Fly fishing the Mono Rig Q & A — Lines, Rigging and the Skeptics

This winter I’ll begin writing a book about the Mono Rig, compiling much of the material written here on Troutbitten, organizing it into a cohesive presentation and filling in the gaps. As I look ahead to that writing, I’ve been reading back through all the questions I’ve received about the Mono Rig. Many of the same queries pop up time and again.

This short series of articles separates those common questions into groups. All of these questions and answers will eventually make their way to a full FAQ section on the Mono Rig page.

This first article is about lines, rigging and skeptics: What lines? How long? How to change? And what should all this really be called anyway? . . .

Ask George Daniel | Drop Shot Nymphing

Drop shotting makes a lot of sense. Placing the weight on the bottom of the rig and tying in the flies above provides some significant advantages. Anyone who has tied a tag dropper somewhere above the point fly understands the effectiveness. Trout whack a tag fly riding anywhere from slightly above the streambed to mid column or even higher. They do it a lot.

I’d like to share the two most interesting points that George Daniel made about drop shotting. We got around to the subject about midway through lunch at Happy Valley Brewing Company in State College, PA.

Ask George Daniel | Nymphing Angles

I wanted to sit down with George because I knew he’d have interesting and unusual answers. George says things you don’t expect. I discovered this about him when we first met fifteen years ago, while he managed the TCO fly shop.

I wanted to dig deep into a few topics, into a few specific nuances of the tight line nymphing game. George is the mentor who helped me dial in my own understanding of mono rig tactics and all that is possible, and I knew he’d have thoughts that run as deep as we had time to dig. As usual, George’s answers were unexpected.

Tight Lining — Not All That Tight

There are times for constant contact. There are windy days and fast water pockets that call for a little extra weight and a drift speed that keeps your rod tip tight to the flies.

But on most days, the best tight line presentations are not about feeling the action of the fly or the weight on the bottom. It’s not about a perfect tight line with the rig. Rather, it’s about slipping in and out of contact with the fly on a small scale — staying somewhere between tightline and slackline — that’s where the magic lies.

Nymphing: Tight Line vs Indicator

I’ve watched a lot of anglers fish nymphs. Most of them pick up at least a few trout, and some guys are like a vacuum cleaner. But I like to watch how differently everyone approaches the game. It’s curious to see so much variation, because essentially we’re all striving for the same thing — we want a drift that looks a lot like what the natural bugs are doing down there. (And yeah, usually that’s a dead drift.) But while the refinements and nuances between anglers are plenty, I think we can fairly group all approaches for dead drifting nymphs into two camps: tight line or indicator nymphing styles. The next question: Which one is better?

Of course, the merits of each method have been and will be argued for decades. But it really comes down to this: Which one puts more trout in the net?