Hello out there in fly tying land, I am new to this site and this is my first response. Fishing with a dropper off of a dry fly is really the only way I have fished. My fly fishing experience is limited as I have been at it for only one year. However, because my wife and I are retired and travel in our motorhome, I have had the opportunity to fish quite a few different streams in different states using this method. I live in Arizona, fished in Colorado for ten weeks this winter, Utah and Northern California last summer.
I use a dry fly for my surface, indicator fly, and a nymph pattern for the dropper tied off of the hook shank of the dry. Obviously, the dry fly has to be able to support the weight of the nymph pattern suspended from it's shank and this depends on the water you are fishing. In calm water a less bouyant dry can support more weight from the dropper, and if you apply floutant to the leader above the dry it will be able to support more weight from the nymph. I have not been lucky enough to experience any really great hatches during my short time as a fly fisherman, but I have found that even in times when there appears to be no hatch you will occationally get a rise and even a hookup with your surface fly. Even in Breckenridge Colorado this winter when my line guides were freezing up I got surface strikes and hookups on my dry. In this situation I think that it is most important to consider the actual drift of your dropper in relation to your indicator dry fly. The nymph is usually drifting somewhat slower than the indicator because the current at the bottom of the water column is slower than it is at the top. So make sure that you mend your line frequently to obtain the most natural drift for the nymph as possible. Also be sure that the nymph is bouncing along on or very near the bottom. Especially if the water is really cold and the fish are sluggish. They tend to not want to expend much energy in moving to take the fly. I found this to be especially true in Colorado this winter where the water was, many times, not many degrees above freezing. Sorry I rambled on so on this first post. Joe Leavitt ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 10:27 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Fishing with a dropper > You tie the leader tippet like normal to the eye of the hook, for the dropper you tie o the bend of the hook. One of the responses did sound as if you tied the main leader to the bend, thi swould be incorrect. > > John Ridderbos > > Good luck in the morning > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > >Thanks a lot for the fast responses guys! I think I'll give this a shot > >when I get off of work in the morning. > > > >Now you guys are saying to tie onto the bend of the dry. This again is > >probably self-explanatory, but do you mean to tie onto the actual bend of > >the hook rather than onto the eye of the dry fly's hook?? If so, how do > >you suggest I orient the line in relation to the hook bend so that I can > >achieve some sort of setting power if a fish takes the hook? I'm thinking > >I've got to be wrong about the way I'm reading what you all are saying, but > >if I'm right, I'm just having a little difficulty understanding the > >mechanics of how this could hook a trout. > > > >Again, thanks so much for your help on this! > > > >John Roth > > > > >
