Dry Dropper Observation

[3wt7X]

The dry dropper combo with a weighted nymph has long been my go to on Cumberland Valley Limestoners. I believe that the presentation best allows you to nymph skiddish fish from a distance and the delicate landing of the dry along with enhanced strike detection goes far beyond many other nymphing techniques in streams such as Big Spring, Letort, Falling Springs and Beaver Cr. Additionally, I think we often miss out on some nice shallow holding lyes in those streams using the standard czech nymph/high stick presentation.

I was out this morning, early morning, and I tried something new using the dry dropper that I would like to share. My usual tactic for that technique is to work the shallow runs and pocket water, allowing the dry to spin in the pockets with the dropper about a foot below. Today, early am around 6:30 I came to a slow bend hole that does not even contain a riffle. I lengthened my leader to about 12 foot and tyed a weighted scud about a full 2 foot below a high riding caddis pattern. I was able to achieve a long slow 40 foot drift and I started to experiment by twitching the rig several times to immitate motion in both the caddis and scud. It really produced as I tricked about 8 nice trout in a 30 minute span to include a healthy wild 13 inch rainbow and a heavy 15 inch brown. The takes were coming shortly after the twitch. Regardless, never overlook the dry dropper on limestone trout. Good Luck!!!

 

[AFISHN]

Actually,I usually start off my fishing with a dry and dropper fly set up.My usual set up is like yours: elk hair caddis dry(12-14) with a zebra midge dropper(especially fishing a tail-water).

In a limestone, I switch the zebra midge for a scud. If I don't get any action,I usually switch the dropper to a weighted caddis.

In a freestone,I use a small princes nymph as a dropper(not because of the hatch, but because ,to me,the PN is very visible)

The reason I don't ever change the caddis dry fly is just "laziness".

I usually use a 10ft leader,but if I'm working particularly slow section ofwater,I switch to a 12 ft leader.
My results in general have been good with this technique.
However,I'm going to concentrate on soft hackles for the rest of the season just to try something new

 

[jeremymcon]

Nice. I love the dry and dropper for shallow riffles, and I do also fish it in slow pools for the same reasons you mentioned. Usually just dead drift it though. I can't say I've ever caught 8 trout in 30 minutes though, with it, or any other setup for that matter. Sounds like a good morning.

 

[Fishidiot]

Agree. Deadly!

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I just tied up some wet ants for dry/dropper combos. I use a small black brass bead in front, a turn or so of hackle and something black and sparkly in back. Tie on with 6x floro to the dry. Soak leader and fly with sinking solution of your choice and don't forget to lift the rod when your dry slowly goes under!

 

[pcray1231]

Agreed.

With some hatches, particularly sulphers but others as well, I sometimes run into fish taking floating nymphs, often in the shallows right up against the banks. They look like rises, but won't take a dun pattern, and emergers are only slightly more effective. What's happening is that the nymphs about to hatch swim to the surface and swim around there for a few minutes in the top half inch of slow water. When you see it from above, they look like little schools of minnows.

Once they begin to emerge onto the surface, well, they stop swimming. So fish tend to key on the stage before any wings start popping out at all.

What is effective is trying to float an unweighted pheasant tail tied on a dry fly hook. This isn't a deep nymphing situation.

You can attack it with just using a single fly like you were fishing dries. The major drawback though is knowing where your fly is and what it's doing, plus knowing if a rise was to your fly. I solve this by using a dry sulpher dun as the indicator and drop the nymph behind it. Not only is it a superb strike indicator, plus the dry acts as a attention getter, but the motion of the dry tells you what the nymph is doing. Quite often you want a little drag of some sort to imitate "swimming" action.

In the right situation, this can be so deadly its unfair. I had a ridiculous night on the LJR once doing this, and everyone else was throwing duns or emergers and getting frustrated, only catching a couple. More often, though, it's a method to fool that one bastard bank riser that nobody can figure out all evening long. And he's often a good fish. In the photo section, my latest set of photo's included a 17ish brown from Penns. It was a bastard bank riser that took a PT off the surface behind a sulpher dun. I figured him out, but was having trouble keeping a PT near the surface. So I casted the nymph onto shore and the dry was in the water, then I dragged it back towards me across the fish slowly, and he nailed the nymph being drug (swimming) near the surface.

I also use dry droppers on brookie streams, though usually that's in fairly cold water with the nymph fished reasonably deep. Reason is that you have to fish too far and in too shallow a stream to high stick, and indicators tend to spook fish. Another advantage is that you can use a dry fly rig and switch back and forth. I'll use just a dry when I can get away with it, but there are cases where you can't. Cold water, or white water on top, or want to let it drift into a log pile, etc.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Pat that's why I will often put a PT soft hackle off the back of a sulphur dun.

