Articles in the Category Ask an Expert

During our lunch, I asked George when and why he chooses to float the sighter.

We then talked about a mistaken perception about floating the sighter. An angler may think he’s able to suspend a heavier fly with a greased sighter, just because it doesn’t sink under the surface. But the sighter may simply not be in touch with the flies. It’s an easy mistake to make.

Drop shotting makes a lot of sense. Placing the weight on the bottom of the rig and tying in the flies above provides some significant advantages. Anyone who has tied a tag dropper somewhere above the point fly understands the effectiveness. Trout whack a tag fly riding anywhere from slightly above the streambed to mid column or even higher. They do it a lot.

I’d like to share the two most interesting points that George Daniel made about drop shotting. We got around to the subject about midway through lunch at Happy Valley Brewing Company in State College, PA.

I wanted to sit down with George because I knew he’d have interesting and unusual answers. George says things you don’t expect. I discovered this about him when we first met fifteen years ago, while he managed the TCO fly shop.

I wanted to dig deep into a few topics, into a few specific nuances of the tight line nymphing game. George is the mentor who helped me dial in my own understanding of mono rig tactics and all that is possible, and I knew he’d have thoughts that run as deep as we had time to dig. As usual, George’s answers were unexpected.