Rigging Droppers

[sodajones]

I haven't fished with a dropper much, but when I have, I have a little trouble attaching the dropper. What I have tried is rigging a nymph on a length of tippet with a perfection knot on the end and attempted to tie this to the line in front of the eye of the dry fly.

Any tips, tricks, new techniques?

[Jim Hatch]

Hey Soda,

Heck, I don't know that there is a right
or wrong way to do it. Just preferences.
Mine is to attach a bit of tippet to the
hook bend of my dry fly with an improved
clinch knot and tie my dropper flie to the
other end. It works well for me and is how
I often fish here for gills and redears.
Warm regards, Jim

[lthrnk]

I'm with Mr. Jim on this, most of the time I rig them the same way. Another way that I use, depending on the sie of the flys I'm using, is to leave a very long tag end in the tippet and after tying on the upper fly just tie on the dropper to the long tag end.

[Fly Goddess]

While what Jim Hatch has said is great when fishing a nymph off of a dry, when fishing two nymphs, I gotta think that coming off the bend affects how the first nymph floats. I know people have been doing it for years and I have tried it, but always catch fish on the dropper-never the first. Still water I use a "Y" connection, but in rivers, I tie in a very long piece of tippet, thread the first fly to about a foot of where the knot connecting tippet to the leader and use a surgeons loop on the fly, then I attach the second(dropper) to the end(surgeon's loop) that way both flies move freely.


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she who dies with the most toy's wins.

[ducksterman]

Seems to me the dry with dropper is usually tied with an improved clinch on the bend....a knot I really don't like...perhaps that's why I don't use it...the technique.... much...I'm just not comfortable when I'm targeting larger fish.

I know the question was dry with a wet dropper but I would mention that for steelheading we used to fish two wets ...tying the upper fly to a length of the leader end of a nail knot left long...that is stronger than the tippet which has the trailing fly.

Now I seem to be fishing a single fly mostly....

[Buddy Sanders]

Soda,

No 'right/wrong' here.

I do it most often as Jim does, mainly because it's fast and easy and works fine. You can use any type of terminal knot you want to tie the tippet to the bend. I prefer the Palomar, bacause it's sronger, then I use the weaker clinch to tie the dropper fly on. That way the if it gets hung, the fly breaks at the knot, leaving the tippet in place.

Another option is to use a uni knot to attach the length of tippet on the leader above the dry. This connection will 'slide' with a bit of pull up the leader, so that you can change the dry fly if you want without having to rety the dropper tippet.

It's great if you are using a really high floating dry (I tie some with foam bodies for this) that won't be negaively effected by the weight of the dropper pulling on the eye.

This set up does foul easier than tying to the hook bend.

I also tie some flies with built in 'dropper loops' of monofilament tied in below the tails. This gives a solid tie in point for the dropper and doesn't adversly effect hooking on the lead fly. Less fouling with this set up as well.

All work, and I find that I use different ones for different situations.

Good Luck!

Buddy

[fish4trout]

I always tie off the bend of the top fly for nymps and dries. I have tried the other ways mentioned but I always seem to get tangled up. When nymphing I do catch more on the dropper but I do catch fish on the top fly as well. Usually I am using a weighted nymph on top as a well disguised weight with a small 18 or 20 nymph or midge as the dropper. A size 16 bead head prince is a good choice for the top fly becasue it seems to work everywhere I fish.

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Born to fish forced to work.
Alan

[sodajones]

I sure appreciate all the fast responses and great information.

Some of the responses really expanded my thinking on what you can do with multiple flies.

Thanks!

[Panman]

Knots have always been my bane - expecially with the dropper fly. I tried tying a length of leader on the upper fly using a clinch knot only to have the leader come off because the fly was barbless. I tried making a loop but that ended up weakening the leader too much. Then I found a knot called the Pitzen. What I do is tie the upper fly using this note and leave a long tag end - say 18 inches and then tie the dropper fly on the tag end. This has worked great for me. According to the web site the pitzen has a 95% knot strength compared to 65% for a clinch knot.

Tim Anderson
[url=http://www.nicoh.com/mcclmatt/flyfish/Resources/pitzen.html:0b09d]http://www.nicoh.com/mcclmatt/flyfish/Resources/pitzen.html[/url:0b09d]

[Plain Old Jim]

Just coincidence. I fished Becker Lake last week for the first time and didn't really know what to fish with. I tied on a KP Bugger Dark on the end of my tippet. I then tied a on Firebugger....(only about 8" down...just an orange bugger) onto THE BEND of the KP Bugger. I caught a very nice fighting rainbow on the KP Bugger....the first fly. My pvc pipe broke in my pontoon float tube so I went to shore....it was getting windy anyway. On the way to shore I caught another rainbow on the other fly....the FIREBUGGER. Soooooo......it just so happens I got one on each. One on the fly with another tied onto it's bend....and one on the last fly.

Just FYI

Gem