Rigging Droppers

[Old Hat]

I'm curious how everyone who fishes multiple flies rig their droppers from the leader (method of attaching dropper), distance between flies, length of dropper etc. I have myself used a tapered mono leader, and attached one or two smaller diameter leader pieces off of it with perfection loops and using the butt of the loop as the dropper. I know this is not the best rigging so I am looking into other choices and tying my own tapered leaders. Does anyone use the little metal rings? I was reading Roger Fogg's book Wet Fly Tying and Fishing and this is one method he seems to be OK with but it seems it would have the same hinging (maybe more) than the perfection loops I've been using.

[Soft-hackle]

Hi Carl,
I've started using the rings between the butt and tippet. It seems to save on leader material because you are not cutting back the butt end. Mike Connor started me out on the rings, and he was fashioning droppers using the rings with good success. Ray Tucker was also using the rings, but I don't know of he was using them for droppers. Perhaps he'll chime in, here.

I found this from Mike. It'll give you something to read:
http://www.flymphforum.com/phpBB3/viewt ... s%E2%80%A6

Mark

[letumgo]

I fished with the rings all season last year, but have not tried droppers from them. I highly recommend the rings, though. They make changing out the tipped very easy, and make tappered leaders last much longer. It seems like droppers would work well with the rings.

[Old Hat]

Thanks for the link Mark. A great read. It looks as Mike used the rings for his dropper and bob fly connections and colored them black. They definitely would be handy.

[letumgo]

Carl - If you buy the tippet rings, I recommend putting them all on a small safety pin as soon as you get them. They are very tiny and can easily be dropped. Putting them onto a safety pin keeps the rings all together and make them easy to hold onto while tying them onto your tippet.

[Old Hat]

Thanks for the tip Ray, great idea.

[flyfishwithme]

There are lots of options for attaching droppers to a leader. The difficulty when using a tapered leader is to make sure the droppers are supple enough to impart the same movement as does the tippet. Difficult when using droppers off knots. When I am fishing, either by myself or with a client, I might change leaders 5 or 6 times a day from short to very long depending on the type of water I am fishing. I may also remove and add droppers depending on what I am fishing (dry, spider or nymph). I believe this makes all the difference between an average or good catch rate.
So I needed a method whereby I could do all of this without having to replace tippet sections. I have not yet come across an effective way of lengthening or shortening leaders as I simply do not like looped joints.
THis is how I do it. The example here is a 12' leader but I use them in 7'6" and 9' also. I still make the same changes to a tapered leader:



Now for droppers. I think this may explain how I do it. I can simply add or remove droppers at will. There are a couple of secrets to using them though. The first is to use material the same thickness as your tippet material. THis makes sure that the flies move around freely. The second id to keep them short. I use a 3-4" dropper and the combination of shortness with fine materials ensures they do not tangle around the leader:



Now some people actually tie in dropper loops into their leaders and attach the dropper to them. I don't like this as it adds to much of a bulky knot.
An interesting approach is being used in the Eastern Europe countries. They are adding even more movement to their flies. I haven't used it yet but I can see the advantage. Probably in heavier flies though.



If you want a source for them, they are a Hends product and I get them from http://www.irishflytying.com

Cheers

[Old Hat]

Thanks Philip,
My leader set-up has been very similar to yours, however I was using perfections loops to connect the sections and tying droppers to the tag ends left over from the loop. Again, This was handy for quickly changing the size of the leader and not having to tie separate dropper lines to each segment. I not sure I am keen on the loop to loop connections though and I can see that my dropper material might have been too big a diameter. Also, I"ll play with a shorter dropper, I was making them about 6" in length, I had no problems with them tangling though, probably because I was using a bit larger diameter leader mono and it was projecting a nice 90 degrees from the perfection knot.

I have seen those little "wheels", they seem like a good concept but depending on the material and bulk ???? Maybe worth a try though.

[letumgo]

Thanks Phil! I find these diagrams very useful. Thank you for sharing them with us. Much appreciated.

[GlassJet]

Very much experimenting with this myself, so am very interested to read this thread. At the moment am using a butt section of 15lb mono (3-4ft), water knot to 8lb mono (18 inches or so) then a ring. then onto that ring I'll tie tippet material - on the small stream just about 4feet of 6X, and a single short dropper from the ring, or a length of about 3 ft 5X, then another ring, then same for 6X, with a short dropper off each of the two rings.

The rings seem to reduce tangles! I prefer it to leaving a length for the dropper on the water knots, plus I like the greater fluidity of movement of the tippet material. It seems to be working in that I am catching fish, but hey - who knows how many i am missing and completely unaware of?

But out today on the small stream and catching on the 6 ft hardy jet with furled leader, and single spider... so there is always more than one way to skin a cat, as we say here....

Andrew.