skiltonian
Member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2007
- Messages
- 601
Fly fishers all aspire to catch trout using dry flies so that there is a visual attachment to the hooking of the fish. It just feels more deliberate than swinging flies while searching for fish through a piece of water. This visual aspect should not and is not unique to only part of the dry fly fishing experience. Many techniques and fishing styles include the ability of strike detection to know when it’s time to set the hook. Additionally, surface activity is not always an occurrence throughout a day or over the full season. At these times, the dry fly purist will fish attractor patterns to try to get a fish to rise and effective fisherman will fish subsurface nymph patterns where presenting the fly at the speed or slower than the surface water is flowing is the ideal approach. To be effective at nymph fishing, strike detection is required and can be achieved through many methods, which will be discussed below, all which entail something to alert the angler that a strike has occurred. These tools are called strike indicators and can range from using the fly line to a “bobber”, or otherwise referred to as a strike indicator.
A strike indicator is anything that floats and is visible by the angler to detect when a fish has taken their offering. When explaining the use of a strike indicator, common questions do arise. These questions always consist of how far should the fly be from the strike indicator and how much weight or when is split shot needed. To address the first question – it depends. To address the second question – it depends. Accomplished anglers know when to apply general standards to their situation and then continue to tweak their application until success is achieved. In general, the length between the fly and indicator will dictate how deep the fly will go. This gives the angler great control in achieving the proper depth and the distance should always start at about one and a half times the distance actually needed, then modified until the desired drift results in a fish on. If it is unknown how deep the water is, start at a certain distance, say two feet, and increase until you start catching the bottom – then reduce again. Moreover, the distance should be increased and/or decreased as you work the piece of water to locate fish at difference depths. As far as weight is concerned, it has two purposes. The obvious objective is to get the rig to sink. The faster you need it to sink, as in pocket water applications, the more weight you’ll use so long as it is supported by the buoyancy of the indicator. The second objective and less understood, is to aid in tracking the indicator. This sinks the indicator just enough to stay on the surface without being affected by light wind or surface swirls in the current and also makes the indicator more sensitive to strikes.
Strikes indicators as viewed by many are a foam bright colored ball (a “bobber” although not red and white) that you attach to your leader, but strike indicators can go beyond this and include the use of yarn soaked in floatant, a dry fly, and even the end of the fly line itself.
Giving yourself the advantage of detecting a strike as soon as possible has proven to many the effectiveness of fishing with an indicator and everyone has their preference on what works best for their situation at hand. The "bobbers" style indicators can be made from cork, foam, or lately plastic like a thingambobber. Regardless of the chosen style or material of manufacture, strike indicators need to suspend a potentially weighted nymph rig and be visible, whether it’s on flat or choppy water. Color is dependent on the manufacture and usually some shade of fluorescent. Generally speaking, orange is the most visible but chartreuse works better in low light like during the early and late times of the day or when fishing on cloudy, rainy days.
The beauty of fishing the bobber style indicators is that they allow you the most versatility in that they can be moved around on the leader, giving you a quick way to change the depth of water at which you are presenting including moving to different pieces of water without re-rigging. To rig up using a “bobber” indicator, all that is needed is a straight piece of heavier monofilament which the indicator goes up and down on, then a smaller diameter of tippet (usually fluorocarbon) between the fly and knot attaching it to the heavier mono. A small swivel aids in attaching the two pieces of line due to the difficulty of attaching extreme different diameters of line. The swivel also acts as an anchor for any split shot needed so the weight will never slide down the line – too close to the fly.
Because of their high buoyancy and visibility, these "bobber" style indicators can and do spook fish. As a general rule, if you can see the fish, you do not need to use a strike indicator. But here it comes again, it could depend. If you need to use a heavily weighted fly in order to sink quickly, using a “bobber” style indicator will help from the fly sinking all the way to the bottom and getting snagged up, as in the case where you are fishing over a heavily wooded bottom.
In my observations, yarn soaked in floatant for a strike indicator is popular among anglers. It can take a sometime to attach the yarn to the leader as there are many methods to follow, but it can be easiest to tie the yarn to the leader using a knot that you would use to attach a fly and then just trim the tag ends where then the yarn can be trimmed to the size required. Any fly shop should have the right kind of yarn and most sell pre-rigged yarn indicators with a rubber ring attached to the yarn to allow easy attachment to the leader.
