My home is not the ideal place to spread out feathers, hooks and/or thread.  We have a playful cat and a dog that believes it's his personal responsibility to lick all my stuff.  This means that I need to clean up when I am done - even if I am just waiting for cement to dry.  Also, I wanted to be able to relocate my supplies easily from room to room.

I purchased a folding TV tray table for $9.99, two packs of 4ea alligator clips for $2.29 each, a kitchen cutting-board for $6.59 and a pack of nails for $1.29 (which I didn't end up using).  I grabbed a rat-tailed file from my toolbox, along with some drill bits.

Organize, minimize and strategize to maximize your fishing time in a float tube.

Organize: everything you take out on the water should have the same location each time.  I personally have two bags (right and left sides) and I place all of my tackle in the right-hand bag, and accessories in the left.  The accessories bag includes a stringer, pliers and other items I might want while holding the rod in my right hand.  The tackle side being on the right is great since the rod is usually across my lap when I need to change my rig.

Minimize: don’t try to take every piece of gear you own.  Less is more when you are out of the water.  I like to stock a small Plano box with just a few small split-shots, tippet line, a few dry flies and nymphs in different sizes/patterns, and a small variety of streamers.

Strategize: think ahead.  Setup your rig at the car.  Figure out what you are mostly going to try first and tie it on.  Any tricky to tie setups should be pre-built on dry land and stored so that the amount of time you spend with your line in/on the water is maximized.

Floating line with weight - even lots of weight - is no substitute for sinking line.  Trust me, I learned it the hard way.

I recently tried fishing for White Bass in a central California lake.  The fish were holding right on the bottom, probably gaurding nests, and I only had floating line with me.  I added weight and used heavy flies with my 7-weight rod with a 5-weight reel to help manage the heavy rig, and that part worked well.  What didn't work was that every cast lost about 20% of its distance due to the floating fly line.

So, to start - the cast:

Over time I have collected some tips about fishing small streams - creeks - like my local Piru Creek were I try to practice all of these suggestions.

The importance of keeping a good connection to your fly (or flies) is critical when nymphing.  Here I describe some quick do's and dont's for tandem rig nymphing.

Also check out this article on nymphing

The first cast made on a small stream will usually be the most productive - if you choose your spot carefully.

Trout want two main things in life; food and shelter.

Getting them both in the same place is ideal. In the photos below I mark shelter-only or food-only spots in yellow. The red (hot spots) have both.

I am certainly not an expert, but I have spoken to many of them, read their books and attended the occasional seminar.  What I have put down here is my top 5 list of things that have helped me.  If you too are trying to learn the art - I hope this helps.

Tandem Nymph Rigging - Nymphing for Beginners

Since it's refined to include only the methods that seem beginner specific (based on my newbie-ness), it's almost
impossible to give credit to those who probably deserve it.

Certainly Ed Engle, Jim Reid and Dave Whitlock inspired me in their own ways.