leader

[jalama]

fished this week-end 3 days catching very large coppernose hybrid and few shellcrackers. my fishing companion is not a purist, he will fish with anything, but this time we were flyfishing only. first 2 days he outfished me 8 or 10 fish to one and i am supposed to be the flyfisherman? i was using strike indicator with untapered flurocarbon as suggested on some earlier post. late on the second day i realized he was using a least 9 feet of the untapered fc and no indicator. i changed to same and began holding my own late 2nd day and outfishing him the third day. i was suprised at how well the long p line fluorocarbon cast but not really sure why it made such a drastic difference.
suggestions???

[Ray]

Was you strike indicator too close to the flies keeping them off of the bottom?? I use twice the depth of the water for positioning my indicator.

[CoachBob]

What Ray said OR your strike indicator may not be sensitive enough. Try using a popper with rubber legs as your indicator. If the legs move (and they will with the slightest nudge on the fly) it is a strike.

[tailingloop]

Most likely the fly is getting into a different zone without the indicator versus with it.

One thing with an indicator is that if your leader is supple enough to hang straight down from the indicator you have absolute control over the depth the fly fishes at provided you wait long enough for it to sink. It is much mor difficult to be certain of the depth without an indicator.

With the side by side comparisons with my angling friends if the non indicator rig is working better then it is usually because the indicator is set so that the fly fishes too deep. Sometimes it is the other way around.

[Fly Goddess]

Was he using a longer leader? Sounded like you are referring to the fact he had 9'. I have fished the same water next to my husband using same fly and line, but one does better than the other because of the leader length. Whatever the situation, sounds like that longer leader and the absence of indicator put the fly in the zone. Does make it nice with two people fishing to find that zone