Strike Indicators

Love 'em or hate 'em, they are a fact of life when it comes to nymph fishing, and an absolute must for long line nymph fishing out of a drift boat. They serve two very important purposes..1) they make it possible to see a fish inhale your bug. 2) they suspend your fly at a specific depth. There are anglers who claim to rely on Zen, or divine intervention telling them when a fish has taken, and it's time to set the hook. This method works fine on small streams like in the Smokies where most drifts are done dead upstream on a tight line, but in tailwater fishing, especially tailwater drift boat fishing, that method simply won't work. Your nymph doesn't remain in the strike zone long enough to effectively cover the water, and takes are often so quick and light, even the most sensitive strike indicators do little more than slow down in the current!

Strike indicators come in all shapes and sizes, they range from small pinch on pieces of foam, to plastic bubbles that resemble a small bobber and claim to use "proprietary trapped air technology" also developed many years ago by the Chinese and cleverly disguised as a ping pong ball.  I even tried using small balloons at one time but the fish kept popping them, maybe they were offended. If you're not trying to suspend too much weight, a large bushy dry fly, such as a hopper and dropper combination works great and gives you the advantage of extra hooks. My personal preference is yarn. Wool yarn to be specific. It's a natural material so I don't feel guilty when a piece flys off the leader and floats by just out of reach, you can use as much or as little as you need depending on the weight of the fly, and it is incredibly sensitive. It's easy to see because it floats high and can be used as a pendulum of sorts to judge the position of your fly in the drift by the way it tilts, up or downstream.

All yarn is not created equal however, some float better than others. The vast majority of synthetic yarns sold as strike indicators sink. Some right away, some after only a few minutes in the water. Nothing irritates me more than tying on a fresh indicator and watching it sink under the surface after the first mend! The best commercially avaiable strike yarn I've found is called "Lefty's secret yarn" and comes in a small yellow container, is sold in fly shops, and distributed by Rocky Mountain Dubbing. It even has handy instructions on the package of how to attach it. A good rule of thumb when buying it is to look for the thickest stuff in the bunch, it usually floats the best.

Lately, I've just been making my own, using wool felting yarn and treating it with flyagra. If you're not familiar with flyagra see one of my earlier posts on how to make it. It's largely a personal preference, and I've seen accomplished nymph fishermen using all different kinds of strike indicators effectively. Some fly fishers prefer to only fish dry flys but speaking for myself, I'm just as thrilled to see my indicator dive under the surface, you never know what might be at the other end!

Comments

[Larry Rogers]

Good artical on "indicators". Another material that works well, even better and cheaper than Lefties is Sculpin Wool. Sculpin Wool treated with "Gink" floats high & will Pop back up after a big mend.