All
Sorry if this has already been done to death but i could do with some clarification if you would? Just been researching use of droppers and tying etc. In Whieldon's "Complete Fly Fisher" he shows how to fish midge pupae behind a sedge or muddler on the point. One example shows droppers and the other demonstrates fishing in the film by using a blood knot as a stop for the pupae. This means that they move freely on the leader - well one between the two blood knots and the other (I suppose) up to the loop on the flyline?
So..to get to my question - is this correct or should the pupae be fixed? I can see that on casting and when a fish takes the pupae should pull tight to the blood knot, but seems a bit strange to have flies "flying" up and down the leader.
grey

Yes very strange to have the flies flying up and down the leader.
Go for a 4 turn water knot and fix your dropper in place

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Thanks Maharg - don't know if i made it clear but the "flying" flies aren't on droppers but on the leader itself?
grey

Still a bit dodgy

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Can't see it really being a problem. I don't think they'd move up and down the leader and they'd probably stay tight against the bloodknot - there's only one way to find out.

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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*****©(

Tis true....experiment and see..Thanks Tommy only thing is - i'm an impatient type and time is of the essence
grey

Carp guys do it with feeders and ledgers... therefore the fish can run with it before knowing its caught.

but, like its been said I can only see the fly being hard agains the knot, unless the eye on the fly is mahoosive (massive)

PP

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PawPrinT
"I'd rather be fishing"

I see the future and it looks tangled. Surely for a start having a fly like a muddler on the point means more tangles for a start. I had been thinking of trying a "washing line" set up but I spend far too much of my precious time sorting out birds nests.

Hi Grey,
I often use a single buzzer, simply threaded on to the leader above the knot joining the final section of tippet, to sink the leader in a flat calm when fishing a dry. (I know all about people saying that fluorocarbon sinks so well that it will pull a dry under, but, short of degreasing every other chuck, I can't get the stuff to sink for love nor money.) As you obviously suspected, and as the lads confirm, the buzzer stays pretty much against the knot, and although its purpose is largely sacrificial in my case, it does take a few bonus fish.
Cheers,
Angus

Surely, if the pupae is free to move, even if up against a knot there would be some movement, then when a fish takes, you strike, that bit of movement, suddenly the pupae will hit the knot and snap. No pupae, no tippet and point fly.