Dry Dropper
Dry Dropper Tips
The Method
What is Dry Dropper?
Simply it is fishing a dry fly with a small weighted nymph suspended beneath it. It’s a great method on Larger rivers too when they are very low but it’s deadly on smaller faster streams like we are concentrating on now. The method can be used on fast to medium paced water but it has to have movement otherwise you are better fishing with a dry fly only. Really you are nymphing but with the added indicator “The Dry Fly” which is used for this purpose and also if a trout is feeding off the top. This method allows you to tackle both fish up near the surface and trout that are down deep in the water column. By casting up stream and remembering to keep a low profile follow the dry fly as it drifts down through the run. Line control is very important the dry fly must not swing or move faster than the current as it will raise up the nymph and leave it kiting in mid water and turn away potential trout from taking it. Remember when the cast is made lift as much line off the water as it drifts back towards yourself without moving the dry fly it is this art that you must master. It will allow you to fish the nymph at greater distances from you when a steady hand can control a lot of line on the water. Line placement is as important as line control because if the correct mends are not placed into the line before it hits the water skating will occur and it makes a lot of unnecessary work for the angler to control the fly. So remember to put upstream or downstream mends into the line before the hit the water not after. The takes are very visual normally with sudden stops, jerks or the disappearance of the dry fly indicator but if you are missing a lot of takes that are supple its usually due to the leader begin too long . If it’s too long what happens is that when a trout takes the nymph at the start of the drift it has taken it before the leader length itself hasn’t fully straighten out and by the time you see a take it’s really too late as he has spat it out or you may get a very bad hook hold.
The Leader
Equipment
The leader will again be altered to suit the depth of the river. I typically use a 9ft 6x tapered leader to the dry fly. This is usually a good bet for most conditions I maybe will go lighter if the water is extremely low or the trout are heavily fish for. Typically the dry fly used would have to be easily seen on the surface but still natural enough for a trout to take it and to name a good pattern that I use it would have to be the Adams parachute with a red or yellow post. The size of this dry fly is also important it must be buoyant enough to fish a nymph with up to a 2.8mm tungsten bead if the conditions require to do so. As you know tungsten is much heavier than gold head beads .Remember to make sure the nymphs have tungsten if they have only gold beads they will not reach the required dept and thus not catch fish. The table which I have produced below will help as a guide line. It has worked for me and it will for you. It will show the ratio of the size of nymph to be fished, the size of dry fly to be used and the water type and speed.
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