Dropper fly

[Toni]

How does one tie a dropper fly or flies? How long should it be between the flies?

[rseas]

Not being a fly-fishing expert and defiantly not a fly-fishing purest I can only give antidotal advice. For stream fishing I have tied the dropper directly to the bend of the upper fly. Length depends on the fishing conditions or what your goal is. I have used dropper lengths ranging from less than a foot to almost 4’. I am probably setting up backwards to the norm for the use of the dropper but here is my two cents. My upper fly would be a weighted fly appropriate for the stream at the time of the year. Below that, at the end of the dropper I would tie a non-weighted fly also appropriate for the stream. My thought is as follows; when fishing a floating fly line in deeper swifter runs this allows me to fish subsurface while still providing a semi normal presentation. I have caught trout and steelhead using this approach. In my experience when fly-fishing for trout using this method it is a toss up, both the primary fly and the dropper get bit equally. For steelhead I always get bit on the dropper. I should note, when fly-fishing for steelhead using this method I am basically drift fishing with a fly-fishing outfit. A fly fisherman? Maybe or maybe not, but I have caught some very nice fish on my 6 weight.

Again I am not an expert, I was lucky and had a lot of opportunity to fish but I have caught a number of quality fish on a fly in marine areas of Southern California and Baja. Yellowtail, spotted bay bass, calico bass, halibut, sailfish, grouper, roosterfish, barracuda, albacore and yellowfin tuna will all take a fly and are a blast on a fly rod…and you are fishing in shorts and flip-flops!

[Toni]

What knot did you use to tie it? Improved cinch? Would you do this similar if on a lake? Weighted at top then non-weighted at the bottom.

[wolverine]

Toni,
River and lake fishing require 2 different approaches to using more than one fly.
For river fishing the larger heavier weighted fly is the top fly and the smaller fly(usually a nymph or a yarn egg) is unweighted and on a short leader that is attached to the bend of the hook on the larger fly. Either a clinch or an uni is used to tie to the bend of the larger hook. I normally tie the top fly on with a clinch or uni and the bottom fly with a clinch or uni if using an egg fly and a Kreh loop knot.
For lakes you can fish up to three hooks on most lakes. I probably fish 2 flies 50% of the time, 3 flies 25%, and 1 fly 25%. Fishing multiple flies requires a long leader and casting with open loops to avoid tangling. With 3 flies I fish 15' - 18' leaders, with 2 flies 9' - 12'. I build most of my multi fly leaders out of fluorocarbon as it sinks. 10 lb to 8 lb to 6 lb. For big fish lakes I start with 12 lb - to 10' lb - 8 lb. I normally use uni knots to connect the 3 line wts. For the knots I normally use either a 3 turn water knot or a double uni. I leave a tag about 15 inches long and attach the dropper flies to the either with a Kreh loop or a uni knot. The point fly (the one on the end of the leader) should always be the heaviest fly as it aids in leader turnover and helps reduce tangling.

[Toni]

Thanks that gives me an idea of how to do it.

[guitarfisher]

When fishing rivers or lakes for trout with wet flies on either a fly rod or light spinning outfit, I'll sometimes tie a small 3-way swivel to the main leader, then run tippet material, scaled to the size of the fish, from the other 2 swivel eyes. I usually use 5x tippet - about 18" for a weighted dropper nymph or scud and about 10" for a trailing emerger, buggar or steamer. You get a bit of line weighting from the swivel, but not much. This is a killer set-up for browns in the rivers and streams of Utah where I learned to fish, but haven't tried it much in WA waters yet.

-Rip some lips!-