How do you attach your dropper ? Do you tie your tippet to the bend of the hook on your top fly ? Is there a better way ? Any instuctions would be much appricated
Fiddled with all of the rest and end up just tying to the bend. I catch a lot of fish, so it seems to work for me. Just a simple clinch knot like you used for the flies. I usually don’t drop farther than 18" for nymphs although I’ll drop as much as 30" if using a dry fly with a dry dropper. I do get technical with the dropper fly and how I attach it to the dropper tippet. I use a Duncan loop for most applications especially when the dropper is smaller than size #16.
Kelly
good info on that westfly link. i like to tie my droppers to the hook eye of the first fly. improved clinch and about 18"-24" of tippet and you’re good to go. i tie to the bend of the fly as well, but for some reason this tangles more for me than going through the eye.
sagellbean -
I tie the tippet for the trailing fly to the bend of the leading fly hook. Use a clinch knot. This works well for everything from tandems of big weighted stoneflies under an indicator to trailing a second dry fly behind another one.
Spacing kind of depends on the situation. Probably up to a couple feet with a tandem of dries. Down to maybe 6" when trailing an emerger below a dry. In some situations some separation seems to work best ( and is necessary when fishing a nymph deep under a dry ) but in others you want the fishy to see the trailing fly if it passes on the lead fly.
Tried tying the tippet for the trailing fly to eye of the hook a few times and didn’t care for that set up. Also, fishing smaller flies, it can be kind of difficult to get two pieces of tippet through the eye, especially if you crowd the eye of the hook while tying flies !! I’ve read about a bunch of other methods used by folks fishing several wets, but haven’t fished that kind of rig so don’t have any impressions on those methods.
John
check out some of the dropper fly rigging images here
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=dropper+fly+rigging&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi&safe=active
Most of the time I’ll just tie the dropper off the bend of the first hook. If the dropper is affecting the drift of the top fly too much and I’m not just using the top fly as an indicator, then I will leave a long tag on my tippet knot and tie the dry to that. Tangles up a bit more often, but allows for a more natural drift on both flies, and makes it easier to change the dry without having to redo the whole setup.
what is the duncan loop?
Hi,
I just leave the tag end of the upper (closer to the rod) piece of mono when tying a triple surgeon/blood knot in the leader and tie onto that. I’ll often (where allowed) fish 3 flies, with two droppers and one at the point (end).
- Jeff
When fishing rivers or Creeks, I will use a furled leader with 3’ to 5’ of Seaguar or P-Line fluoro in appropriate weight.
I will either use a tag of 6" up at least a foot from bottom fly, or I will tie off the eye.
On stillwater, I prefer the tag, but I like the Gamakatsu dropper beads:
http://www.gamakatsu.com/new_products/new_dropperbead.htm
I guess they would work on moving water also, I just always forget to use them.
OR, on stillwater, I take a 6’ to 8’ piece of fluoro, fold it in half with one side much longer. I put a loop in it and do the loop to loop to my fly line. Specially on sinking lines as a taper is not really required.
On this “Y” set up, I put the smaller fly first and bigger trailing so it looks like it is chasing.
This also works great for Hopper Dropper set-ups.
I second kglissmeyer, all the way!!:tieone:
It works best for me to tye it to the bend of the hook.
When looking at the video rockthief sent I found this; how to tye a dropper to the base of the hook, quick and dirty way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kMkJFHTeOg&feature=related
I don’t know this knot, but I will try it out next time on the water.
Droppers are a pain when tied to the hook either way. Droppers from a blood knot are better and a loop is by far the best way, IME&O.
The easiest way to tie a good loop is to make a loop in your tippet so the tippet makes a round loop and continues away just like it was originally pointed. The line should have two pieces of tippet running parallel to each other. Twist these two parallel runs of line around each other about 8 times, holding the center of the twisted runs.
Seperate the twisted runs to produce an “eye” shaped opening in the twisted section and run the loop through the hole. Wet the line and snug it up to form the loop. This stands the fly off the line enough to reduce tangling tremendously and allows the fly to run naturally.
The loop can also be made by tying an overhand knot (but do not snug it) then running the bitter end around the standing line about 8 times. Seperate the two runs about halfway through the twisted section and insert the loop through the eye formed.
To put the fly on the loop may require a little trick to get the doubled line through… Run a seperate piece of tippet through the eye, around the loop and back through the eye. Now pull the loop through the eye with helper. Run the loop around the fly and cinch it.
Sorry if the description is lacking; without pictures knots can be difficult to describe…
art