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Herefishyfishy
Last weekend I tied up some steelhead leaders, some for nymphing with inline droppers and was pretty impressed with how well they worked! As I posted in my McIver thread the other day, I had a double trout hook-up! I think it's better than tying the dropper onto the upper hook and had no problem with tangles which is what I was worried about. That and knot strength but in my testing the line always broke below the knot. Basically I just left an extra long tag end on the upper part of the tippet surgeons knot, about 12" and left about 30" inches of tippet below that. Give er a shot!
To be honest, I just learned to tie my own leaders so I was going crazy tying up a ton of them! One thing I like about it is that it's easy to change the top fly without having to re-tie the dropper. I will have to try it with dries too!
Herefishyfishy,
I have always been one to resort to a "hopper and dropper" rig when trout fishing gets tough (especially in the summer months), but could you elaborate a little or add a link to how to set this kind fly configuration up? I am also always one to try new things!!!!
Thanks!
This method relies on the Surgeon knot to join your tippets. when you attach your final piece of tippet to your leader via this Surgeons knot, there are 2 tags formed during the knot, one faces up toward the last eye, one faces down to your fly.
leave the tag facing down toward your fly extra long, don't trim it off. Trim the one pointing upward close just like you normally do. now you have the very end of your tippet, and above this at your connecting knot, you have a second place to tie on a fly.
There are many theories as to how to pair them. for lakes i often put on an attractor type at the knot, maybe something with orange to catch the eye. then at the point or very end, i put on a small nymph, or a dragon fly nymph, or something natural, which catches more fish generally.
Sometimes I put a dry on the knot, and a nymph on the point.
Sometimes I weight the knot fly and leave an unweighted fly at the point. the heavy fly in the middle drags the leader down, and the point fly is weight free, and free to dangle naturally.
You can fish chironomids in still water by putting a dry fly at the point, leave the knot tag extra long, and dangle a lightly weighted chironomid or blood worm in the middle. this keeps your nymph very close to surface, where trout are often gorging on chironmid.
Hope these examples help clarify some and give new ideas of how to fish 2 flies.