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This is our full crew review of dry dropper styles. And it wraps up this Troutbitten Skills Series on dry dropper fishing. Because, as we’ve seen, what seems like a pretty simple thing — just adding a nymph under a dry fly — actually creates some complex situations.
You can absolutely fish a dry dropper and keep your life easy. Fly fishing does not have to be complicated. So dangling a nymph from a buoyant dry and casting it to the river without much thought will catch trout.
But for many of us, the complexities are what keep us interested. Solving problems, seeking answers, understanding a system and tweaking it for the moment is fun. Because those tweaks, those adjustments, make a difference. And when we start catching more trout, when the opportunities increase, we take notice. We learn what good drifts look like — on both the nymph and the dry fly. Then we improve. And that . . . is the simple joy of fishing.
My friends, Austin Dando, Bill Dell, Trevor Smith and Josh Darling join me for the fifth and final installment of this Troutbitten Skills Series on dry dropper styles.
Don’t forget, this dry dropper skills series has a companion resource, a four-part dry dropper series of articles, here on the website. And each of those articles is linked below.
So remember, the next time someone mentions fishing dry dropper, ask them what style . . . because there’s a lot of room for variety.
In 2019, I published a full series on these Three Styles of Dry Dropper on the Troutbitten Website. You can find them here:
READ: Troutbitten | Three Styles of Dry Dropper
READ: Troutbitten | Three Styles of Dry Dropper — Light Dry Dropper
READ: Troutbitten | Three Styles of Dry Dropper — Standard Dry Dropper
READ: Troutbitten | Three Styles of Dry Dropper — Tight Line Dry Dropper
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Next Time
Season Five of the Troubitten Podcast begins in early October, and I’ll be joined by my full panel of friends for conversations each week about fly fishing for trout. So look for that in your Troutbitten Podcast feed.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
Do you feel the dry fly draws fish up and then they take the nymph.
Just finished listening to this last podcast. Thought the dry dropper series was terrific. Learned a bunch and had some of my thoughts confirmed – which is always nice.
One thing I’ve always been challenged with when fishing dry dropper is attaching the dropper inline with the dry. You guys touched on it in the light dry dropper series (I think) and gave a couple of options. One is to tie to the bend of the dry fly hook, the other is to tie to the eye of the dry fly hook. Both of these methods present challenges to me. If I tie the hook bend there’s a risk losing the dropper because it can slide off the hook. If I tie to the eye of the hook I have trouble getting two pieces of tippet through the eye and getting a good knot- especially on small dries.
So yesterday I fishing dry dropper and came up with another idea on how to tie on a dropper directly under the dry. It worked well for me so I thought I would share it with you. Please let me know what you think of this idea – or if you’ve ever tried it before.
I tied my dry fly onto the end of the tippet as usual. Then I tied a uni-knot onto the leader above the dry. I cut off the upper tag of the uni and slid the uni down to the eye of the dry fly. From there I simply tied my dropper onto the bottom tag of the uni. With the uni snugged down to the top of the dry (well, the top of the clinch knot), it was virtually inline with the dry. There we no problems with twisting or tangles and the drifts were great. The advantage that this afforded, apart from not having to thread a second piece of tippet through the eye of the dry was that when I wanted to change out the dry, all I had to do was slide the uni-knot up the leader, cut off the dry, tie on another, and slide the uni back down into place. The only down side was if I hung up the nymph and could not retrieve it, the rig broke at the uni-knot and another piece of tippet needed to be tied on above the dry.
The pros for using this method – at least for me were:
Not having to tie to the hook bend and risk losing flies.
Not having to tie two piece of tippet to the eye of the dry – which at my age is a big deal.
Being able to change out my dry without having to cut off both the dry and the nymph.
The only con was losing the tippet and nymph when I got hung up.
In any case it worked great for me – just wanted to pass it along and get your thoughts.
Thanks for all the podcasts and information you provide. You really do a terrific job and your love for fishing and the water comes through in everything you do.
As always, the Troutbitten crew does an amazing job wrapping everything up! I loved the series and loved the final episode even more. I love the way you have broken down dry dropper into three different styles.
Thanks for all the podcasts!! I’ve listened to them all! Keep up the great work on the Troutbitten project!
Tight Lines,
Dom,
My apologies for adding the link to my initial comment. I now realize that was a faux pas! Just wanted to share my experience with you. Again, thanks for all you do with the project. The podcasts have really brought everything on the site to life. I’ve learned so much about fly fishing but even more about the power of creativity! Keep up the great work.
Jeff Smecker
No problem, Jeff. I appreciate your support and your kind words very much. I like what you do too.
The comments section is set to filter out almost all URLs. Otherwise, you’d get a bunch of spam and porn links in here. Ha. So when I see that happen, I usually come in an edit the comment to make it readable.
Cheers again.
Dom
Hey Dominic,
I’ve been turned on to you and the mono rig by some fellow posters at FLY ALL SZN’s discord. Been reading all the articles, listening to the podcasts. I have all the bits and pieces of the standard mono rig formula on order with exception to Maxima HV 12lb line. Maybe you’ve covered this in a recent article or podcast. I’m still on page 16 of 19 (working my way to the current rather than back to the past) and I’m on episode 9. So by the time I might find that comment of an alternative, it might be back in stock.
Have you needed to come up with an alternative or have a second to the Maxima HV as a recommendation? I’d greatly appreciate it.
Sorry, I left out the important bit that I cannot find online the Maxima HV 12lb. Ebay, amazon, walmart, etc. It seems it is completely out of stock. Thanks again,
How many CCA(cold cranking amps) would you recommend for the Car Battery Dropper?
Got a good laugh out of that one, made my day.
Thanks
That’s good stuff.