Using a dry fly as an indicator, is the most effective when applicable to the fishing situation at hand, because you are essentially fishing at different levels of the water. A quick Google search will result in an article I wrote for the Federation of Fly Fishers entitled “Double Up!” by Keith P. Skilton which discusses fishing two or more flies at once. The drifts, techniques, application of weight, length of tippet between the dry fly and dropper fly are all the same as fishing a “bobber” style indicator. Dry fly selection could match the hatch or be an attractor fly. Floatant added to the dry fly and leader (sometime referred to as a greased line approach) will aid in keeping the top fly afloat.
The minimalist approach of providing strike detection is to watch the end of your fly line, as if you were to rely on feel alone - you may wind up setting the hook too late resulting in missed fish. This would still be called the greased line approach but a two fly rig may or may not be used. The technique to use in this approach is to apply floatant to the leader down to a point where you no longer want the line to float to allow the fly to sink to a certain depth. As an example, you are casting upstream to a fish taking bugs just below the surface as indicated by the rise ring in the water; you would grease the leader down to about six inches above the fly. The fly of choice could be an unweighted nymph to match the bugs coming off and with the greased leader approach; it would sink to about two thirds the distance you left ungreased, or about four inches. This would present the fly above or right at the fish. Another example could be a pure “searching for fish” approach of swinging flies whether it be in a spey fishing situation or just working the banks on a downstream approach. It should be noted that it can be difficult to see the end of you fly line in choppy fast water or when it’s real windy. If this is the case, a highly visible leader line section of about six to twelve inches could be used at the connection between the fly line and leader to assist in visibility but usually putting on a strike indicator is more effective. Nymph fly lines are also sold that already contain a very visible front section of the fly line.
The last form of strike detection is to literally watch the fish take the fly or what is referred to as sight fishing. Any of the above detectors could be used to allow you to control the depth your fly will sink and sight fishing requires you to be able to see the fish, part of the fish and its reactions, and/or your fly. Additionally, you need to be able to cast far enough upstream to allow the fly to sink to the fishes depth. Usually the sun has to be out in order for you to track the movement of the fly but brighter flies, say an egg imitation or gold bead head, could be used in shady conditions. Even if you can’t see the fly, you should set the hook if you see the fish react differently.
Reaction time on the angler’s part is critical to their success. Fishing strike indicators, regardless of type, will help an angler gain the instinctual knowledge of when to set the hook resulting in more fish caught.
A strike indicator is anything that floats and is visible by the angler to detect when a fish has taken their offering. When explaining the use of a strike indicator, common questions do arise. These questions always consist of how far should the fly be from the strike indicator and how much weight or when is split shot needed. To address the first question – it depends. To address the second question – it depends. Accomplished anglers know when to apply general standards to their situation and then continue to tweak their application until success is achieved. In general, the length between the fly and indicator will dictate how deep the fly will go. This gives the angler great control in achieving the proper depth and the distance should always start at about one and a half times the distance actually needed, then modified until the desired drift results in a fish on. If it is unknown how deep the water is, start at a certain distance, say two feet, and increase until you start catching the bottom – then reduce again. Moreover, the distance should be increased and/or decreased as you work the piece of water to locate fish at difference depths. As far as weight is concerned, it has two purposes. The obvious objective is to get the rig to sink. The faster you need it to sink, as in pocket water applications, the more weight you’ll use so long as it is supported by the buoyancy of the indicator. The second objective and less understood, is to aid in tracking the indicator. This sinks the indicator just enough to stay on the surface without being affected by light wind or surface swirls in the current and also makes the indicator more sensitive to strikes.
Strikes indicators as viewed by many are a foam bright colored ball (a “bobber” although not red and white) that you attach to your leader, but strike indicators can go beyond this and include the use of yarn soaked in floatant, a dry fly, and even the end of the fly line itself.
