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3. Employing the hopper dropper system

I am looking for any advice on employing the hopper dropper system. I've never used this technique as the province I lived and fished in my hole life enforces a multi rig ban. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Simple. A clinch knot at the top of the hook bend of the dry fly (hopper if you wish). Using a dry as an indicator is not the best of both (dry and wet) worlds, but has its place for shallow fish. Keep the dropper short for best results.

There's a recent Baetis thread where I describe particulars of using such a rig.

This looks like a great technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkrnqcxNSMw

Were it so here, were it so! What constitutes "fly-fishing" at the terminal end of our rig here in this state is as clear as mud. As long as there are feathers involved you are A-OK.

I think of the pursuit of trout like playing a game...This is possible for me because I don't plan on keeping the fish for food. When you and I sit down to play some board game it comes with a little packet of rules as to how the game is to be played. Once someone strays from these rules is he/she really still playing the same game? Just because homo-sapiens are so damn crafty doesn't neccesarily make it ok for he/she to slant the game only in his/her favor. You can catch a hell of a lot of fish with a damn stump-buster...Too bad your province and my state frown on this practise...We could clean up.

I gave up fishing with a bobber at about 11 or 12. Bored the hell out of me.

If its just about catching fish, lets just do away with all the regs then...

Spence

Yikes, Spence. I've caught a few very picky fish this way when all else had failed, and for me the take and subsequent fight was anything but boring. But then I still have a lot of the eight year old in me.

Just venting Louis...I am just an old Brown trout swiming forever against the current of modern times...Just an old contrarian...The crowd shouts YES! and Spence says, "Maybe not."...:)

Just stirring the pot...I'm actually reading your neighbors book, "Dynamic Nymphing"...I'm the atheist who has read all the Holy books cover-to-cover...:)

Somewhere buried here on TroutNut are pictures of "Spence's Nymph Boxes" from a few years back and they look very similar to those in Mr. Daniels' book. Back in the 90's I subscribed to "Trout & Salmon" from the UK and it just appears, to me, that he's just gone Euro.

Those boys over there that developed the "everything old is new again" methods were, for the most part, "commercial" fishermen who were getting paid to place trout on fancy plates in fancy restaurants...They were not playing the same game that Spence does or probably you as well. Less and less fish in over-stressed rivers there and the guy has to get paid...The river has no romance for that guy. It's a job.

My mentor once said to me that he just wants to "approach the fish the way he wanted to fish" and basically screw the crowd and their ways...Yes you may catch more fish than I by dregging the bottom with "jigs", tied on jig hooks and jig rigs...It is just a different approach...

Tightlines! I mean "tight-line"...:)

Spence

At our show here a few weeks back I sat down for a minute or two with George Daniels, my copy of his book is autographed,...He knows Gonzo and he seems like a really nice guy and said some really nice things about G...I mean this...Another one of those "PA Boys", but competition fishing etc turns me off a bit. This is completely a personal thing and I'm in no way telling anyone how to fish...I just don't approach the river in the attack mode of competition anglers...

I'm a Michigander who would run over Ted Nugent were he to cross in front of my turbo-boosted fishing wagon. "Whacking & Stacking" is simply not my cup-of-tea...and I actually go back to the Amboy Dukes. :)

Thesis/Antithesis=synthesis...Synthesis becomes new thesis/new antithesis=new synthesis...etc, etc...Louis I'm just bumping along the dialectic...;)

Spence, just when the hell are you going to become a fishing writer anyway??? I'm beginning to wonder if all of your poetic waxings would not better be issued in bound form...

;oD

Jonathon

P.S. I finally gave up on bobbers and worms when I realized I was catching more fish on flies. I have actually sidled up to bait fisherman working on panfish and outfished them 20 to one, at least...

Spence, George is a fine guy, and learning the methods he outlines in his book is more challenging to me than any other kind of fishing I do, especially learning to determine the level at which the fish are feeding, estimating the speed of the current there, then getting the flies in that zone and leading them at the right speed. But when one does get in that zone, wow! I've found fish in spots I never dreamed they might be lurking, sometimes in that frog water George talks about. I've gone Euro too, or at least am trying to. Tight lining to you!

Louis
If we ever catch you wearing a "European Hand Bag" at one of the secret spring creeks that we introduced you to, you will be banned from there forever!
:)
Tony (and Bruce)

Yeah, I'll pass on the handbag, but I'm loving my 10' rod.

How's that for a Freudian comeback?

No joke, I'm sold on the longer wands for nymphing, and the methods that George Daniel describes in his book Dynamic Nymphing. I had my best day ever nymphing on Spring Creek when the olives weren't really bringing them to the surface due to breezy bright conditions. Nobody was doing anything on top, and even the wet fly fishermen I talked with were blanking, but a little Iron Lotus was like a fish magnet, and nymphing without shot means when they pick up the fly you know it immediately.

Tony, I picked up a 9' 3W Cabela's LSI Rod and love it for small streams where the 10' Greys is just too long. Had fun fishing it for olive drys and did a little nymphing with it as well. Had to put my beloved 8' 3W Trico rod up--a bit sad, but one has to move on sometimes, you know.

Hey the hopper dropper is an appropriate method for me. I am all for not using indicators, but i see that method the same as using a double nymphing rig. You have an appropriate fly on the surface, and whatever fly you want hanging below it. Sounds cool to me old school or new! I have to admit though, i very rarely use this technique.

I have a Greys Streamflex 10', 6 wt. and I love it. I fished it on Thursday in some heavy water and had a blast hooking browns on a grey hackle peacock on the swing. With the extra reach and backbone I was able to coax some of the fat boys back upstream to my net. It was one of those 5 0r 6 glorious days you get to experience on the stream.

PS. Louis, please, no handbag. It's one thing to wear a dress around the campsite at night, but please, no handbag on the stream.

Bruce

LOL!

Spence wrote;

"Once someone strays from these rules is he/she really still playing the same game? Just because homo-sapiens are so damn crafty doesn't neccesarily make it ok for he/she to slant the game only in his/her favor. You can catch a hell of a lot of fish with a damn stump-buster...Too bad your province and my state frown on this practise...We could clean up.

I gave up fishing with a bobber at about 11 or 12. Bored the hell out of me.

If its just about catching fish, lets just do away with all the regs then..."

You have crossed the line here Spence! you don't want to use an indicator okay so don't use the freaking indicator. Why did you have to go into a lengthy diatribe blah, blah, blah to chastise the guy and probably make him embarrassed, and ashamed, that he ever even asked the simple question. Have you ever not posted to a thread? Have you ever just read it and moved on? Or is it that you just can't resist passing your infinite fly fishing wisdom on to us mere morals?

Bruce, I'm beginning to think you're just jealous of my chic wardrobe. I'll let you wear the little black number if you want. Only don't get any of your barbed flies stuck in it, or sit down on an ember and burn a hole in it.