when there is no apparent surface activity to seek out fish feeding lower down in the water column. Is this a better technique than the ubiquitous "Duo" - read on and see what you think!?

I said that I would write a piece about the complicated subject of take detection when nymph fishing, particularly on rivers. This is also a controversial subject. At its crudest, we can apply a strike indicator to the tip of the fly line, or somewhere along the leader. Every nymph fisher tries this, reverting to the ‘float fishing’ styles of bait anglers. It is however, much less subtle than float fishing.

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After the floods that have characterised this winter, on every river I have fished, and the recent intensely cold nights, the waters are now flowing low and clear. San River is currently a 100m width of translucent, sparkling shallows, interspersed with lively rapids, while the Eden, here in Cumbria, is a sunshot glitter of upland waters.

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In several of the practice sessions for last year’s European Championships in Norway, I spent quite a lot of time observing Iain Barr’s presentation technique. On the boats it was drummed into me time and again just how important presentation at distance was – the difference it made was overwhelming. Iain is an outstanding distance caster, to the extent that he almost looks uncomfortable at short range, and conversely so supreme when reaching for distance.

This week, Jeremy talks more about presentation and introduces us to a very useful and direct method of quickly delivering your flies back upstream at the end of a drift in one movement.

This is what it is all about, once we’ve studied the water, river or lake, chosen our position and what fly we need to fish. We have seen fish, or indicators out there which just spell fish: we have read the waters. Instinct is already kicking in, marrying with experience, and we’re choosing the right angle on the fish. This means we know where our fly needs to be and from where we need to cast.

The next installment of Jeremy's fascinating study of lessons learned while fishing European waters and studying local methods.