I’ve never dedicated an article to the TB hack, because it is fiddly. It works great if you get everything just right. But I suppose you have to spend a little bit of time learning the details, and you have to be picky. Sounds like you have everything right, but I doubt that you are seating it right. All it takes after the band is on there is to pull on both ends. Honestly, if you look at it, you can see if it will slide off or not. Remember to use enough yarn. Remember to have 5 wraps in the rubber band. Remember to have the correct size and gauge of rubber bands. All of that matters. Once you get it right, you’ll like it. It’s definitely better than the Oros and other styles for me, because it’s so much lighter.

Thanks,

Arlen

All makes good sense, yes, thank you.
I confess to more lobbing (including the dreaded water haul) because it is so seldom I can make that nice back cast you demonstrate in the middle of that 2.5 foot deep river (). And sometimes that extra weight actually helps. Not elegant, and maybe not even proper or the best way, but in my early stages of this method, it’s getting the flies where I want them most of the time, and for now I’ll take it!
Thanks again for the constant engagement, even with the newbies asking the silly stuff. It’s much appreciated.

I like what you said about the system being engaging. Nice. That’s the point. You are in control of almost everything. Less hoping. More fishing.

“First, have you tried the Oros indicators? I find them great.”

— I don’t like them very much because they are so much heavier than a Thingamabobber. Trouble is, they are heavier than almost every fly or pair of flies and split shot you will ever tie on. Hello lobbing! They encourage poor casting, in my opinion.

“Second, you say you aim to land the nymphs in the same current seam, and upstream of the indicator. Why not try to land them in the same current seam, but downstream?”

— NO! Because you will be completely out of touch with your flies for a very long time. You will NOT register any takes on your flies eaten on the drop. And once you do get contact (halfway through the drift) most likely things will be dragging, and NOT in one seam, because of all the slack given on the way down.

What we’re doing here with the tight line to the indy concept is take tight line principles over to the indicator style. And one of those principles is contact and strike detection.

I fish this system on big rivers all the time. The flies will get down if you STICK the landing — no line on the water up to the indy. There will be no tension on the indy, and the flies will drop quite well, if you land them in one seam.

Make sense?

Dom

Hi there. Thanks for your question. That upper ring is optional. I often don’t include it anymore, as I keep my standard sighter intact, regardless of the tactic used. And yes, that Amnesia and Stren is my sighter. The 1X bi-color is used when I simply want a thinner leader. For every foot of skinny line before the tippet, that’s one foot less of thicker line (butt section) out of the guides. Lot’s more on those modifications is here:

Design and Function of the Troutbitten Standard Mono Rig
https://troutbitten.com/2021/03/14/design-and-function-of-the-troutbitten-standard-mono-rig/

Cheers

Thanks a ton for your response, Dom! I am going to have to try the airlocke indys and see how they feel for me. I ended up running a tight line to indy setup on Wednesday and pulled out a nice 16″ brown! Not the target as they are out of season here, but a solid surprise.

I am really learning the value of presentations closer to myself along with stealth. That’s where most of the takes happen, along with the Brown I got Wednesday.

Take care.
Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the question. I appreciate your enthusiasm too. And since you’ve read a lot of Troutbitten, then you know that my philosophy is to try anything.

Yes, I used all types of floats. I find that the lighter the suspender, the better I like it. I do use Thingamabobbers and Airlocks, but both of those are a good bit lighter than your lightest centerpin float. I think the weight of the indy is too often overlooked. Extra weight takes away subtly and sensitivity both.

Second, your waters may be different than mine. But I am not aiming for long drifts. I’m aiming for accurate drifts that get the flies down in the strike zone. Around here, we don’t have long stretches of water with the same depth and flow. Sooner than later, a good bottom ride runs into something. And the way we have this tight line to the indy rig set up, we’re ready to set the hook. You COULD wait for the indy to fully stop or be taken underneath by a trout, but you will miss a LOT of strikes and will be taking away the advantage of this rig in the first place.

That said, yes, I do feed leader/line to the drift below me sometimes, just by mending.

You make a good point — there’s definitely value to getting a little longer drift.

Cheers.
Dom

First off, TroutBitten is my bible these days. I refer to it like a dictionary for all of my questions. I have a few thoughts racing through my head as I approach a mid-winter trip on Wednesday to chase some Steelhead or Lake runs…whichever you prefer. I desperately want to chase these fish on a tight-line in deep slower pools – I know this goes against the norm. So I am preparing a tight-line to the indicator setup to be ready for anything. This began to raise a few questions for me – as a former centerpin angler, I am deciding to try a gram weighted centerpin float for my tightline with indicator approach. Have you ever tried this? It seems to be a great way to increase sensitivity as the entire rig can be dialed in for strike detection. My next question or set of them is, have you ever tried feeding line for a longer drift below you? After casting, you keep an extra pool of line at your feet to let slip as your indy continues down below you? This will be my first time out trying tight-line to indy tactics so my mind is racing right now – but I do know, I have moved away from centerpin as I don’t see value in 100 yd drifts, or even 50 for that matter…but I do see value in extending my tight-line drifts but an extra 10, 15 or 20 ft…

Any and all insight is considered gold to me.

Stay fishy!
Jeremy