Sorry to you regulars who must be sick of covering the same ground over and over again but please put this niggling question to sleep for me?

Have been experimenting with droppers and have managed to achieve every tangle going. My question though is this.

Is the length of dropper significant for different types of fishing? If so what length of dropper do you recomend? Fishing for rainbows on still water at minute. I find that the shorter I go (8lb dropper for stiffness on a 4lb leader), the better. But am i too short on the dropper and not giving the dropper a chance. I can forsee too long a dropper keeping me entertained on the bank with untangling duties. I guess it is a compromise?

Does the method of retrieve change the length of dropper required?

Your thoughts plse?

I can't say that I have ever tried, or even heard of, using heavier (stiffer) dropper than the main leader, this in itself might be adding to your problem.
My droppers tend to start off at about 6 or 7 inches and get re-tyed when they get down to about four inches.


Andy

You are spot on

It's all a compromise. The finer the diameter of your leader, the more life and freedom your flies will have to act naturally. The problem is you will no doubt end up with more tangles and smash takes the finer you go....

So you really do have to reach a compromise.

Lets be honest, we'd all like to be fishing a leader thats ultra low diameter with high breaking strain with droppers that stuck out and never tangled!
Thats simply never going to happen.

An easy way to think about it is....work out how low a breaking strain you can go without being broken on takes, also work into it how long your spending untangling knots or making a new leader up. This is time your flies aren't in the water and also frustrating!Leader length and wind conditions also play a part in leader choice, so again, consider this.

Connecting 8lb droppers to a 4lb main leader is a no no

You need similar diameters of material to ensure a good knot, your asking for trouble doing that.

I think you should start with a general 6lb leader and 1 dropper of 8 inches then move to two as you progress...

Everybody gets there droppers in a tangle you just cant stop it,as syphogenic has said try just one dropper,i normally tie on one dropper about 4 inches long and put a fly on that i will not be changing as often as the point fly,and if like me you just get p**sed off with getting the tangle undone chop it off and fish with one fly its a lot less stressfull.

Thats a fact, droppers tangle, and the best anglers in the world suffer from this from time to time. there are afew things that you can do, and perhaps the main thing, is to watch the cast. tailing lools are death for dropper leaders. In fact, it's often needed to open the loop a bit. Distance casting with droppers can also be a problem for many people. I fish it helps if I use the heavier fly on the point, and go progressively lighter up to the top dropper. Doesn't work all the time, but it certainly is a help. I fish with comparitively long droppers, about 10 to 12 inches, so technique becomes important for long droppers.

Good god Andreb 10 to 12in droppers,what is the total length of your leader?I understand about opening your loop a bit.could you please tell me what are your reasons for such long droppers without stating the obvious [changing your dropper flies more often],do you fish a team of 3?Sorry for all the questions but i am really intrigued by your use of such long droppers.

Oh ok, with pleasure I will ellaborate. I'm talking about drift boat fishing, casting forward with the wind. Overall leader length is about 14 feet or 4 meters. three flies, one on point, with two droppers, spaced 4 feet apart. Distance from top dropper to fly line, is about 6 feet, but a longer setup is used to fish buzzers or boobies. I like a long dropper, as it is generally going to hang the flies some distance away from the main line, thus reducing the risk of "line collission" This happens when the fish goes for the fly, but swims into the main line, thus spooking himself and turning away. many of those taps you feel, are line collision. the further away the dropper from the main line, the less chance this has of happenning.
The length of the dropper makes absolutely no difference to the cast, as the wind is used to carry the loop fprward, so an intentionally open loop on the forward cast, with 10 foot rod, is used to great effect. It's a little tricky in zero wind conditions, so the setup needs to be changed to avoid all kinds of mess.
On rivers and streams, generally two flies, one on dropper, dropper about 8 to 10 inches, and spaced about 40 cm or 14 to 16 inches from the point. leader is about 15 feet, or generally a rod and a half in lenght or slightly longer depending on conditions. Sometimes up to two rod lengths or longer, when fishing very slow pools, with dries. For rivers, the longer the dropper, the further the spacing.

I had the pleasure of some great advice from Reservoir specialist Andy Everitt a while back when we happened to pair up in a boat due to high winds at Grafham.

He converted me to a 10lb good quality flouro tippet, same for the droppers - tied around 7" to begin - a method I've used on the Rezzy's ever since and have enjoyed many drifts, hours, days even!, of no tangles and droppers behaving nicely. In fact, if there is a tangle using the aforementioned set-up, you'll find the tippet to be much, much easier to untangle.

Not sure if 10lb leader universally equates to the same catching success on smaller waters / rivers , though I've caught just as well on the same set-up

My advice would be to go heavier on your breaking strain and enjoy more tangle free days Fish will still take if they're hungry enough and you get the bonus of a less stressful day.

__________________
JD - midland reservoir fanatic

First thing to do in my opinion is to distinguish between reasons/locations/tactics to be used when fishing droppers. For river spiders north country style, fine is needed for small flies. Conversely as described above, heavier is fine on a reservoir/loch style team and after that has all been sorted out, look at different leader material (I should say different makes) as some is stiff and some limp, this makes a vast difference to tangling propensity. Then think as already said about your casting, and I have to say on stillwaters I use a 'jump roll' much of the time - much less likerlihood of tangles than with overhead, and not a huge loss of distance with lots of practice.

Arthur Cove considered his normal leader to be 18ft or more ( at times close to 30ft!) of level 6lb nylon. First dropper 6ft from the point fly and top dropper 6 or 8ft from the end of the fly line. Arthur's droppers were short, 2 or 3 inches. He was also insistant that the weight distribution of flies was a major consideration to avoid tangles - the heaviest fly on the point and lightest on the top dropper.

He also notes in his book, 'My Way with Trout', that he recommends the upward facing tag of the Water (Cove) Knot for attaching the fly to - I disagree with this, for what that's worth, as it's pulling against the formation of the knot.

__________________
[I]"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel."[/I] Roderick L Haig-Brown

[url]www.wildfly.net[/url]

[url]http://www.gameanglinginstructors.co.uk/[/url]