Dry 'N' Dry

**nicholas** · 31-01-12

Just reading Tim Rolstens excellent ebook 100 fly fishing techniqes and he talks about fishing a dry n dry as opposed to a dry and dropper, why have i never done this before??? i have a lots of micro patterns ants,midges,knats sizes 18-22 ect and never fished them because i would never be able to see the dam things, so next time i am on the streams i am going to give it a bash,a big old rab and a micro pattern on dropper.......anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks Nick.

**Robert C** · 31-01-12

Morning Nick

I have known about and used this technique on still waters for some time. I normally use an indicator, Yarn or solid foam, to keep track of small drys in rough water. I haven't tried two dry's but it makes sense as you have two chances of a hook-up if the fish like whats on offer.

Cheers

Calie

**nicholas** · 31-01-12

Originally Posted by Robert C

Morning Nick

I have known about and used this technique on still waters for some time. I normally use an indicator, Yarn or solid foam, to keep track of small drys in rough water. I haven't tried two dry's but it makes sense as you have two chances of a hook-up if the fish like whats on offer.

Cheers

Calie

Hi Calie, yep makes sense but i am sure there are some wise fisher folk out there who may be able to explain the downside of doing this because as you said we can use strike indicators to track smaller flies but again there are downside to that as well, it just seems so obvious to use another dry as the indicator but i must be missing somthing

....welcome to the forum.

**Robert C** · 31-01-12

Thanks for the welcome Nick

The only downsides I have found is 1. if they go for the indicator it doesn't have a hook in it & 2. if they are shy or skittish the indicator spooks them. Changing the distance between the flies can help but that can have a downside too.
Like you say maybe there are others out there with different thoughts.

Cheers

Calie

**gazzarowan** · 31-01-12

hey Nic

i've done this a few times on the streams when they are eating smaller flies. use a bigger EHC as indicator fly, and also pick up fish on it occassionally.

works a treat to guage where your smaller fly is

**nicholas** · 31-01-12

Yep definetly going to try it, i did a google search for fishing 2 dry flies and found almost no info, did a quick search on the forum and nothing much either , just seems strange that something this simple and obvious too many has not been discussed.

**gkieser** · 31-01-12

I have tried this and found it quite frustrating as the two flies do not follow the same path especially when not fishing directly upstream, and this more often than not causes the flies to affect each other a lot - drag etc.

You also often end up with your two flies sitting and drifting right next to each other - not great for when the fish takes the point fly. This usually happens when fishing water that goes from a fast riffle into a piece of slack water - the first fly hits the slack water and waits there for the second fly to catch up. Depending on which fly a fish takes (as they like slack water close to fast water this should happen often), you would have to adjust your strike as there would be more slack to the point so would need a much faster strike whereas too fast on the dropper dry and you might snap him off

Admittedly i have only tried this on one or two occasions and it would warrant more experimentation before i can say it's not worth it as a solid technique on our streams.

**nicholas** · 31-01-12

Originally Posted by gkieser

I have tried this and found it quite frustrating as the two flies do not follow the same path especially when not fishing directly upstream, and this more often than not causes the flies to affect each other a lot - drag etc.

You also often end up with your two flies sitting and drifting right next to each other - not great for when the fish takes the point fly. This usually happens when fishing water that goes from a fast riffle into a piece of slack water - the first fly hits the slack water and waits there for the second fly to catch up. Depending on which fly a fish takes (as they like slack water close to fast water this should happen often), you would have to adjust your strike as there would be more slack to the point so would need a much faster strike whereas too fast on the dropper dry and you might snap him off

Admittedly i have only tried this on one or two occasions and it would warrant more experimentation before i can say it's not worth it as a solid technique on our streams.

Informative as allways,thanks Grant

**ArcherFish** · 31-01-12

Originally Posted by gkieser

Admittedly i have only tried this on one or two occasions and it would warrant more experimentation before i can say it's not worth it as a solid technique on our streams.

Grant, I would recommend you give it some more water time.