 

[RichFishbelt]

First, thanks to everyone contributing on this topic with such instructive, practical, and useful content.
I have been fly fishing for many years, and the dry dropper technique is not a revelation to me. However, the many ways in which you employ this tactic and when you go to this fishing method are interesting and in some ways new to me, or untested.
Once, I was a strict dry fly purist and would not fish anything but dry flies and occasionally, I would swing wets. When first introduced to the dry and dropper method of fishing I shrugged it off as a method to catch dumb hatchery fish. Then, one day fishing the West Branch of the Delaware, my good friend and fishing companion, John Canary, showed me how effective the pheasant tail bead head attached to a dry could be. From then on, it had become my favorite way to fish during hatchless periods, which is most of the time.
What intrigues me most here is Pat's tactic with a dry and dropper to catch the fish that are fixed on the emerging nymphs. I had recently fished with a friend during a very good sulfur hatch and spinner fall. Fish were rising everywhere. We tried everything, including the tried and true comparaduns, spinners, and emergers. We managed to catch but a few fish. I wanted to try a small PT behind my comparadun but I had left my nymph box in the truck. There is little doubt that these fish were eating the emerging nymphs. I am certain that Pat's method of presenting a nymph would have taken these fish.
I look forward to the next opportunity...

 

[pcray1231]

If you want to attack that situation, make sure you keep the weight of the PT to a minimum. For instance, skip the wire ribbing, and tie it on a dry fly hook. Soft hackle optional, it'll help it float, but it floats, rather than sitting a half inch deep like it should.

Getting it where you want isn't an easy thing to do without intentionally introducing drag. Sometimes a little drag doesn't hurt, sometimes it even helps as it replicates swimming, but sometimes it's a problem. I'm open to suggestion if anyone's solved that issue.

 

[Swattie87]

pcray1231 wrote:
Getting it where you want isn't an easy thing to do without intentionally introducing drag. Sometimes a little drag doesn't hurt, sometimes it even helps as it replicates swimming, but sometimes it's a problem. I'm open to suggestion if anyone's solved that issue.

Not so much a solution, but more a work-around. Have another beer and wait for them to start taking the darn duns!

Being serious for a moment, one of my favorite techniques for fishing sulphurs is to cast a parachute dun from a slightly upstream and across position of a rising fish. I cast just upstream of the fish, but past the fish. I then drag the fly intentionally back toward me and into the fish's feeding lane. I'm certain the fish can see the fly doing this. When it gets into the fish's lane, I stop dragging it and let it drift as drag free as I can toward the fish's last rise position. The initial process of me dragging it often partially submerges the fly, and I sometimes get more hits this way, then if the fly stays perfectly upright on the surface. They'll also sometimes hit a partially submerged fly at the tail end of the drag free part of the drift, just when the fly starts to drag. I wonder if they're interpreting this as a nymph more than a dun? Pat?

 

[pcray1231]

I do the same thing quite often, but my take is that they're taking duns.

You watch the naturals and they're quite often flopping about, not sitting like nice little sailboats. I'm confident the skitter gets their attention, and then you let it set right in their lane, and bang. It also helps get in the exact right lane that the fish is watching.

In any case, when they're taking duns I use this method more often than not, and it takes more fish than just a traditional drag free drift, sometimes a LOT more fish.

And I suppose the same could be done if there were an unweighted nymph drug behind that dry. You just pull the dry farther to put the nymph in the lane, and the dragging action will bring it to the surface.

 

[SBecker]

I always used the dry dropper on slow clear water. Casting it like a dry fly up stream and letting my floating line on the water slowly retrieving the line back to me. It wasn't until I fished with a friend on some gnarly pocket water in NY that I learned the technique of using a long leader and keeping all my line off the water. Let the dry hang in the pockets behind the rocks. Achieving this you have to cast high and stop your rod tip closer to 12 o'clock. I absolutely smashed fish. It was completely dumbfounded by how well it worked. I always looked at pocket water as a perfect long leader nymphing situation. I discussed this eye opening strategy with Old Lefty and how I never thought about this technique on that type of water. He mentioned that was the exact type of technique he would employ. I now carry 2 rods when fishing pocketwater. One with a pure long leader nymph set up and one with a long leader dry dropper set up. Hit all the pockets first with the dropper, then hit it with the nymph set up. Amazing how many fish can be picked up. Works best with a 10ft rod.

 

[barbless]

I was out swimming on a lake in Maine recently. There was a light emergence of Hexagenia or some sort of brown drake, and I had the opportunity to watch a few of them hatch at water level from only about a foot away. They really had to struggle to get shed of the nymph shuck. It took a few seconds, and they definitely ruffled the water.
It was like they were wriggling out of their waders. Similar process, really.