Dry dropper rig

[InCahoots]

A dry dropper rig sounds like a fun way to fish. I’m curious what members prefer to use to suspend the nymph or wet fly. A stimulator is my guess but may not be appropriate in many situations. Does choice really matter?

 

[ryansheehan]

Elk hair caddis or a hopper pattern in the summer.

 

[maxima12]

Yes, i started experiments in this rig about 25 years ago. I never liked the tie to the hook shank. Always thought it "hindered", hook sets.

Thus the Tandem Leader was developed.

Dry fly leader with a tag. 24 to 30 inches above tippet.

If you ask any fishermen, what is the tag length. They say 6 inches or less. Yes, mine are 9 inches-----why? Tie on the 1st fly and you lose an inch. Switch and you lose another!

This rig is designed to fish all day and when tag is short. clipped off to a perfect dry leader!

Red twist ties, hold this leader in a secure manner with ease to unroll. Also provides use to roll back up and secure for another day!

By the way, you see a leader with red twist ties, get it. It will be your best friend!

I like the drop, which is tied different than a wet dropper leader. 90 degrees. Top or under!

Unfortunate--this deadly leader is put aside from production due to less sales! Everyone likes what they read about dropper rigs and not necessary how to use them effective!

Fave since 1987 and still around! I might come back on this formula and maybe not. As i recall Joe Humphrey liked this one, wonder why? We must have met, I am sure?

Meets and greets were common, 25 years ago, meets and takes are most common now! Funny, i saw it all!

How about that? Still around?

Maxima12

 

[wildtrout2]

When I fish a dry dropper, which isn't all that often, I just tie the dropper right to the bend in the DF hook. Usually a Copper John, about a 12" length. Hope this answers what you're asking?

 

[maxima12]

Watch, my friends, this article of posts will be cast off! In another place less likely to view! Why? It does not fit with dollars!

Maxima12

36inches, 24 inches, 6 inches, 6 inches, 6 inches, 16 inches with a 9 inch tag, 24 inches tippet! That will work! You can increase tippet a lot!

Maxima12

 

[troutbert]

ryansheehan wrote:
Elk hair caddis or a hopper pattern in the summer.

How do you suspend a nymph with an elk hair caddis?

Doesn't the weight of the nymph drag the elk hair caddis under?

Do you use really small nymphs, like size 20s, with large heavily hackled elk hair caddis?

Even with Stimulators, which are typically substantially larger than Elk Hair Caddis, it seems like the nymphs often drag the dry fly under.

What we need are some cork-bodied Stimulators.

 

[Swattie87]

I typically fish dry droppers most on small streams, when the water is cold and/or when the stream is predominantly populated with Brown Trout. Brown Trout tend to feed less on the surface than Brook Trout most of the time, and having the dropper can make a huge difference. For Brook Trout, other than in Winter, there’s no need for a dropper, it just gets in the way.

The most common flies I use to suspend a dropper are EHC’s, Stimulators, or Wulffs and Humpy’s, all size 12. This is probably one size bigger than I’d typically fish if just using the same dry pattern alone. This gives you a little extra buoyancy to work with and when picking a specific fly from my box I deliberately pick the one that looks the bushiest with the most hackle. I tend to use the Wulff and Humpy more in the late Spring and early Summer when mayflies are more abundant, and the EHC or the Stimulator from mid-Summer through Fall. With this set up I typically use a pretty small BH nymph…size 16 or 18 BWO nymph or Bird of Prey pattern. Yeah, you sink the dry sometimes, but that’s part of it. I’ve caught a couple of my bigger small streams Browns on sunken dries actually.

All that said, nothing beats a foam Hopper for this technique in terms of suspending the nymph without sinking the dry. With a foam Hopper in size 10 or 12 you can pretty much tie anything you want off it and be fine. I’ve tied big, heavy Stoneflies off a Hopper before, in higher water. Hoppers can be effective dry flies on their own at times, and they’re fun to fish, so I do do it on occasion, but the other patterns above will catch more fish on top in most situations IMO.

 

[Canoetripper]

I agree with Swattie87 in the above post. I learned how to catch trout as a very young boy fishing humpies at a dude ranch in Wyoming(1968).

I thought that they were the magical fly then.

