Droppers

I love them!
Do you use them, folks? When? Where? Favorite combination?
Mine:
1-MadamX-Prince nymph
2-Bomber-Hare’s Ear Wet

Regards,

Rocketfish

Sometimes but it always ends up in a tangle, so I shift to one fly.

Any hints, stiffer monofilament mabe, … how do you do it?

Regards,
Thorarinn

I always fish at least 2 flies when legal. Sometimes 3 and I have fished 4.

Everything depends on where I am fishing and how. I do like to have a streamer as an anchor fly and a wet or nymph above with another nymph above that. I can dead drift, swing and strip all on the same cast fishing 3 different depths. I fish a lot of new water all the time and helps a lot with covering ground. It also make me fish out every cast and A LOT of fish come from places you would never think of fishing.

Flyrodde,

Can you tell us more how you do this? I like to fish smallish nymphs (like size 16 PTN) and I have a hankering for trying out some soft hackles. Can you expand on how you would do this? Distance between flies… weight… what order?

I fish with some sort of foam fly with a midge dropper off of it from 8 to 16 inches below.

Works well for bluegill. I tie off the hook shank of the foam fly for the midge.
Workes better for me than trying to leave the tag end from the hook eye.
Might be my casting inability.

Rick

Hey Guys, yes I almost always fish with more than one fly, normaly a dry with a nymph on a 3 to 4 foot tippet tied straight of the bend of the dry. but also 2 nymph rigs, a heavy nymph first with a smaller unwieghted nymph on a 16 to 20 inch tippet again tied straight off the bend of the heavy nymph. The heavy nymph should be just heavy enough to get to the depth you wish to fish.
Sometimes when fishing still waters I will fish 3 flys about 5 feet apart and will tie these on more traditional dropper rigs. I.E. tie each 6 foot section of leader together with a triple surgeons loop and leave the tag end long enough to tie a fly on, normaly heavyist fly on the point (furthest away from you) a nice wet fly on the middle and maybe a floater or a wee wet on the top dropper. When casting this rig it will cut down on tangles if you open your casting loop slightly but if it is windy or you get too many tangles then switch to tying each section to the hook bend of the previous fly and you will still catch fish but will not spend as much time untangling your leader.
If you normaly only fish one fly, give the 2 fly rig a go and let us know how you do, I would bet that you catch more fish!
All the best.
Mike.

There is a myrid of ways to fish multpile flies. Different knots, distances and orders.

A simple rig I use is a straight piece of 1x to 3x depending on fish size, water type and clairity 4 to 6 feet long. I tie on a piece 1x to 2x lighter using an orvis tipper knot ( http://www.orvis.com/orvis_assets/files/index.html ) I tie on a small nymph to the top tag about 4 to 6 inches long and trim the other close. 1.5 to 3 feet lower I tie on another piece of the same size tippet again using an orvis tippet knot. To the top tag I will tie on another nymph or wet fly and to the end of the leader 1.5 to 3 feet away from the wet I will tie on a streamer.

I cast upstream and let the whole mess sink and fish in as a dead drift until it it starts to swing. At the end I let it fish on a dangle until I find my next spot to cast, strip in a bit and cast using the current to load my rod. This setup does not lend itself well to false casing, but if treated with respect will not tangle often. I like to place the flies in that order because on the dead drift all 3 fish, then on the swing the wet and stream fish most and the nymph is out of sight of fish in the swing path. On the dangle the streamer fishes best without having the wet and nymph spook fish to the side or below the streamer.

Rocket -

I’ll usually fish a dropper off the bend of a dry unless the fish are so obviously taking flies on the surface that the dropper is not only a waste, but can be a pain. Also fish double nymph rigs, two big ones as often as a big one trailed by a smaller one. Not really into three fly rigs, but have tried them a time or two.

Some really interesting ideas already posted - maybe a bit too much for my style, and my casting abilities.

The dry will be my best observation of what the fish are taking, or my best guess at that, and the dropper, if the fish are high in the water column will be a cripple or emerger pattern not too far down from the dry. If there is not obvious taking going on high in the water column, I’ll use a dry on the chance it will pick up an occasional fish, and tie the nymph off the bend with a long enough tippet to reach the bottom.

With double nymph rigs fished under an indicator, I like both flies to be on the bottom, and with a foot to two feet between them, it helps cover the irregularities in the streambed.

Too many possible combinations and too many fishing situations to have a favorite - but I really do like a soft hackle pheasant tail emerger trailing a BWO dry, or a small midge larva or pupa trailing a griffith gnat, not too far down into the water column. A big brown rubber legs stonefly nymph trailing a smaller golden stonefly nymph down on the bottom has been a great combination for me all this year.

John