Often when you are nymphing a pool, you may not notice but you are mending in almost the exact same spot on every one of your drifts. Typically, this is once your flies are out, directly in front of you. One thing I try and encourage my clients to do is to get their mend out of the way at the start of the drift. It may be a little tougher to mend when your flies are upstream of you, but if you throw one big mend at the start of your drift, it will get your flies sinking quicker and they will then be deeper throughout your drift. This will also help you avoid mending directly on top of the fish.
When nymphing a run, I usually have myself set up straight across from the fish I see or the most likely holding water. This is often the same spot where I see most people mending their line to correct their drift. My advice here is to anticipate your mend. If you find yourself having to mend on every cast, go ahead and get your mend out of the way early on in your drift. This will give you a better, deeper drift and you will not have to deal with fish spooking as a result of you mending right on top of them. It will also help you avoid missing those eats that seem to happen right when you are in the middle of mending. Anticipate if you are going to need a mend in your drift and then get it out of the way!
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