How do you tie yours?

For many years, acting on the advice of Arthur Cove I used what he called the 4 turn water or "Cove Knot". The illustration of the knot in his book "My Way With Trout", actually shows a 3 turn knot, not 4 turns.

The length forming the dropper is taken from the side of the knot facing the fly line, also as recommended by Arthur, and backed up by Bob Church.

As I have said, for years I did this without thinking, and because I caught lots of trout, I thought it was the right way to go. But quite honestly for seemingly no reason the knot would weaken and break.

Then I read a very interesting article in "Trout Fisherman" by Brian Leadbetter who described the way he set up his leaders and droppers. I decided to try out his suggestion that I use the line length facing the point fly as my dropper length. Brian recommended 3 turns instead of 4. This was done and over time I noticed that the breakages at the dropper knot were reduced, and I was catching a lot more fish too.

The length of the droppers were set at around 4 inches by the way.

Then along came fluorocarbon. I tried several makes, some of which were awful. I am now settled on Incognito after field trialling it for over 2 years. The knots I use are simple: a 4 turn half blood knot for attaching flies and a 2turn water knot for the make up of droppers. The dropper length is taken from the bottom of the knot.

But what about you? Further comments on this thread I think might be very enlightening.

Ron,

For more years than I care to remember I have used a 3 turn water knot for droppers with the downward facing leg as the dropper length. I usually put a single half hitch of this leg around the leader stem and snug it up against the knot. This serves two purposes. It will reduce - not prevent - the dropper spinning around the leader and it serves as an indicator as to which fly a fish has had a go at if you get a take that doesn't stick. With the half hitch in place the dropper length will stand out from the leader quite nicely. Give it a downward pull a la trout having a tug and it lies in line with the main leader.

I use 5 turn tucked half blood knots for flies and my dropper lengths are about 8-9" which gives me about 2-3 changes if I am careful.

Leader material is now solely fluorocarbon for everything. I use Riverge Grand Max or Softplus and some hideous stuff I bought in Greece. It's 8lb bs and I used some of it during the winter for towing the car out of a snowdrift! Joking apart - it's from Japan, rather thick and I use it for pulling mini-lures and the like. The trout don't seem to care too much what it looks like, so I don't either.

I use the single half hitch too, but only for largish flies.

This business of the length of the dropper must confuse beginners. I have heard some fairly vociferous reasons as to why it should be no more than 4inches long. Then I have also read of anglers who use droppers 12 inches long. I guess there has to be a happy medium.

I notice Bob that you are a 100% fluorocarbon user like myself. I have also noticed that some fly fishers regard fluorocarbon as an invention of the devil. Old Tommy Ruffe doesn't like it either.

I mean to check if the species on our reservoir is danica or vulgata.

Hi Ron Clay,
I use a three turn water knot on my droppers, and use the lengh pointing towards the point fly, if you use the other lengh facing the fly line when a fish takes it puts great pressure on the knot and that will be why you have snap offs, also do you moisten the water knot before you pull it tight? if you dont then when you pull the knot 'dry' then it will burn your leader and greatly reduce its strengh! I find that when you form the water knot and you have a large loop before you pull it tight, pop the loop in your mouth and really wet the line with your saliva, then when you pull it tight the line has got a lubricant (your saliva) on it and when you pull it tight the friction on the knot will reduce leading to a strong line and more fish!
Hope this helps
James

Arthur Cove was pretty adamant that droppers should be kept short - he aimed for droppers of two to three inches after the fly had been tied on.

I agree too that when using the 3 turn Water / Cove knot it's the downward pointing tag that should be used as the dropper and despite being a big fan of Mr Cove I believe he was very wrong to use the upward tag.

All knots should be well lubricated and tightened slowly .... and not over tightened as you likely to deform the material and dramatically weaken it.

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I'd liken complaining about breakages when using droppers to moaning about fuel prices then buying a hummer...

I personally think the advantages of using more than one fly are outweighed by the problems.
They're a pain to cast, tangle frequently, breakages will occur far more often, they cause loads of line wake, get caught in clothing/hands/boat etc. A longish leader means big problems if you don't have a 10 foot long landing net handle. 2 fish on at once on anything like a regular tippet is asking for trouble...

I'm sure I can think of more reasons given time.
Each to their own though

You try telling the average Scottish loch styler or competition angler that Steve.

Dick Walker loathed the idea of using more flies than one at a time, and there are many occasions when I only use one fly too.

Could someone possibly explain in a bit more detail how to tie the half hitch on the dropper length? From my understanding of a half hitch I can't see how it would pull loose if a fish took the dropper fly. N

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Hello Folks

Nowt amiss with the tried and trusted water knot but I have been using dropper knot shown on UKSWFF site shown under tips as "the perfect dropper knot".I like it and it has never let me down under pressure.I believe they say it is as strong either way but I have always used the point fly side tag as the dropper.Just lately I have been experimenting with dropper rollers and have to say for multi fly rigs I am well impressed so far.I use Riverge,Rio and Maxima in various combinations for my sub-surface fishing.I did find the Rio 8lb fluoroflex stood out well on the rollers as is a little more springy than the riverge.Will continue with the experiments although so far so good.I can understand where the shorter dropper preference lies as the longer droppers tend to wrap on a tied rig although I do prefer longer droppers hence I tried the rollers.Offset hooks also tend to spin which does not aid the use of droppers.The rollers seem to eliminate this problem.I have noticed the difference especially on the "Hang" or just prior to lift off.Washing line fishes brilliantly.Fluoro up to 12lb Grand Max goes through the rollers easily.Maxima 8lb is a little more stressfulAnother plus for the shorter droppers is often a fish hooked on longer droppers leaves you with a little work to do untangling the leader.Mo' fo to learn all the time I guess.

Good hunting JP

Tippet rings or rig rings as I think they call them in the carp world .....





I really like them as, in the result of a tangle or too short a snood, you can simply retie a length on and be back fishing very quickly.


I cannot recall the last time I fished one fly only. Perhaps to my detriment. Two flies, yes, Three flies, generally and four if I am feeling brave

Having been lucky enough to land a fair number of double up trout, it is not too difficult to manage but three was a slightly different story


Ben

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