Dry Fly Fishing Rigs Tips and Hints

Double fly Rigs

If fish are feeding on very small flies with my eyesight as it is I find almost impossible to see a tiny fly so frequently I tie on a big, bushy fly (Wulff or Klinkhammer typically), and then have the smaller fly on a 24- to 30-inch dropper. The big fly serves as a locator and a strike indicator! As a fish hits the tiny fly as expected the big old Wulff will disappear as well. I have also had the wulff hit occassionally also but the greedy trout. Once you know the exact pattern you can use two of the same pattern, increasing the odds of getting a fish, simply watch the line and rough area the flies are floating in, it will usually be your flies that get hit once you know the pattern. ps you can test twice as many patterns this way to find what is being hit when trying out a waer to find out what they are taking. It also allows you to vary sizes to see which size of a fly i.e. an Olive is being taken!

Dry Fly & Emerger Rig

Which there is a hatch on trout will focus on as specific stage of the hatch cycle say the dry. So when uncertain if you should be casting a dun or an emerger, fish both! That way you can see which one works. When trout are preoccupied eating duns, greedy trout can't pass up a crippled-looking emerger. It is still food and easy pickings for them.

Attractor Dry Fly and Nymph

When you have no idea what the fish are eating and you want to cover a lot of water, I use this rig. Use an large attractor-pattern dry fly (I love Klinkhammer in the main however have had brilliant sucess at Marran Lakes using a Muddler) with a real attrator nymph — such as a BH GRHE on a dropper You can present each trout with two options flies. The dry fly acts as a strike-indicator for the nymph, and the this system it allows you to fish the nymph at a very specific depth. You can then vary the depth of the nymph. At Marran lakes I kept getting hit nicely with a combination of Klinkhammer/ Muddler and nymphs.