How to fish with a dropper?

[CaptainT16]

I am planning a trip to Bennett Springs this next week and wanted to try a dropper. I have actually never tried it and wondered, what's the best way to set this up? Do you just get a big fly (size 8) or something that size and attach a piece of tippet to the second fly? Like I say, I've never tried it but have heard people talk about it all the time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

[Thom]

I fish with a dropper two ways. Both are effective but require different methods.

1. Tie a larger dry or attractor fly in the conventional way to your leader. elk hair caddis or other floating fly that can be treated with floatant act as a marker to a smaller zebra midge, scud, or smaller offerig. The Caddis will act as a sort of indicator but don't be surprised if you sometimes catch as many on the dry as the dropper fly. The dropper is tied to the bottom of the turn of the hook of the first fly not the eye. If there is any hesitation of the dry or movement at all be sure to set the hook. To be effective you must keep the slack between the first and second fly or the fish will spit it out. Tie the second fly on with smaller leader about 12 to 18 inches below the first.

2. Tie two flies as above but place on on top that is larger or will attract attention. I ofter have good success with a multicolored or peach egg fly and then something like a midge, hairs ear, scud again below the first. I have observed the bows noseing the upper fly and then swimming off to the second to suck it in. With this method I place as small of an indicator as I can 6 to 18 inches above the first fly. Again look for the indicator to stop, bearly bob, or move in unuaual manner. Many times it will never go under but set the hook on any movement.

Both mentods can be fished in a dead float being careful to mend the line so it does not drag the flies but rather they float naturally. You may also bearly lift your rod to twitch the line ever so slightly. The least the better. Often just after the twitch an echo twitch comes back. This is a slight strike that can hook the fish by lifting the rod until the set is aquired.

Good luck. You will really enjoy this mehtod.

[Thom]

Captian:

The following is a quote from a previous thread. Try going to search and typing in dropper and then go down and hit perform search for more of the same. Some of the guys on this forum are experts at this type of fishing.

Bleeding Shiner

Group: Members

Posts: 6

Joined: 19-July 07

Member No.: 3,760

You may have been short on luck because the midge was to high up in the water column. You said you caught most of your fish in very shallow water? The thing with midges is although they are an important fish food,they are tiny little insects that are pretty inconspicuous, there are lots of them, and a fish usually won't go out of it's way to hit one. So you need to get the midge as close to the fish as possible. One technique that I have had a lot of luck with on all sorts of streams is fishing a midge as a dropper behind a beadhead attractor nynph such as a #16-18 copper john. You may not get a strike on the nymph, but being more noticeable, it peaks the fish's curiosity and when it comes in for a closer look it often hits the midge. This is also a good way to get the midge on or right above the bottom. You can use a strike indicator, but the weight of the nymph helps in detecting strikes. Give this a try sometime. Hope this helps.

Try different depths until finding where the fish are holding.

[Terry Beeson]

There are several dropper rigs and methods you can use. The "top" fly can be a dry used as an indicator or can ride in front of the "bottom" fly in the water column. The top fly can be a bottom dweller with a mid column fly following.

You can tie tippet to the bend in the top fly hook and attach a dropper, or you can use a swivel, or you can tie a piece of tippet above the top fly knot, or you can tie on the top fly and leave an extra long (12-24 inch) tag in the knot and use that for the dropper fly.

I guess I'm trying to say the possibilities are somewhat endless...

[CaptainT16]

Thanks for all the great and helpful information. I will definitely have to give this a try next week when I make it out. Thanks once again!

[Thom]

As important as how you rig at Bennett if the water is as clear as it has been reported be sure to use small leader. I would use 7X for starters. A little harder to tie for me but when it gets tough it is worth the effort.

If there is some chop on the water 6x might be OK.

Invest in a spool of good leader Rio, Orvis, etc.

Give up a report when you return.

[John Berry]

I frequently fish droppers. The way I rig them is that I tie the tippet on with a blood knot. I leave the tag with the larger diameter on and i tie one of the flies to it. With this method you could also fish three or more flies. I generally use it for soft hackles but have also used it for dries and nymphs.

[WebFreeman]

John, how long is the tag end. Do you tie extra long to have enough room?

[Thom]

John:

That is interesting.

I used to tie to the tag end also and have seen most of the illustrations tieing to the bend of the hook. I thought that that could cause interference with hook ups on the upper fly so I changed from tieing to the longer tag end. What do I know?

I am going to be at Taney next week and you have convinced me to go back to my old method of tying a tag end on. Acually I really thought it was a better way but the argument that tieing to the bottom of the first hook was it would give better action to the second fly. It really seems to me that tying to the tag end would give better action like you imply.

I will try both ways next week. After all the fun of fishing is to see what works and what don't. It is great to hear different opinions and methods to try in fooling the fish.

Thanks for sharing.

[John Berry]

I generally like to tie the blood knot with a pretty long tag. I go for about four inches. If you do not have at least that amount of material, you will have a bit of difficulty forming your improved clinch knot. Once you form the knot and trim the tag, the fly will be pretty close to the leader. For me the big thrill is to hook up a double. Each fish going in a differant direction. That is a blast. I first started fishing doubles when Bream fishing and just changed over to trout.