Take this to the bank — the riverbank. If you are only fishing with one fly, you are missing out on catching all the fish you can catch. You are catching only those fish who, like you, love dry flies.
Think about it. If one is good, two is better. Trout feed under the
surface anywhere up to 90 percent of the time, according to conventional wisdom. This may or may not be the true-to-life percentage, but the bottom line is this: trout live in water, and that's where they find most of their food — in the water.
Subsurface flies meet the feeding expectations and the behavior patterns of trout and their food. When trout feed on the insects floating on the surface of rivers or lakes, they rarely do so to the exclusion of underwater goodies. Trout think subsurface first, surface second.
Prospecting for trout |
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By adding a second fly, the angler gains greater coverage. Even if the trout
are keying on insects on top of the water, two dry flies or a dry fly with a
subsurface dropper covers more water, more lies, more trout.
Multiple flies. What the heck are multiple flies? If you fish with more
than one fly, you are fishing multiple flies. These can be two ore more
nymphs, two or more wet flies, a large streamer and a tailing nymph, a
dropper rig with a dry fly followed by a nymph, or two dry flies.
When you fish a dry fly with a subsurface fly below it, you appeal to
the trout's interest above and below the surface. You are imitating two
different stages of insect life. Another benefit to using a dry fly on top
of a nymph (or even a strike indicator with multiple flies) is that it aids
the angler in detecting strikes.
Some critics call the dry fly, when used in this dropper rig, nothing more
than a strike indicator, anathema to dry fly purists. But I can't tell you
how many times I have caught trout on the dry. The trailing fly and tippet
between don't seem to turn off the fish. In the absence of a hatch, a dry fly
and dropper nymph (or two nymphs with a strike indicator) is the ideal
prospecting technique to locate trout.
Rigging Up
To set up a multiple fly rig, tie on a fly, your choice of wet, nymph or dry.
Depending on the depth of the water, cut a piece of tippet from 12 to 18
inches long. Using a cinch knot (sometimes called a clinch knot), the same
knot you used to attach the top fly to the leader, tie the tippet to either
the shank of the fly or the eye. Don't worry. Even on a barbless hook, the
tippet will not slide off. Promise.
Tools of the trade |
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You should have a top fly attached to your leader with a piece of tippet a
foot to a foota and a half dangling off it. The second fly you select should
reflect the types of insects this water holds (rocky water has stoneflies and
caddis, still sandy pools hold mayfly or cranefly and so on).
If you are prospecting, try a buoyant dry fly and use a generic nymph like a
Hare's Ear, Prince Nymph or Pheasant Tail under it. I use beadhead nymphs
most of the time but you can use BB shot to weight the nymph by attaching
it to the tippet between the dry and the nymph. Because BB shot tends to
fray or wear the tippet, I choose beadheads.
Whether you use combinations of wets, nymphs or dries, fishing multiple flies
will put you on to more fish, more consistently. And if they are hitting the
dry fly, take off the dropper and fish like the purist you are.
