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Strike Indicator Fly

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If you use a strike indicator most likely you have experienced a fish taking a whack at your indicator. With this in mind I designed a fly that I call the Double Dipper.

 

The Double Dipper Strike Indicator Fly is a large highly visible and very buoyant fly. Because it is so buoyant one can run one or two smaller dropper flies off it at one time. I call it a Double Dipper because it has two of each type of material except for legs in which it has four sets of two, two on each side of the body.

 

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  • Hook 6x long any brand with a light of wire as possible
  • Body one 2 to 1-1/2 inch of 3/16 heat shrink and 2 sections of foam of the same length.
  • Thread metallic purple
  • Legs black and white speckled rubber
  • Post white polypropylene
  • Wings white or iridescent web wing type material and a white saddle feather

 

The clear 3/16 to 1/4 inch polyolefin heat shrink needs to be colored purple and the foam can be a variety of colors although I prefer black and beige. For more on using heat shrink for tying flies or making your own web wing type material type in "Unsinkalbe Dry Flies" in you search engine.

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I like the idea of an indicator with a hook. Then I won't feel so much like I'm fishing with a bobber. I do think yours is overkill though except when I fish the bass ponds, which is about all I do anymore. Then it would support a nice nymph for 'gills and be more like to get eaten by a bass than a smaller fly. If you designed that good job.

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The idea is a good one yes. Of course it's not new, fly fishers commonly use a "hopper", or a "popper and a dropper".

 

I had a great lot of fun with them on a trip to the Spokane area last spring fishing for smallmouth and blue gills.

 

The best combination we found on the trip was either a hopper or a popper with a San Juan worm dropped about 36 inches below it.

 

One of the challenges is finding the floating fly with enough buoyancy to support the dropper. It looks like your fly will hold up lots of good stuff. Nice work.

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Nice indicator fly -- that ought to be buoyant enough to support a pretty chunky nymph, even a big stonefly nymph. If you're fishing smaller/lighter nymphs -- a #16 bead-head, say--you can get away with a much smaller dry fly. A heavily hackled l Wulff or Humpy is more than up to the job for nymphs in the 14-18 range.

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Like Byron, I favor an attractor like a Wulff or a Humpy especially if there is a hatch of naturals. The color of the Wulff or Humpy is the color of the natural. For example, during the PMD hatch a Grizzly Wulff or Humpy in PMD yellow seems to work better as an attractor.

 

 

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Looks like a Chernobyl Ant with wings and parachutes. Should be a killer by itself, on big fish like bass or browns.

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I usually fish a stimulator tied with the floating dubbing from ftd and pink hackle for easy viewing coated liberally in loons floatant.

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Most hooked indicators I have used typically have the nymph 18-24" under the indicator. Im getting Browns hitting my indicator now but Ive got it set almost to the top of the leader to hit some deeper holes, is anyone fishing these types of indicators (Trout) that deep?

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Not sure there is a better fish catching indicator than the Han's Klinkhamer Special. You can tie it quite large (which- slight rant- is the point. I see too many instagram tyers tying size 16 parachutes and calling them klinks, they are NOT). 

Roman Moser's balloon caddis is another good one. So is Devin Olsen's Front End Loader. 

 

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I prefer dry flies as indicators to small corks or pinch on foam.  Helps with casting also. I fish small rivers and streams for trout.  Your nymph is never hanging directly below the indicator fly.  Usually I would have 5' - 6' from indicator to nymph and maybe another nymph 18" below that.  In slow moving water this set up is fishing around 4' deep.  Shallower in a faster current.

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I've been using a Hopper/Popper/Dropper on Bream, for years. I use that combo on trout as well. On Bream, I get about a 50/50% strike ratio on top and bottom. On Trout, the ratio is higher on the dropper than the top fly.

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Nice fly.  Kind of like a Hippie stomper.  I really like that type of fly as an indicator.   For trout I sometimes use a large Elk Hair Caddis.

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