Dropper Flies

[dsaavedra]

ok thanks...i like the first one best. then maybe the second one. i dont really like the third one.

[Gemrod]

You won't like the second one. I don't anyway. I tried it, and watched the first fly.....the one with the dropper tied through it's eye....and it behaved horribly in the water! I like the other two and caught my biggest fish on the first one method.

Charles Meck is coming out with a book in September titled something like "Double Your Catch With Tandem Rigs"

[Normand]

heres a new book on rigging. dont know whats in it as i dont own it.

http://www.amatobooks.com/Merchant2/mer ... w_Releases

[OldBaldGuy]

Until this year, I've always used Normand's "Method #1," and have had good luck with it, but I'm looking at making a change this year.

Since becoming a convert to furled leaders this winter, and because my new furled leaders have loops at both ends, I'm wondering if I can tie a double surgeon's loop in my tippet, and, after connecting it loop-to-loop to my leader, tie my hopper or popper to an intentionally long tag end of the surgeon's loop. Any of you furled leader fanatics ever try it this way? It sounds easy, so experience tells me there must be something wrong with my idea.

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

I've used Normad's method 1 when fishing a nymph off a dry. "Truck and trailer" is very common here in NZ, and some big fish are routinely caught on both the dry and the nymph.

This method is also used quite often in very fast water if you want to get a small nymph down deep quickly. Replace the dry with a heavy nymph that will get the rig down deep. Then, tie on a small unweighted nymph, and it gets pulled down with the bomb. Quite often the fish it taken on the smaller nymph, which wouldn't make it down deep enough in the fast current.

However, if fishing a team of wee wets, I use Micropteris method. Slow down your cast, open your loops, and typically cast a shortest line out and across and let out more line during the drift. I've been doing a lot of spider fishing the last year or so, and this is my standard set up these days. One thing I will warn you about though, if you do tangle things up, you will save heaps of time by cutting off the flies when untangling the bird's nest and retieing them if the leader is not ruined. I've tied a 6" section of 20lbs mono to my fly line for loop-to-loop connections with my leaders.

In either case, be careful when unhooking a fish. The first time I caught a fish on a 3 fly rig I unhooked the fish, which then jumped out of my hand causing one of the other flies to impale into my thumb. The 3rd fly, however, caught the trout in the tail, and so as it tried to swim away, the hook in my thumb was getting pulled on! Fortunately it was only small, and I was able to unhook myself and the fish without too many additional problems.

- Jeff

[MuddlerMinnow]

When I've tied droppers, I've used the surgeon's knot method. Tying to the bend (Method 1) seems easier, but if you do this with hooks that have the barbs mashed down will the dropper slip off the first fly?

[Whitefish]

Re: dropper slipping off a barbless hook. Up here (Manitoba) we've had barbless regulations for years and I've never had a problem. If you think about it, all the forces (casting, fish, snag) take the knot to the back of the bend of the hook.
As a precaution, I create a full loop (one extra pass) around the hook before I start to tie the knot (improved clinch or trilene), but I'm not sure that it makes all that much difference...TIM
PS. Great thread. Learned a ton.

[MuddlerMinnow]

Great, thank you Tim.