Dry fly as strike indicator

[spig]

Hi,

What would be the best thing to use for a strike indicator?

I see lots of recommendations for a dry fly. The problem I have is that I am only to see a dry fly when the water is like glass. Is there maybe a LARGE dry fly that anyone can recommend. I was thinking maybe tying a BIG DDD.

As for indicator yarn.......... mine seems to get waterlogged quite quick and then I have the same problem as with the dry fly - the water needs to be like glass. Adding dry fly floatant doesn't seem to help much.

Any advice out there?

Andrew

[ShaunF]

Yip, soak your indicator yarn in Loon's Hydrostop for 24 hours and dry it before using. Same with your dry flies.

Anything treated with this stuff becomes virtually unsinkable, even when waterlogged.

[gkieser]

Howzit Spig,

Some very good dry flies for using as a SI are:
Stimulator
Elk Hair Caddis
Humpy
Royal Wulff.

If you use those in a size 12 they should be more than visible. I almost always use a stimulator because it floats well and the deer hair wing makes it very visible.

I have recently found a variation of the stimulator that looks like it'll float forever and be very visible in different light conditions too:

go to www.flyanglersonline.com and in their search field, type "MSA Hopper".

I tied some of them last night but used bleached deer hair instead of yellow and they look very lekker.

A tip for drying them after they've been wet from a fish: Get yourself some Loon Top Ride. You shake the flies in it and they dry very well. This product is a lifesaver for me on the rivers!

[spig]

Howzit Spig,

Some very good dry flies for using as a SI are:
Stimulator
Elk Hair Caddis
Humpy
Royal Wulff.

If you use those in a size 12 they should be more than visible. I almost always use a stimulator because it floats well and the deer hair wing makes it very visible.

I have recently found a variation of the stimulator that looks like it'll float forever and be very visible in different light conditions too:

go to www.flyanglersonline.com and in their search field, type "MSA Hopper".

I tied some of them last night but used bleached deer hair instead of yellow and they look very lekker.

A tip for drying them after they've been wet from a fish: Get yourself some Loon Top Ride. You shake the flies in it and they dry very well. This product is a lifesaver for me on the rivers!

Thanx for the tip. That MSA Hopper looks like it could work.

I'm still new to tying, so this would be an interesting challenge. Also, I'm not to clued up on hook sizes ("size 12").

Off the topic, they speak about "knotting it around the tippet so that it slides to the eye of the dry fly"? Would the line hold?

[Dyno]

I see you are in Brakenfel JHB, so I take it you're talking about the Vaal?

Hydrstop on the indicator work well, if you can get your hands on some Scotsh Gaurd, I'll take some, and I prefer using indicators, rather than dry flys, on the Vaal, due to the deapth and water conditions.

When you're in smaller streams, you can use a high floating dry as suggested abouve.