Nearly all the fish I've caught on nymphs have been caught using the rig described in this article. It was originally shown to me by a NZ guide, Martin Langlands. At the time I'd only been flyfishing a few months. I was pretty clueless about nymphing in rivers and hadn't been having much luck. I'd hooked a few, missed a few and lost them all. After showing me this rig, with a short delay to get used to casting it and using the special indicator, I started hooking and landing fish. It wasn't just the rig, using smaller flies made a difference too, but this rig has certainly proved its worth in a number of rivers.

The rig is a really simple one. It goes like this:

• 10' tapered leader
• Usually 3-5' of tippet (I always used a tippet ring to join leader and tippet)
• Indicator fly
• Tippet length to suit water depth
• Heavy nymph
• 20cm/8" tippet
• Unweighted nymph

Once you get to the indicator fly all following sections of tippet are tied off the bend of the hook, so basically you have the line running straight through. There are no droppers in the usual sense. This rig may be familiar to you as a Hopper-Copper-Dropper rig. It's pretty much the same but less "John Barr" specific.

Before I move on to describing the flies I'll just touch on some of the mechanics of the rig. Most important is the knots. If I count from the leader down there's 7 knots, so you want something you have confidence in. I use a Uni knot and have had very few failures. Another benefit of the Uni knot is that you can tie it in the end of the tippet away from the fly and then just loop it over the bend and tighten up. I found other knots frustrating to tie around the bend area of a fly. Any knot you're confident in is good though.

There is a bit of initial set up time. You do need to be patient and make sure the knots are sound. However you won't often need to retie the whole rig at once during a day. The different sections make it easy to chop and change flies as well as make it easy to adapt to changing conditions. In my experience it's much less hassle and more economical on tippet than using droppers.

I usually use the same breaking strain tippet from leader to indicator and indicator to weighted fly. I then use the next size smaller for the length connecting the weighted fly to the unweighted fly. For example I normally use 6lb for the first two sections and 5lb for last one. Obviously you will need to use whatever suits the size of fish you're targeting. If conditions are bit tricky I might make the middle section smaller as well. I think using the heavier tippet for the middle section makes for easier casting though.

There are a couple of things people ask me about. The first is whether or not knots slip off the bend of hooks. I use barbed hooks (I know, I know) and I've never had that happen. Paul nymphs with this rig as well and as he is enlightened he uses barbless hooks. He sometimes gets knots slipping off with true barbless hooks but doesn't have problems with crimped barbs.

The other thing people ask me about is whether having tippet tied off the bend effects hooking up. That hasn't been my experience. Fish mainly take the unweighted trailing nymph, but when they have taken the indicator or heavy nymph they've been just as well hooked.

The key fly in this rig is the indicator fly. That's right, indicator fly. It's an indicator with a hook in it. You may have experienced fishing taking indicators. It happened to me one of the first times I used this fly and I got the fish! As well as snaffling a few fish you might not have otherwise got, having the hook there is very handy for tying to. You can certainly use any bouyant visible fly, for example a Blowfly Humpy or Royal Wulff. As Hopper-Copper-Dropper suggests, a Hopper pattern can be a good choice. Something with a lot of foam would be good. However most of the time I use a specialised indicator fly, as shown below. Martin Langlands also first showed me this fly. It's simple to tie, as you can see from the step-by-step.

Materials Hook: Size 10 Kamasan B175 Thread: 6/0 UNI-Thread Body: 2mm closed cell foam Wing: Poly yarn Superglue/Light of AAPGAI	Step 1: Run on thread bed. Tie on narrow foam strip at bend. Return thread to a short distance back from the eye.
Step 2: Run some superglue along thread bed. Wind foam in overlapping turns back to thread. Don't wind the foam too tight or bouyancy will be reduced.	Step 3: Cut some strands of poly yarn. You want a fair bit, at least 5 lengths of the yarn I use. Tease it out with a comb, to remove tangles and fluff it up. Tie in securely at midpoint of bundle, still back from the eye.
Step 4: Fold yarn pointed out over the eye back on top of the other half. Leave a little "head" at front, where the yarn folds. Tie in securely over the previous wraps. Tie off at eye if you have room, or at the wraps. Liberally apply superglue to wraps and head.	Step 5: Trim the yarn. This fly could have been left a wee bit longer. You want it to be bushy, but not so long it mats together or becomes hard to cast and not too short or it won't float so well or be as visible. A little experience will help you fine tune it.

The main advantages of this fly are that it's highly visible and will float all day with just a bit of floatant, even with a heavy nymph tied off the bend and even in heavy water. When you're applying floatant really work it into whole wing, including the base. You can fluff up the wing at the same time. The only real disadvantage is that they can get difficult to cast when the wind really picks up.

Tan body and white wing is the most common colour combination I use. There's no harm in having a variety of body colours, olive and black would be good too. When the water is glarey a two tone black and white wing works well. If you can't see one colour you can see the other. I have a couple which have fluoro orange in the wing. I use these when the water is really murky and I'm blind fishing. There's no chance of the fish seeing it and it's easy to keep an eye on when you're really thoroughly working over a piece of water. Fluoro green also stands out well on turquoise coloured water.

If you can't quite stomach fishing that indicator fly there is a slightly buggier version which I believe comes from Peter Langlands. Instead of having the wound foam for the body it uses foam for the back and the body is dubbed with a hackle of your choice palmered through it.