It was years later that I started to learn that Pennsylvania trout are a lot more selective about what they rise to the surface for.

I am still trying to get better at euro nymph fishing, but have success with the dry dropper at my R&G club.

Common sense says that stocked trout will always look up for food since that is what they know from the hatchery until they are more acclimated to their new home in a R&G club waterway.

I like the humpy on the surface and experiment underneath with small nymphs.

I think that not only are the humpies more floatable, but they are also easier for me and the trout to see. I have had them rise and take the fly on the surface.

Anywhere else that I have fished for wild trout, the sub-surface nymph catches the trout more than the dry.

 

[InCahoots]

Good stuff guys! Thanks. I’ll try a Chubby Chernobyl too.

 

[jrcll]

check out some of the info on youtube for dry/ droppers...

 

[Bamboozle]

A couple of things…

I also use an EWC for the “bobber” as well as Humpies however; I tie my Humpies with narrow strip of tan craft foam instead of deer or elk hair. It floats much better, no hairs to break and they are easier to tie.

Another thing, I don’t usually do droppers off of blood knots as it requires pre-planning or redoing a knot to have a log tag and I usually fish a dry/dropper combo on a whim. Typically, I go off the hook bend, one size heavier than my tippet. However, IF I miss a bunch of takes on the dry fly, I’ll do a clinch knot to my fly and leave a long tag off of that.

Small soft hackles are deadly off a dry fly “bobber.” One of my favorites is a Snipe & Purple or a Starling & Purple in a size 16 or 18. The standard version with thread will never sink your dry fly and even a version I tie with purple wire will not while getting down lower in the water column.

It’s a fun way to fish!!

Good luck!!

 

[JeffK]

Generally I agree with the comments above. I tend to fish dry droppers in riffle areas where the water is a shallow and the fish are too far away to tightline. One of my favorite dries for dry dropper is a Patriot size 12. Go with a PA fly. I generally tie a dropper ala Maxima 12 so I can switch the top fly w/o changing the lower one. However, another way to try is tying the dropper to the eye of the dry fly. Also can change to 2 dries if duns/emergers/spinners/duns/caddis/mayfly etc are on the water and you don't know which one to fish.

However, I use dry dropper a lot for sulphurs, especially in the Delaware system. Sometimes the fish are bulging and taking the emerging nymph. In this case I fish a sulphur dry with a sulphur emerger or nymph below. The combo is good because sometimes early in the hatch they are on the nymph and later towards dusk they start taking the dry. This way you don't have to change rigs at dusk.

 

[maxima12]

Dry Dropper Rig, Old days the drop was tied with a clinch above a knot, .''New talent, of no reason decides tie to hook shank. Glad you follow new, for you will never know "how it was and is".

You fell for it, now live with it! Yes, i know these people. Do not have much to say. Glad, i stayed away. They want it all, dirty little fellows.


But i gladly take my cut!


Maxima12

 

[Tuz]

Maxima12
I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed and I’m having trouble envisioning your dry dropper set up. Can you send me one so I can tie a few up? I trade ya for a few pheasant tail nymphs (or fly of your choice)
Thanks!
Bob Matuzak
641 White Pine Dr.
Mars PA 16046

 

[DGC]

I like the method for most prospecting and some hatches. I prefer a dropper of about 3 inches then a minimum of 18 inches to the point fly but often 24 inches up to about 40 inches where it becomes unwieldy. I tie parachute caddis with various hackle densities for mainly 2mm to 2.4mm jig nymphs. Casts are best up and slightly across. Directly across results in awkward drifts. Tying the dry to a dropper versus tying to the hook bend allows a better drift at the expense of more tangles but the weight of the beadhead helps reduce those. Allowing the drift to continue downstream for a swing is effective, and this is the best rig I know to mimmick a dry hopping around on the surface which is another reason to use the dropper. I use a triple surgeon knot to tie it. Edit to add a foam beetle in summer is perfect.

 

[JeffK]

Being old enough I remember the clinch above a knot dropper and still do it when my cold hands or poor eyesight make tying a streamside knot difficult.

Put a perfection loop on the end of a piece of tippet, cut off to length, then clinch it to the line above a knot. Usually I place the dropper at the knot where I tied the dropper once it gets too short.