Was thinking about popping up to Walthamstow reservoir on Weds evening and thought I might try fishing droppers. Only fished one once with no success. Any advice on what flies to use and what sort of line? I was thinking of a booby or foam bodied daddy on the point and then maybe a buzzer and a diawl bach on the other two. Does one normally ifsh droppers on a floating line? or is intermediate better?
Any advice much appreciated
Alex.

Hi Alex,

You can fish a dropper on either your floating or intermediate line. As for flies, I've never fished the water you are going to but my advice is to fish a couple of nymphs with a heavier or bigger pattern on the point to help your leader to turn over and hopefully eliminate any tangles. Also, have the length of your dropper about 5 inches and use the bit of line that points down your leader as the dropper.

Hope that helps

Mat

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Floating, intermediate, and sinking lines can all be used with a leader with droppers.It all depends on the depth of the water being fished and the weather conditions.It's a hard one to generalize on.On a floater buzzers and daiwl bachs on a slow retrieve do well. On an intermediate you can fish the same,or nymphs or wets. On a sinker I tend to put a blob on the top dropper and buzzers or daiwl bachs on middle and point droppers. In bad weather I fish a Di5 with two boobies, orage fritz and Cats on a fast retrieve.

I'm sure other anglers will provide more information.

BK

When using triple sets I like to leave long tag ends on the blood knots of the last two leader segments for attaching the two dropper flies. Any line will do but once you start attaching three flies to a leader keep the false casting to the minimum. You can tie some knots in a dropper rig that will defy the mind and require cutting the mess.

I always enjoyed use of a triple but you must mind you casting.

Ard

Hi,

Right or wrong I often have a weighted Cats Whisker or Orange Fritz on the point and a dropper 5 feet up with a diawl bach, buzzer or hare's ear on it. Can do this on any line depending on what depth you think fish are.

Has worked for me numerous times. My thinking is, a brightly coloured lure to attract the fish. They either like it in which case they go for it or they don't and with any luck they go for the more natural looking fly nearby. Win, win situation!!

Hope this helps. Tight lines!

Nick.

If the fish are 'up', this is a great tactic on a floating line. Personally i wouldn't use the booby or the foam bodied daddy on the point though. I don't like using the booby this way, as on the very few occasions i have done, the fish that have taken it are far too deeply hooked for my liking. The foam daddy can be a pig to cast, prone to spinning, and the foam body gets in the way of a hook up!

A good floating dry, deerhair sedge, klink type etc. will easily hold up a buzzer AND a diawl bach. Just pre treat the dry the day before with a good silicone floatant so it has time to dry properly.
The two dropper patterns help to sink the leader/tippet to the dry which is important to the presentation of the dry.
Another effective set up is to have the dry on the bottom dropper with a buzzer on the point and a diawl on the top dropper.

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