DG and SilverMallard,

Overthinking? Maybe.

I rarely fish a location where I can get 30-60' of line out on the water. If I have to fish with that much line out, I'll follow your advice.

The point about the line being attached to the fly being the most artificial part of the whole set up is a good one. Having said that, I think you still want to minimize the appearance of the fly being unnaturally attached to something.

But I do think you're making somewhat the same point I was. There is no general rule, and you want to develop a range of methods that you can use in different situations. Some might involve the use of strike indicators and some might not. I think you said so yourself.