Buggier indicator fly

If fish are taking off the top as well as taking nymphs then I will often change to a more natural indicator fly, usually a Blowfly Humpy, cicada or large-ish Klinkhamer. You'll want something which floats well in the water conditions and won't sink from the heavy nymph. In this situation I've taken a number of fish on the more natural indicator. Like I mentioned above, having the other flies tied off the bend doesn't seem to effect hooking up. I mess up the same number of dry fly takes as I do when just fishing a dry!

The next most important fly is the heavy nymph. The main purpose of this fly is to get the unweighted fly tied off its bend to a fishing depth quickly. It's essentially a bomb. The fly I most commonly use is size 16 and has two tungsten beads, 2.0mm and 1.8mm. The rest of the fly isn't so important, but I usually dub on some Antron and add some partridge legs. This fly has worked well in fast freestone rivers. It's a bit too heavy in slower water though and hangs up too much. The basic idea is that it's heavy enough to sink quickly, so it's worth experimenting to find a weight which suits your water. Every once in a while a fish will take this fly instead of the trailing unweighted one.

The final fly is the unweighted one, tied off the bend of the heavy nymph. Here you have complete creative freedom. As we've used the heavy fly to get to fishing depth you can use a much smaller or slimmer nymph than you might otherwise be able to. This fly is attached to the heavy one using about 20cm/8" of tippet. This allows it to bob about enticingly behind it without getting too far out of the target zone. Fish dig it.

An important aspect of this rig is getting to the right fishing depth. This is controlled by the length of tippet between the indicator fly and heavy fly. In many cases we're going to want to be right on the bottom, especially in fast water. However I've also found this rig useful for targeting fish which are higher in the water column, you just need to adjust the length. I usually aim for about 1 1/2 times the depth. Too long is better than too short. If it's too long you might not see takes on the indicator or find it harder to cast, but if it's too short it could pass clean over the top of the fish. This happened to me recently in fact. The fish I was targeting took a quick look at my flies once but then ignored them. It didn't seem spooked at all though. Eventually I got a snag and when I jumped in to get my flies back I found the water was about twice as deep as I'd thought. I'm pretty sure that if the section of tippet between the indicator and heavy nymph had been longer I would have had an even chance of getting the fish.

I don't find the rig hard to cast, in terms of casting multiple flies. I find it's much easier to deal with than multiple flies on droppers. You can still cast nice tight loops without problems although you're asking for it if you go for really small loops. When the wind picks up I will start to shorten things up a bit, both because it becomes harder to turn over the longer length but also because things get a bit more prone to tangling. I first shorten the section between leader and indicator fly and then between the weighted and unweighted flies. Generally you can't do much with the section between indicator fly and weighted fly because you still need to get to the right depth.

The trickiest part is probably the indicator fly. It can get caught by the wind and it helps to have a pretty firm delivery. As the wind increases I will change to a smaller indicator fly or a more conventional visible fly, like a Blowfly Humpy.

If you find the unweighted and weighted fly are tangling you might want to shorten up the tippet between them. I get down to about 10 cm/4" and still catch fish. I do prefer a bit longer to allow the unweighted fly more action.

I fish with this rig in a variety of ways, although most of them are just as you would fish using other rigs. For example the main way I fish it is upstream nymphing to sighted fish. In that case I aim high enough above the fish so that the nymphs have time to sink, much as you would just fishing a nymph or nymph on a dropper.

I also use this rig a lot when blind fishing, either because the water isn't clear enough or spotting conditions are difficult, perhaps from glare or the fish blending into the bottom too well. The indicator fly is a real help here. When blind fishing I will still cast upstream but often let the flies swing right round below me. I've picked up a lot of fish on the swing.

The real key to fishing the rig effectively is the indicator fly. You watch the indicator for strikes and not the fish. Believe me, if you try and concentrate on both you'll miss out. If you see the indicator twitch slighly strike. If you think you see the indicator twitch slightly strike! If you get the hint of a feeling you should strike, strike! Strike early and strike often was the advice given to me. With experience you get to know when the indicator has just sunk briefly due to the current or something, but if there is the slightest bit of doubt - strike!

Of course there are flies used as indicators and indicator flies. On several occasions I've fished with people who were using conventional dries as indicators and have easily outfished them. My biggest ratio was 4 to 1. Inevitably I see my fishing companion start to look thoughtful and eventually they'll ask about my indicator fly. I give them one to try and after getting used to it they start catching at the same rate I am. The big difference is that the indicator fly is just so much more visible.

Even with the indicator fly it's still important to get a good drift. That really is the most important aspect for me. The indicator by itself doesn't magically catch fish, the presentation is still paramount. Many times I have blind fished pools where I felt there had to be a fish and been unsuccessful until I really got a cast together with a great drift. Suddenly the fish was there.

I think this is a really effective rig and it's accounted for about 150 fish over the last few seasons. It's particularly well suited to rough and tumble water and fast freestone rivers but also works in other situations. It's simple and easy to fish, as well as being easy to adjust to changing conditions. I'd certainly recommend tying up some indicator flies and giving it a try.

 

Jo Meder (jo@sexyloops.com) lives in New Zealand's South Island on the side of a mountain. Since rediscovering fly fishing a few years ago he's become a hopeless addict and can often be found roaming the banks of both rivers and lakes, supporting his habit through work as a software developer. One day he will catch a fish from his kayak. He likes to cast just because and seeks to pass on the enjoyment of casting in his capacity as an FFF Certified Casting Instructor.