Giving yourself the advantage of detecting a strike as soon as possible has proven to many the effectiveness of fishing with an indicator and everyone has their preference on what works best for their situation at hand. The "bobbers" style indicators can be made from cork, foam, or lately plastic like a thingambobber. Regardless of the chosen style or material of manufacture, strike indicators need to suspend a potentially weighted nymph rig and be visible, whether it’s on flat or choppy water. Color is dependent on the manufacture and usually some shade of fluorescent. Generally speaking, orange is the most visible but chartreuse works better in low light like during the early and late times of the day or when fishing on cloudy, rainy days.
The beauty of fishing the bobber style indicators is that they allow you the most versatility in that they can be moved around on the leader, giving you a quick way to change the depth of water at which you are presenting including moving to different pieces of water without re-rigging. To rig up using a “bobber” indicator, all that is needed is a straight piece of heavier monofilament which the indicator goes up and down on, then a smaller diameter of tippet (usually fluorocarbon) between the fly and knot attaching it to the heavier mono. A small swivel aids in attaching the two pieces of line due to the difficulty of attaching extreme different diameters of line. The swivel also acts as an anchor for any split shot needed so the weight will never slide down the line – too close to the fly.
Because of their high buoyancy and visibility, these "bobber" style indicators can and do spook fish. As a general rule, if you can see the fish, you do not need to use a strike indicator. But here it comes again, it could depend. If you need to use a heavily weighted fly in order to sink quickly, using a “bobber” style indicator will help from the fly sinking all the way to the bottom and getting snagged up, as in the case where you are fishing over a heavily wooded bottom.
In my observations, yarn soaked in floatant for a strike indicator is popular among anglers. It can take a sometime to attach the yarn to the leader as there are many methods to follow, but it can be easiest to tie the yarn to the leader using a knot that you would use to attach a fly and then just trim the tag ends where then the yarn can be trimmed to the size required. Any fly shop should have the right kind of yarn and most sell pre-rigged yarn indicators with a rubber ring attached to the yarn to allow easy attachment to the leader.
Using a dry fly as an indicator, is the most effective when applicable to the fishing situation at hand, because you are essentially fishing at different levels of the water. A quick Google search will result in an article I wrote for the Federation of Fly Fishers entitled “Double Up!” by Keith P. Skilton which discusses fishing two or more flies at once. The drifts, techniques, application of weight, length of tippet between the dry fly and dropper fly are all the same as fishing a “bobber” style indicator. Dry fly selection could match the hatch or be an attractor fly. Floatant added to the dry fly and leader (sometime referred to as a greased line approach) will aid in keeping the top fly afloat.
The minimalist approach of providing strike detection is to watch the end of your fly line, as if you were to rely on feel alone - you may wind up setting the hook too late resulting in missed fish. This would still be called the greased line approach but a two fly rig may or may not be used. The technique to use in this approach is to apply floatant to the leader down to a point where you no longer want the line to float to allow the fly to sink to a certain depth. As an example, you are casting upstream to a fish taking bugs just below the surface as indicated by the rise ring in the water; you would grease the leader down to about six inches above the fly. The fly of choice could be an unweighted nymph to match the bugs coming off and with the greased leader approach; it would sink to about two thirds the distance you left ungreased, or about four inches. This would present the fly above or right at the fish. Another example could be a pure “searching for fish” approach of swinging flies whether it be in a spey fishing situation or just working the banks on a downstream approach. It should be noted that it can be difficult to see the end of you fly line in choppy fast water or when it’s real windy. If this is the case, a highly visible leader line section of about six to twelve inches could be used at the connection between the fly line and leader to assist in visibility but usually putting on a strike indicator is more effective. Nymph fly lines are also sold that already contain a very visible front section of the fly line.
The last form of strike detection is to literally watch the fish take the fly or what is referred to as sight fishing. Any of the above detectors could be used to allow you to control the depth your fly will sink and sight fishing requires you to be able to see the fish, part of the fish and its reactions, and/or your fly. Additionally, you need to be able to cast far enough upstream to allow the fly to sink to the fishes depth. Usually the sun has to be out in order for you to track the movement of the fly but brighter flies, say an egg imitation or gold bead head, could be used in shady conditions. Even if you can’t see the fly, you should set the hook if you see the fish react differently.
Reaction time on the angler’s part is critical to their success. Fishing strike indicators, regardless of type, will help an angler gain the instinctual knowledge of when to set the hook resulting in more fish caught.
