You can fish tight line to the indicator style with a Micro Mono Rig instead of a Standard, but here’s what you’ll be giving up. Here’s what you’re losing . . .

Last week, I published a Fish and Film video that highlighted the remarkable effectiveness of a tight line to the indicator approach.

VIDEO: Troutbitten | Fish and Film – Broken Hand Suspenders – Tight Line to the Indicator Nymphing

Almost two decades ago, I sat behind the oars of a cataraft and watched my friend, Pat Burke, attach a Thingamabobber to his tippet section, below his sighter on a Mono Rig. A skeptic at first, I was a believer by the end of the float.

Combining the two styles of tight line and indicator nymphing resulted in a tactic that was altogether unique. Pat insisted that he’d happened upon the method through laziness, because he didn’t want to swap out the Mono Rig for a standard nine foot leader attached to the fly line, but he did want the advantages of an indicator.

What are those advantages?

Range, control at distance, a more even and balanced ride to the nymph and some intangibles that it might be hard to put your finger on.

I spent the next six months testing and fine-tuning the rig, the indy, the options and the casting. That’s when I found the Dorsey Yarn Indicator and when I developed a way to easily slide a Thingamabobber, because I knew that adjustments must be made quickly.

I learned a lot about what a Standard Mono Rig can do, and this is when I started to understand that it’s a hybrid system. The leader substitutes for a fly line. It does not replace it. The Standard Mono Rig can perform all the functions of a fly line, but it’s seventy-five percent lighter. The leader sags much less than a fly line, but it still has enough punch to push flies and indicators into position and mend the rig once it’s on the water.

So yes, the leader build matters a lot.

READ: Troutbitten | How to Read a Fly Fishing Indicator — What You Might Be Missing

Photo by Austin Dando

Since publishing the video, I’ve received a number of questions and comments around the same variation — Micro Rigs.

“Why not use a Micro Mono Rig instead? You can hold a lot more line off the water at even longer distances!”

“I attach an Oros to the sighter of my micro rig. It’s better than yarn because it casts further. I can’t get that yarn to go anywhere.”

Answers

Everything works sometimes. And if you have a method that works for you — if you’re having fun — then that’s all you need.

For me, real satisfaction comes from testing my options until I have a comprehensive understanding of the tools and tactics. Only then can I make my own decisions rather than slavishly relying on the opinions of others. I end up with a bigger bag of tricks to solve more problems with better options.

Here are the differences, and sometimes deficiencies, of a Micro Mono Rig vs a Standard Mono Rig for tight line to the indicator style.

The Casting

Five pound monofilament cannot push anything around. It can only be carried by the weight at the end of the line (or a bobber.) There’s simply not enough mass in the leader for a fly line style cast. By contrast, the twenty pound mono in a Standard rig can push things around and carry itself forward. This is the fundamental difference, and it comes with both consequences and advantages.

When using a Micro rig, the weight attached to the leader, in whatever form, does the job of bringing the leader behind it. That’s the casting style. It’s more of a conventional casting approach vs a fly casting style). This is why trying to cast yarn can be tough on the Micro rig. Yarn can be used, but it must be matched with enough weight to overcome the inherent air resistance of the yarn. And that takes some of your finesse away.

Regardless of the indicator style, a Standard Mono Rig can be cast much further with lighter weights, provided the cast is clean and efficient.

With good casting form on a Standard rig, alignment of the nymph, then the indicator, then the leader is in our hands. The Standard allows for more options because it carries more momentum — more energy — delivered to the end of the line.

You can get good alignment with a Micro rig, but options for indicator style, fly weight and leader placement are more limited.

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Tight Line to the Indicator Style — Tight Line Principles With an Indy
READ: Troutbitten | Your Indicator Is Too Big
READ: Troutbitten | Thin and Micro Thin Mono Rigs for Euro Nymphing and The Mono Rig

The Dorsey

The Drifting

Alignment in the cast is important because it sets up a good drift. With the Standard, we can mend the leader on the water, much like a fly line. This ability to introduce slack is a fundamental difference between the two leaders. Sure, we can hold a few more feet of line off the water with the Micro rig, because it’s thinner and sags less, but the Micro rig cannot be mended like the Standard, and the ability to purposefully introduce slack is limited.

All leaders sag, regardless of their diameter. That’s a reality. All leaders influence the fly in a tight line system, and that influence compounds at distance — another reality. So you can hold all your line off the water and be tight to the indy a little further out with a Micro rig, but the indy, followed by the fly, tracks toward your rod tip. By contrast, laying some leader on the water and mending strategically not only keeps the rig in its parent lane, it provides options for slowing the drift or speeding it up.

Casting and mending possibilities are both limited with a Micro Mono Rig. And once again, it pays to realize the Micro system as specialized rather than versatile.

The Troutbitten TB Hack

Hybrid

A tight line to the indicator style is about combining the best of two methods. Contact from fly to indicator is the first goal. And that contact from rod tip to indy is greatest when we’re close enough that it doesn’t influence the indy.

But on many occasions, the better choice is to push extra leader into the system and finish with some slack on the water. Then we mend that slack until the rig drifts close enough to be tight without bumping the indy. And if there’s no reason to set the hook, the drift can continue downstream by feeding that slack onto the water again.

All of this is more effective with a Standard Mono Rig, because it’s used as a hybrid system.

Fish hard, friends.

** Donate ** If you enjoy this article, please consider a donation. Your support is what keeps this Troutbitten project funded. Scroll below to find the Donate Button. And thank you.

** Subscribe to Troutbitten and follow along. (It’s  free.) ** 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com