Fly Fishing Strategies: Sighters — Seven Separate Tools

Sighters are game changers. A visible sighter allows you to stop guessing where your fly might be and know where it is instead. By having a visual reference at a fixed point on your leader, you can track the movements of that leader, in relation to the currents, and have a very good idea of what your flies are doing under the water — or on the surface.

Not only do I build a sighter into my nymph and streamer leaders, I also add small, subtle sighters into my dry fly leaders. As my friend, Jimmi Ray, says, “Why wouldn’t you?” Sighters, however, are a staple in tight line and euro nymphing leaders, and in the Mono Rig.

I absolutely believe in the effectiveness of long mono leaders for nearly every underwater presentation to river trout, but here's one major drawback: without the fly line, there’s nothing to look at. A sighter gives that visual back, better than ever.

Fly Fishing Strategies: Tippet Rings For Tag Droppers? No Thanks.

Fishing dropper rigs should be easy. But judging from the amount of questions I field about knots, dropper types and tangles, fishing two or more flies causes a lot of angst out there.

Last week, I wrote about fishing tangle-free tandem rigs, and a popular question repeated itself in my inbox: “Tippet rings would be great for droppers, right?” My short is answer, no. My long answer is . . . usually not. Tippet rings for tags can work, but I don’t think it’s worth it.

Fly Fishing Strategies: Tangle-Free Tandem Rigs

Multi-fly rigs allow for more chances to screw things up, and that’s undeniable. In tip #31 of the Fifty Tips series, I brushed off the tangles problem like it’s not a big deal. With experience (and some resignation to the inevitable errors), it really isn't a big deal. Here are some ideas to keep the tandem rig tangles to an acceptable minimum. Keep in mind, that I've grown into these strategies. I’ve done a lot of fiddling and wiggling with rats’ nests out there. And remember, the thing they don’t tell you about trial and error is how much the errors suck the life out of your will to keep trying.

Fly Fishing Strategies: Learn the Nymph

As a young troutbitten kid, I learned to fish live minnows strung on a small double hook with a barrel swivel and split shot. My uncle taught me to cast upstream and dead drift the unlucky creature, adding a slight lift when necessary to keep it off the bottom. When the fathead minnow was across from my position, I allowed the line to tighten and swing as the minnow was carried downstream. That transition between dead drifting and swinging was the sweet spot of the drift, and I learned to understand where it would happen. By considering the speed and direction of the various currents, I tried to position myself adjacent to the prime holding water for the best trout. Even at ten years of age, fishing was a beautifully complicated game and every cast was full of possibility. It was captivating.

Fly Fishing Strategies: No Limits — Fish every type of weight available

Do you use weighted flies or split shot? It’s a common question with a flawed premise. Why choose? Why limit yourself to one or…

Fly Fishing Strategies — The Add-On Line

Adding a second fly to the tippet section usually improves your chances of fooling a trout. Sure, there are times when the precision of…

Fly Fishing Strategies: Over or Under? Your best bet on weight

When nymphing or fishing streamers, I think most of us are trying to use enough weight to get the fly down and keep it…

Fly Fishing Strategies: Tags and Trailers

Sometimes trout are feeding so aggressively that the particular intricacies of how nymphs are attached to the line seem like a trivial waste of…