What's your best strike indicator fly?

[shoebop 0]

Thingamabobber.

 

Guess I have a minority view of the whole hopper/dropper or klink/dink process. If you are going to nymph, nymph. If you are going to dry fly, dry fly. Mixing the two always struck me as indecisive. If there are working fish, I'd always rather fish a dry, and if there are not, a bobber is a much more versatile tool than a high maintenance dry fly, but that's just my opinion, of course. The one exception might be if I were floating an emerger, soft hackle, or very small dry. In those situations, a large dry can be somewhat useful, but even then I'm more likely to result to a Palsa indicator than dry fly. YMMV.

Ever caught a fish on that thingamabobber?

[planettrout 0]

Size #600 Royal Coachman...

 

 

...from The Fly Shop, Ennis, MT...1975

 

 

PT/TB

[1hook 0]

Love a hopper pattern myself for the indicator. I fish a hopper dropper almost exclusively all summer. Spring is a different story, usually use just some kind of dun pattern that is hatching and drop an emerger or nymph off the back.

[1hook 0]

Thingamabobber.

 

Guess I have a minority view of the whole hopper/dropper or klink/dink process. If you are going to nymph, nymph. If you are going to dry fly, dry fly. Mixing the two always struck me as indecisive. If there are working fish, I'd always rather fish a dry, and if there are not, a bobber is a much more versatile tool than a high maintenance dry fly, but that's just my opinion, of course. The one exception might be if I were floating an emerger, soft hackle, or very small dry. In those situations, a large dry can be somewhat useful, but even then I'm more likely to result to a Palsa indicator than dry fly. YMMV.

Ever caught a fish on that thingamabobber?

 

When I fish hopper dropper in the summer I fish the hopper, the nymph is nothing more than something dragging behind and I probably catch more than half of my fish on the nymph!

[djtrout 0]

To the issue of why a dropper: I like to use bio glow in red and yellow for indicator, but I kept getting strikes on the indicator, especially in brookie waters. So, I use a madam-X in size 8 or 10 (always) as strike indicator fly. I hook fish regularly on this indicator (essentially a hopper). Others in line for the duty: Patriot dry in size 12, cicada (4 different designs) in a 6 or 8, and basically any of my catskill dries in 12 or 14.

This regardless of size of my nymph, though I agree with above posters. I am just lazy. I stick to 12 and 14 mostly with my nymphs, beadheads. Moving to 16 or 18 nymphs I don't change my indicator fly. Some days I just prefer to nymph and use a bobber style or bio glow indicator.

Mostly I do the 2-fly routine now though.

[mikechell 0]

 

Thingamabobber.

 

Guess I have a minority view of the whole hopper/dropper or klink/dink process. If you are going to nymph, nymph.

Ever caught a fish on that thingamabobber?

 

When I fish hopper dropper in the summer I fish the hopper, the nymph is nothing more than something dragging behind and I probably catch more than half of my fish on the nymph!

If you're catching %50 of your fish on the nymph, maybe it's time to stop thinking of it as "something dragging behind" !!!

[cdnfishguy11 0]

Thingamabobber.

 

Guess I have a minority view of the whole hopper/dropper or klink/dink process. If you are going to nymph, nymph. If you are going to dry fly, dry fly. Mixing the two always struck me as indecisive. If there are working fish, I'd always rather fish a dry, and if there are not, a bobber is a much more versatile tool than a high maintenance dry fly, but that's just my opinion, of course. YMMV.

I have had many days when I'll be nymphing with an indicator, and a huge fish comes up and engulfs my indicator. That fish is always what seems like the biggest of the day, so dry dropper isn't indecisive. It's more like double dipping and fishing for both the sub surface feeders, and the fish that only want a bug on top.

 

I first noticed this while steelhead fishing the south shore lake erie tribs.

 

The fly fisherman using bright coloured indicators were getting strikes and the centerpinners were getting there floats destroyed.

 

I often use a stimulator, coloured in the classic bobber colours. I have also tied deer hair flies (like bombers) as they will hang anything and will float high.

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Wulff, or an Adams

[Will K 0]

If it's warm enough there are any larger terrestrial bugs about, I like a chernobyl ant / chubby, or any of the foam hoppers / beetle patterns out there for the dry. I'm a sucker for caddis larva as the dropper, though scuds and midges take over on a few streams.

 

Only occasionally do I use a dry in this set up smaller than 14... but seeing what some have noted, maybe Ill give it a try!

 

Funny to read cheech's comment. That happened enough times to me, that finally I said " to heck with this" and figured I'd double dip. If a wad of biostrike indicator had held up, I may have landed one of those "indcator eaters" on one trip... dang rainbow didnt want to spit that stuff out!

 

There's a good "Uncle Ken" video for you Cheech... the biostrike indicator "dry fly"

[cmb18895 0]

big stimy

[cheech 0]

If it's warm enough there are any larger terrestrial bugs about, I like a chernobyl ant / chubby, or any of the foam hoppers / beetle patterns out there for the dry. I'm a sucker for caddis larva as the dropper, though scuds and midges take over on a few streams.

 

Only occasionally do I use a dry in this set up smaller than 14... but seeing what some have noted, maybe Ill give it a try!

 

Funny to read cheech's comment. That happened enough times to me, that finally I said " to heck with this" and figured I'd double dip. If a wad of biostrike indicator had held up, I may have landed one of those "indcator eaters" on one trip... dang rainbow didnt want to spit that stuff out!

 

There's a good "Uncle Ken" video for you Cheech... the biostrike indicator "dry fly"

I'll get working on it... errrrrrr, I mean, HE will start working on it;)

[wschmitt3 0]

I've been fishing soft hackle pheasant tails and guide's choice hare's ear droppers off of yellow stimulators a lot this summer and having pretty good luck, had a few hook up's with both. I sometimes feel like the dropper doesn't get down far enough though.

 

What are peoples opinion on fishing a dropper nymph on 3-4 feet of tippet?

 

Another thing Id be interested in hearing opinions on is attaching biostrike to a hook and using that as an indicator. I have never done this, I came across this suggestion somewhere along the way when reading about indicator nymphing. I'm personally not a fan of it but it would result in a hook up when a fish comes up for the indicator.

[Steven Wiersma 0]

Parachute Adams with red or yellow post.

[bighornbuster 0]

Trico spinners off your favorite hopper pattern is a terrific combination on most tailwaters.

[jeffnc 0]

Thingamabobber.

 

Guess I have a minority view of the whole hopper/dropper or klink/dink process. If you are going to nymph, nymph. If you are going to dry fly, dry fly. Mixing the two always struck me as indecisive.

 

There are a few issues with this approach.

 

First of all, do you ever fish 2 nymphs? If so, then we might say the same thing - it's indecisive. But of course what we're doing is letting the fish decide, not trying to tell them what they want.

 

But more importantly, a dry has a few advantages. A thingamabobber looks unnatural and between a dry fly and thingamabobber, the dry fly is less likely to spook a trout or make it cautious. Whether casting or mending, the bobber can make a splash, and it looks weird. A dry fly is lighter and easier to cast. You can catch a fish on a dry where you can't on the indicator (I'm sure we've all seen a trout nip at a little indicator when it wasn't spooked by it.) And finally, if some fish are more interested in nymphs and some more interested in dries, then you cover both types of trout rather than restricting to one or the other.