Had a crack at the wee brownies on a local stream the other day - nothing was rising, so I thought I would try "the duo". So I tied a high sight parachute Adams on a short dropper and put a goldhead nymph on the point. Very effective, good fun, caught a few brownies, but I can't manage the self delusion needed to pretend the top fly is not a float. It's trotting a nymph, plain and simple. Doesn't bother me, I love float fishing, but I'm curious that it doesn't seem to attract the same outrage as using a bung. Surely it's exactly the same thing?

In Derbyshire/Staffs at the moment we have anglers complaining that the grayling are still feeding, then fish the duo to make sure they don't have a chance . of peace. Surely any decent angler would fish dries to at least give the lady's some chance of avoiding capture out of season, if only for a few weeks until they fade away a little.
I have no problem with fishing the duo or bung but I suppose they are similar as you say, but the duo on the river in trout season is simply not necessary in my opinion.
However fishing stocked still waters is fantastic sport with buzzers under the bung, and I always look forward to early season buzzer fishing in this way.

Mick

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I prefer to fish dries for the brownies, it's my favourite form of fly fishing and this was the first time I have used a wet fly on that stream (I don't fish it very often), but it really was unusually quiet on the surface. I'm sure I could still have caught without the indicator fly, and one or two fish hit the nymph at high speed on a short line and hooked themselves, so I suppose I could have congratulated myself on my superior skills and purism had I dispensed with the "float" and confined myself to hooking the suicidal fish

I'm not sure the duo technique is "not fly fishing"?

Is it any different from a bit of wool as an indicator when nymph fishing? Well yes it is... It gives you two chances of getting the fish.

Often up here on the Scottish Border waters you can be fooled by the rise thinking they are taking the fully hatched dun. It will likely be the same on any water.....

Sometimes they are taking the nymph just sub surface as it hatches. A two fly, dry and emereger setup works well in this situation, and can establish exactly just what stage of the hatch the fish are focusing on.



David.

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I think the likely difference in people's arguments is that on a river you still have to combat the river currents to get the nymphs/dry drifting drag free. It's not a case of chuck it and leave it. Maybe that is the difference in people's minds?

The OP is saying it was a river he was fishing Scotty. Is it any different with a two fly setup on any water ? You still have to present the flies properly and cast to eliminate drag - if that is what you want the fly or flies to do that is...

During a sedge hatch drag is essential at times to mimic the way various sedge pupa ascend, drag contolled or otherwise, or even letting the pupa hang stationary can work well in inducing a take. Some species of Sedge rise and stop at various levels in the act of hatching depending on the temperature range in the water column. Any good fly anglers is aware of this. I'm not sure other anglers can complain about a legitiment tactic if the rules allow the method?

David.

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Yes, I was fishing a stream - but it's really the double standard that fascinates me. To my mind, if you use it as a float - if it floats like a float and supports like a float and indicates like a float, it's a float - even if it also doubles as a fly!

The fishing static thing might be a reason people don't like it when people use a bung on a stillwater, but would anyone bat an eyelid if you fished a dry daddy static? And, of course, you can fish buzzers static under the end of the fly line or you can F8 retrieve with a bung. Then again, some people consider using a purpose made bung an abomination but have no problem with using a dry as a bung on a stillwater - even when there is no expectation that the dry will be taken.

David very good points you make there. I guess it all comes down to differing people's opinions and how they wish to view certain methods. It's certainly an argument that will start a fight here and never be resolved

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Here we go again.

It is only the UK that is gripped with this indicator paranoia and this is-it / isn't-it fly fishing version of teenager angst. Get over it, FFS!

I absolutely dare the UK's anti-indicator faction to go down to New Zealand or to the Trout Triangle in the US or, in fact, pretty much any of the global trout Meccas and announce that if you're using an indicator, you're not fly fishing. At the very least, you'd be laughed out of the place, patted on the head, and sent on your way with the advice to come back when you have some actual experience with fly fishing.

The problem is that in the narrow and very limited confines of UK fly fishing, the indicator has come to be a symbol of the stillwater stockie basher. So naturally those wishing to set themselves apart from these bucket-sitting, bung-watching, blob-stripping barbarians, have rallied around the anti-indicator flag as a way of setting themselves up as "real" anglers.

Only in Blighty.

Grouse

Just to clarify, Grouse, I have no problem with it - I am interested in why those who do have a problem with indicators see this differently.

I find the whole thing fascinating as a sociological phenomenon - in no other form of angling have I seen so much concern about status, yet there seems to be no logic behind which methods are acceptable and which are "abominations".