Fish pimp indicators falling off of your leader?

G

geo

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May 10, 2008
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Has anyone else used the Fish Pimp (football shaped) indicators? If so, have they fallen off a lot?

I've been using them for the past couple of months, and they've fallen off of my leader a lot. I'm using the smallest ones (minis) and located along various points along my leader, so they should be fine. I've tried putting them on by either stretching the rubber tubing or by twisting the tubing -- but they come off regardless of which way I put them on my leader. I've also tried the next larger size of indicator, but they fall off just as often. Nothing I do in changing their location on my leader or how I put them on seems to help them stay on the leader.

I think that I'm going back to the Lightning Strike ones. I'm tired to chasing the Fish Pimp ones down the stream.
 
geo- you might try the toothpick ones. They are very similar and you can move them up and down your leader without them coming off. I have often times forgot to put my indicator on first before tying flies on. haha-
 
I've thought about trying those. I've had good luck with the Lightning Strike football shaped indicators, and just tried the Fish Pimp ones (which look almost identical, and go on the same way) because they were new (and I fell for the marketing).

I've never had problems with the Lightning Strike ones. I think that the tiny, rubber, surgical tubing on the Fish Pimp ones is too small.

Thanks for the advise, acristickid.
 
I've never had them fall off.......not that I use them all that often.....in fact, I found a tube of pimps that had been stashed in one of my fishing vests.......they were attached to the tube, kinda melted....threw one one........and it worked........I was worried about the tubing being shot to hell after sitting for so long....but they worked..........
 
Dear geo,

I absolutely loved Fish Pimp indicators when they first came out until I lost every one I owned exactly like you are losing them. They fell off if I farted.

I really like the "Turn-On" indicators. If you put them on correctly you will never lose them. Sometimes they are a pain in the butt to remove if you don't remember how many turns you used to put it on or which direction you turned it but they never fall off on me.

Regards,
Tim Murphy :)
 
I have used Thill for a long time. They are the ones with the "toothpick". You never lose one. Most important for me is that I constantly change the depth. Sometimes every 5-6 casts. It is very easy with the Thill.

Downsides:

Yes, you will totally rig up and forget to slide one on.

The picks get waterlogged after 3-4 hours. An actual toothpick is not quite the correct size. Thill sent me about 100 when I e-mailed them for some.
 
Tim,

Yeah, you know what I mean. Mine all fell off almost immediately. I bought two more tubes just to be sure that I wasn't doing something wrong, and tried putting them on in different ways (one time twisting the rubber tube, one time just stretching it, and then alternating). I made sure that my leader was on the opposite side of the rubber tubing from where the slit is in the indicator. They came off the same regardless of what I did. I even tried changing how I was casting, but that didn't help.

Everyone's suggestions are very helpful. I'm going to give up on the Fish Pimps and try the suggestions.

Happy Fishing,
Geo :-D http://www.paflyfish.com/uploads/smil3dbd4d4e4c4f2.gif
 
Yep. Same here. I couldn't get them to stay on. Flawed design.
Use Skip's Turn On Strike Indicators. If you want more floatation, use 2 Mediums.

If you want more floatation than this, just get a pack of cheap, small party balloons, inflate them just until they have air in them then do a double overhand knot onto your leader. My buddie, a GUIDE (Strange Brew? Anybody? "Our buddie, a COP, yeah, well, he PUKED, eh?") Anyhow, just sounded funny in my head.
But that's what he uses. CHeap and effective and FLOATS so that bad fly fishermen don't freak when the strike indicator goes under water.

Another additional help: THe RIO Kahuna indicator that is a thick orange line that you pull off with the hole in the middle. It's a little tough to get on your leader, but you only need about an inch of it (I used too much the 1st time) AND it helps to run a bodkin needle up through it to open the hole. It works great as a double indicator for really skinny water or finicky trout. Don Douple first turned me on to this, but I didn't have any NEON fly line laying around to cannibalize for this. He said it saved the day more than once. He said some days, he only saw the lower indicator move, and that was how softly the trout were hitting.

Syl
 
i always use the lightning strike ones, NEVER had one fall down my leader.
 
Found a solution to the fish pimps sliding and falling off awhile back. Put it on just like normal, then insert a toothpick from a lightning strike into the rubber tubing. Once I did that, they worked awesome.
I haven't used them much because I prefer the non-slotted lightning strikes. But the pimps with the toothpick are nice when you want to remove.
 
I just lost the last of them, so I'm going to try some of the other ones. Thanks for all of the advice. I was a sucker for their marketing. The company hasn't even responded to my email. I even posed it as if I could be doing something wrong, so as not to make them defensive. I suspect that they know their product is poorly designed.
 
I've had the same problem with these, they're great until they fall off or move up and down on the leader. I'm with Tim Murphy on this, those turn-ons are great, they stay just where you put them. I only get the pimp out of necessity--when I'm out and that's all I have an option to buy. I used to use the ones with the toothpicks, but found it to be more of a pain to get on and off, although they are durable, don't move and won't fall off...unless you rip off a fly during a cast or in drift and pull up real fast :lol:
 
never really understood why people use the palso pinch ons, we'll, actually theyre good for really spooky trout, and i guess the putty too. I just know when i was fishing for a good amount of the day i would go through so many adjusting my depth. The best kidn of found are the football indicators for 0.80c each. Which come in very small to very large sizes. Never had any problems with them sliding off the leader or breaking them off or anything. It just seems the indicators like the toothpick ball ones would be a hassle, i wold think you would want to deal with the least amount of little accessories as possible. And have the most versatile indicator. That acn be quickly adjusted and rely on itsself.
 
Are you using the new fish pimps? They have listened to your compaints and the indicators have been redesigned for 2010. There is also a new option where there is a small hole so you can rig it up for 90 degree float.
 
Forget what I said earlier and go with a thingamabobber- throw away or better yet give away all the other indicators because there anit no better.
 
Bought a pack of the fish pimps at a show earlier this year and lost them all in one trip. Went back to the smallest lightning strikes. The float well, adjust easily, and are unobtrusive. I'll use thingamabobbers for bigger water but I've found they tend to leave a kink in the leader.
 
I use Fish Pimps. i've had them fall off a couple of times (maybe once every 500 casts). i'll definitely keep using them though. they're the easiest to reposition for different depths. i fish nymphs very frequently, typically with a short leader (maybe 7 foot) and typically have the fish pimp tube mounted on the butt section of the leader. it's pretty stable.
 
I like the Frog Hair indicators. I have not lost one in two years.
 
If I'm using something other than a Thingamabobber, I'd still recommend the twist ons. Thingamabobbers are for the most part all I use now though.
 
I'm a big fan of biostrike. I'll use thingamabobbers when I'm bobber fishing for steelhead, but in every other situation I'm using biostrike.
 
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