Dropper fly rig

[BigBuddha]

I have never fished two flies, but would like to try it. How do you tie on the second fly and does it cause a lot of tangling problems?

[Jay Murakoshi]

Are you going to use this setup for trout. For fishing in the surf zone, there are two different rigs we use. One is with a Size 10 3 way swivel or use a solid ring - small. I also use a dropper rig when fishing for blue gills and crappie.

Jay

[Rick J]

for trout and steelhead when I use a 2 fly system I normally just tie a clinch to the bend of the first fly with my dropper leader and tie bottom fly to this - this limits tangles

For steelhead, I will often use a big fly (in winter) and put a small dropper behind

[erhetta]

I concur with Rick, and that is how I fish my two nymph setup. Usually the bottom fly is about 3' from the top, tied to the top fly's hook.

I have seen some other setups, but just have not experimented yet with them.

[BigBuddha]

I want to try it for steelhead. If I need to use weight, should I place the spitshot above the dropper or above the first fly?

[Claude]

I place the split-shot above my first fly. For me, the first fly is usually a little larger, heavier (beadhead) or flashier of the two flies. I kind of think of the first fly as an attractor, though the fish seem to take either fly readily.

[jhaquett]

Put the shot above your attractor pattern

Set up a typical leader, then blood knot your tippet onto that leader and tie the attractor onto that tippet.

Place the shot right above the blood knot, that way it won't slide down to your fly and you don't have to pinch it down and risk compromising your leader.

I normally have the shot and attractor 7-11" apart.

[dryflier]

I have never fished two flies, but would like to try it. How do you tie on the second fly and does it cause a lot of tangling problems?

The easiest way is just to go to Kienes and buy a pre rigged dropper system from reel combo system. When you are done, you put the rig on a foam spool. Really cool in that some people that use flourocarbon, at the end of the day the cut of the flouro to put the flies in their flybox, and the flouro drops in the water. The flouro has a half life of like infinity and can hurt the river life. You can also get spools so you can make you 5 rigs the night before (if you are an advanced fly fisherman)

I have started using these foam spools now that I am using rio extreme 5x, since I cannot just use a knot tyer to tie knots