Droppers

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Date: December 27, 2002 at 02:32:50
From: ken, [pool-64-223-38-62.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Droppers

Re: Droppers ?

Summer 2001

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Re: Droppers ?

From: Ken
Date: 13 Oct 2001
Time: 00:04:35
Remote Name: 64.223.19.233

Comments

Keep the flies at least eighteen inches apart. Never put the flies on the leader itself but always on the tag end of a surgeons knot the end that goes back towards the end of the tippet not the end that goes back towards the reel. I use a five turn knot as it does not break as often as a two three or four turn knot. The reason for not putting the fly on the shaft of the leader is that the fish cannot get the fly into their mouth when it is held in place by the tension on the leader either from a fish that is already hooked or from the tension of the other fly. This is not a theory I have experimented and watched fish try and try to grab a fly that was used as a dropper with one of the methods that have been described as useful for preventing tangles such as tying the leader to the bend of the hook or slipping the leader through the eye. It simply is not reliable as a hooking method. It must work sometimes but I don't trust it because I have watched fish become frustrated trying to get that fly and I have showed others the same thing happening too many times to lend any credence to those ways of rigging. Fish inhale a baitfish by opening their gills and drawing it into their mouth they do not grab a baitfish the way we would try to grab a ball. The water moves into their mouth and causes a vacuum it is expelled through their gills and the baitfish remains. The tag of the surgeons knot allows this to happen. I use a short dropper 3 to 4 inches from the knot to the fly. The fly lays along the leader and does not foul. I do believe that highly aggressive fish will be able to get a fly rigged trough the eye or to the bend into their mouth if that is the first fly they hit but that is drawing to an inside straight. The dropper lead works better. A ray's fly is the best all around dropper here in the northeast. It is absolutly amazing how many fish come to it. The size of the dropper is important and if there are large fish around it is best to clip the fly's point off because two big fish hooked is a sure break off. There are times when two flies will outfish a single fly so soundly that it is almost magical. There is something about multiple flies that grabs and moves fish when a single fly won't. Fishing with droppers is a traditional wet fly fishing technique much older than dry flies and nymph fishing. It is not accepted by the IGFA as a valid fly fishing world record qualifing method. Chumming is not a fly fishing technique but it is an accepted method of fishing with a fly rod for world records. I think that the rules should be written for fly rod fishing with fly rod techniques. Imagine chumming for world record brown trout? I always use a point fly that is larger than the droppers because it casts with grace. Smaller flies on the point sometimes are whipped around but larger flies are much more stable. Three flies on droppers work better than two and they are not hard to cast as long as you allow the backcast to unfold and push the cast rather than snap it. In the spring a good choice of flies is a clam worm fly, a shrimp fly and a silverside fly. It covers most of the bases and tells you right away what the fish ae feeding on. Droppers are a good tool and an old one with a solid history of being very effective.

Last changed: November 05, 2001

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