Favorite tandem/ threesome

Using tungsten putty rather than split shot reduces lost flies. Often it is the weight, not the hook(s) than hang up. The putty pulls free of the leader and the flies are recovered. Replace the putty and continue fishing. With shot, the leader pulls through the shot to the fly below, continue to pull and the entire rig below the shot is lost.
 
You know whats really fun when you are using a trip???
When you are working up along a river and you lose concentration for a minute and your backcast gets caught way up in a tree.
I use to use triple rigs on the Madison-when they were letting a lot of water out in the spring it could be to tough to wade.Fish would be up close to the bank anyway.I would get some awful tangles-lol
Still laugh at the memories.
 
I tie my tandem rigs using palomar knots. I'll try to explain this the best I can. I usually fish a 2 fly rig but have had success with 3, just depends on what i'm seeing in the water. Top fly would be an emerger, next would a larger bead head nymph, bottom fly would be a small larva pattern. I tie the top fly on using a palomar knot, make sure the tag end is plenty long. At least a couple feet because I will be tying 2 more flies on this same piece. Keep the tag end of the first fly intact (do not snip it) Move about half way down it's length and tie in you second fly using another palomar knot. Keep the tag end intact and tie in your final fly however far you want it from your middle fly. I usually tie my final fly on with a loop knot.(surgeons loop, non slip loop, whatever you like best.
 
I used a 3 fly tandem for the first time this year. I always use 2 when nymphing. I'm kind of with Sal on this one. Yeah I can probably catch a few more fish with 3 flies, but I feel more comfortable with 2 right now, and usually snap off a few flies every trip.

My combo almost always consists of an attractor on top, either a #14 or #16 BH Prince or BHHE, both weighted with lead. I then tie on about a 2 foot section of tippet to the eye and swap out my bottom fly throughout the day. That fly ranges from a woolly bugger, another generic nymph, egg, SJW, green weenie, midge, or matching the hatch nymph. I usually use my initial setup for the first hour or so, adjusting weight, or indicator, then changing flies. By the time the day's over I have 6" of tippet between flies lol.


Ryan
 
question? I was out last week and saw some tiny BWO's. I put on a BWO dry size 18 or 20. on the hook i added a caddis larva size 20. i could not get the larva down with out sinking the BWO Dry. what is the trick on getting the Larva down without sinking the dry. I did use gink and when that didn't work also tried the powder to keep it afloat. i also tried to put some xink on the larva and could not get it to sink without sinking the dry. yes, the fly did float when it was just the dry and larva but the larva took to long to sink.
I just wrote all this trying to give you an idea of what i tried with no success.
 
steve2u42 wrote:
question? I was out last week and saw some tiny BWO's. I put on a BWO dry size 18 or 20. on the hook i added a caddis larva size 20. i could not get the larva down with out sinking the BWO Dry. what is the trick on getting the Larva down without sinking the dry. I did use gink and when that didn't work also tried the powder to keep it afloat. i also tried to put some xink on the larva and could not get it to sink without sinking the dry. yes, the fly did float when it was just the dry and larva but the larva took to long to sink.
I just wrote all this trying to give you an idea of what i tried with no success.
Click to expand...

It doesn't take a lot to sink a size 20 BWO, so it may not be your best choice to use as an indicator for a fly of the same size.
 
I don't fish three, which seems to me like riding a bicycle in city traffic. But I do tie a dropper to the end of either a nymph or attractor. Hook-up is almost always the dropper.
Coughlin
 

I almost always fish two flies, even dries. While nymphing I almost always have a walts worm for an anchor fly, then whatever I think may be effective for the conditions tied off the bend.
 
I taper down with tippet as Jay mentioned and have started tying through the eye instead of off the bend...

favorite tandem: Caddis emerger on top, no antron or tail----caddis pupae----caddis larvae
 
Here is an example of my rig I have been using and tinkering with for some time.

3 feet 20lb maxima or Stren
blood knotted to 15lb Red Amnesia (12")
blood knotted to 8 lb gold stren (12 ")
tippet ring - 2 feet 4X flurocarbon
surgeons knot 2 to 3 feet of 5X flurocarbon

I tie a heavier anchor fly at the point - midge larva or something small and light here off the hook bend of point fly

At my surgeons knot above the point fly, I leave a 5 to 6 inch tag and tie on a softhackle or emerger type fly or even an egg would be good here.

The tippet can be adjusted for length depending on the water level but 4 to 6 feet seems to be appropriate in most situations in PA and NY.
 
My favorite tandem.
image-1.jpg


And my favorite threesome.
image-2.jpg

 
1.) BH PT
2.) Midge of some sort
3.) BH Hares Ear

Everybody will have their personal preferences lol
 
The biggest problem I have with a tandem is due to me tying the dropper from the hook's bend of the first, Because of this, I usually loose the fish that hits the upper fly whenever I also get a fish on the lower.

Thats my main problem. It's kept me up at night.

Seems the action of the second fish on the lower fly somehow assists the upper fish to get loose. Frustrating.

The second problem is that this usually only happens when I'm fishing for 'gills or redeye, etc. I don't have this problem with trout.
 
Springer1,

Lose sleep no more over your delemma. When you hook a fish on your lead fly and the fish begin to fight your rear fly is getting stuck in his body giving him leverage to break you off when he curls his body. I've watched this happen several times to me especially on larger body trout.
 
rear fly is getting stuck in his body giving him leverage to break you off when he curls his body. I've watched this happen several times to me especially on larger body trout.
Click to expand...
ARRAUGH... ohh great, I'll sleep easier knowing it's usually the larger bodied fish that are prone to this. LOL
 
Tried an experiment last weekend and instead of fishing a combination of nymphs I went with one fly but different sizes. In this case I went with a 10, 12 and 16 bhpt with the point being split shot. Let me explain, split shot on 6” of 7X (rather loose the shot) to a tippet ring then 12” to another ring and 16” another ring (damn I love these things). The flies were tied off with a 4”tag from each ring in order as stated above. Never brought a fish to hand on the size 10 and the 16 out fished the 12.

I began wondering if the success rate was because of the fish holding in a certain water column so I changed the positions of the flies moving the size 10 in place of the 16. Again over the next hour the 16 out fished the other two. So I’m not sure if a combination of flies is the answer but maybe size. It appears in this case that size does matter. ;-)
 
Whiskey,
That's sound theory, but why on earth are you nymphing with 7x?
 
The six inches of 7X is only for the split shot only so I don't loose the whole rig if I get hung up. The rest of the rig I used 4X between the tippet rings and 5X for the tags.
 
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