Fishing Forum

I fish year round, so I do my share of moving water, but I am a STILLWATER freak.
I also like to deep nymph and I am talking 5' to 30'.
We all pick up our own beliefs and it is based on what works for each of us.
Plus I have said it before, CONFIDENCE makes a big difference.

Now on to the topic, and I am talking with a floating line. I have and still do, on occasion attach the dropper off the bend of the leading hook. I have caught fish this way and on either hook, but I have to think, this effects the way the lead hook floats and I KNOW I catch more fish on the dropper. I also tie all my flies on with a surgeon's loop so they can more more freely AND I can use larger tippet on smaller flies.
So, then I got in the habit of attaching 3' of tippet on a 7 1/2' leader or my furled. I slide the lead fly on and slide it up to one foot of the connection. Make a surgeon's loop to secure the fly. I now hove 24" more the I tie the dropper at the end of (with a loop) So Both flies are connected at the eye.
The style I use the MOST, I tie a tag of 8" to the leader about 18" to 20" up from bottom and attach the dropper there, but I do it in reverse in that I have the BIGGER fly on the longer one and the smaller on the short.

Gamakatsu, has come out with "Dropper Beads". Right up my alley. They are a clear bead that slides on your leader, then you attach tippet and the knot keeps it from sliding off. Then there is a small hole in the side of the bead for a dropper. These things don't TANGLE. They float, but if you put a split shot above it, they sink nice and give you a Tullis Provo River Bouncer thingy.
Plus you can slide it up to change depth.....pretty cool.






FISH TECH carries them.
[signature]

so this new bead slide onto the leader correct.. and then you attach tippet to your leader.. and a dropper from the bead.. correct??

so my question is.. how do you get that bead over the "tippet" end of your furled leaders??

Ill have to check these bead thingys out.. lol. I can see a popper at the end of the tippet.. and a small nymph off the dropper.. :-)..

MacFly
[signature]

Hey flygoddess, speaking of deep nymphing I want to try something new this winter. During the early ice up at strawberry (when the fish are shallow) I want to try a stillwater nymph rig through the ice. I believe this setup would work great in order to have two different flies at different depths. Anyway, have you ever heard of indicator fishing through the ice? I saw one article by a guy who does it when I was searching google a few years back but now I can't find anything about fly fishing through the ice. Unconventional fly fishing, yes, but I think it would be fun to try. [cool]
[signature]

NO KIDDING Ghoti....Hummmmm, that could work. Wouldn't need a 9' rod though, in fact why couldn't you just use an ice fishing pole. I mean, the line doesn't need to float on the water and you have straight mono or fluoro in the water, so really don't need floating line....Hummmmm, maybe I will try walking on water[sly]
[signature]

Looks sweet. I wanna try them this winter on the "river" for some big fish.
[signature]

I will definitely try those beads. I was just fishing today and I thought about tying the "dropper" to the bend in the hook of the top fly, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It just doesn't seem right, although I know it works for a lot of people. I have always just tied a giant sized surgeon's loop in the end of the tippet, on the order of about 6 or 8 inches diameter, then cut it into 2 unequal lengths for the 2 flies. The top fly dropper is usually only about 2 or 3 inches long after tying the flies and clipping excess line. Very fast and simple to tie. But the bead thing sounds like something I really want to try. If it's too much fuss to mess with, I'm sure I won't bother using it much.
[signature]

Yeah, you wouldn't need a fly rod, but you don't need a fly rod for the provo river bounce rig either [cool]. I know it might sound a little taboo, but with a fly rod it would still be fly fishing and with a spinning rod it would be fishing with flies [shocked]. Disregarding the above technicalities the setup I think I am going to try would be a regular fly rod and I am going to have a leader built up to about 10 to 12 feet. I'll attach a small thingamabobber near the top of the leader and have a two fly setup similiar to what you are showing. I'll just lay the rod across a camping chair and wait for the indicator to twitch or go under. Wish me luck and I'll report back in a few months [laugh]
[signature]