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Thread: Strike Indicators or not?

  1. #1
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    Default Strike Indicators or not?

    I recently watched a trout video called "Feeding Lies." One thing I hadn't appreciated before watching this video was how complex subsurface currents can be. They can actually go in the opposite direction of the surface current! The trout actually face downstream!

    I think such complex conditions might be more common in the rocky, small water freestoners we fish here in the east. I mean, it would be nice to fish big water sometimes, but you work with what you've got.

    The light bulb that went off for me was that a nymph can't be moving naturally under a strike indicator when the subsurface current is radically different than the surface current.

    So there might be a real reason to fish without a strike indicator -- not just that it's more of a challenge. When the subsurface currents are complex, you can get a more natural drift and be more effective.

    Think there's anything to this?

  2. #2
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    you know, there could be something to it.

    i fish without an indicator, mostly because the fish i go after are spooky, most of the time. whenever ive used an indicator, i have caught noticably fewer and smaller fish. i thought they had become "wise" to what an indicator was and just closed up. but considering the waters i primarily fish, the theory makes sense. with several different surface currents at any time, it is certainly expected to have differing under-currents, and perhaps it is this causing the fish to turn down nymphs when using an indicator.

    definately a good point, and something to consider when im nymphing.

  3. #3
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    I saw this video at a NJ TU meeting a couple of months ago. But it really didn't hit me until I watched Joe Humphries nymph without an indicator at the Somerset Fly fishing show last week. On video, of course.

  4. #4
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    I'll tell you what, I've seen a few posts on this board but what you got going here without a doulbt right on the money.

  5. #5
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    John W, what a good post! Light bulbs lighting up here, too. Just makes so much sense to me. I never use indicators (AKA: Bobbers) mainly because I just hate casting those things and catch more than my share without them. Maybe I'd catch more if I used them, don't really know. Anyhow, thanks for the good post. Should get lots of discussion.
    Crackleback (Bob)

  6. #6
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    Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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    Jon,

    Whenever I talk to people about indicators I always answer this way, " Only use them if you want to catch fish." Honestly, they aren't strike indicators as much as they are depth and drift regulators. On 90% of the rivers I nymph, they provide me a way of regulating the depth of the nymphs I'm fishing. They also allow me to fish the nymphs at the exact feeding lane of the trout. Trout aren't always feeding on the very bottom of the water table. There are times they feed near the top 25% of the water table, and getting the fly to them requires an indicator to suspend them.


    ------------------
    Jude
    Small flies work best. Elephants eat peanuts.
    www.customflys.com

  7. #7
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    Tennessee
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    I never use strike indicators and fish nymphs about 95% of the time. One of my friends who fishes with me at times always uses a strike indicator and usually 2 droppers. We both catch our share of fish and we both enjoy our ways of fishing. My years of bass tournaments were spent fishing small leadhead jigs with curly tail grubs in 25 to 30 feet of water and I developed a good feel for bites plus constantly watching my line for any bites. I think that is why I usually fish nymphs and do very well with them without strike indicators. I have tried to use indicators and do not like them.

    ------------------
    Warren
    Warren
    Fly fishing and fly tying are two things that I do, and when I am doing them, they are the only 2 things I think about. They clear my mind.

  8. #8
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    Actually, I wasn't trying to post about whether strike indicators are good or bad. I think the best anglers have an array of techniques that they can adapt to whatever fishing situation they encounter.

    The popular thinking about nymphing is that strike indicators catch more fish, but that there are a few purists who stick with the traditional methods because they prefer them.

    It's interesting to me that strike indicators might not be the best method all the time, and that there's a reason for that.

    If you're nymphing rough water where the currents are complex, you might be better off without one. So learning how to nymph in the traditional way should be something you want to add to your arsenal of methods.

  9. #9
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    Western NY/ Finger Lakes Area
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    JonW

    An excellent post ! And it should provoke further disscussion about nymph fishing, and further thought.
    Tom Rosenbauer wrote an Orvis introductory to fly fishing book that hinted at just such a concept; again, most attention is given to currents when dry fly fishing, but not necessarily to sub-surface nymphing.
    I find most of my nymphing is done with a 'tight line'and 'high sticking' (Leisering). Though I have used indicators, I find that I have had more success without them.
    On the surface, these current variations are most evident and called "eddys", is there a name for sub-surface current variations ?

    Dadflyer

  10. #10
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    Default

    Great topic!
    I'm no expert on the fishing side of this, but I would guess that if you are using a strike indicator to regulate the depth of the nymph like Jude, the issue becomes less important as your depth lessens and you approach the surface. As you approach the bottom, the currents become more confused from reaction to the bottom. Wouldn't the size of your indicator(drag) come into play as well?

    I find myself nymphing on a downstream swing often, so I'm able to feel the take pretty well, but I haven't yet developed the feel for nymphing upstream without an indicator.

    To get a feel for all the currents in a river, a great way is to actually swim in one...preferably one with lots of eddies and even some mild rapids - swim on the surface and then swim the same line subsurface, go into and out of eddies, feel the down pressure on a swirly eddie line... You'd really be amazed at how powerful some of the sub-surface currents can be in even a "mild" river.

    Charlie

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