The fly fishing rigs mentioned in the blog-entry “Big Green River – Day Trip (April 23rd, 2009)” are some of my favorites. There was an inquiry for some illustrations to help clarify how these rigs are built so I am adding those here. I am repeating the formulas for easy reference.
Before we look at those, let’s get some basic terms defined:
- Fly Line: the colored stuff on your reel that you throw around to carry your flies out to where the fish are.
- Leader: The clear, tapered line that attaches to your fly line on one and and your flies on the other. The leader needs to be tapered to allow it to “unroll” as your flies are delivered to their landing spot.
- Tippet: As you change your fly from time to time, you are clipping away precious inches from the end of your leader. At some point, you need to add some line back to the end (tip) to extend it back out. This is called tippet material and it is used to both extend the leader and to add a second fly to a tandem rig (called a dropper).
- Top Fly: The first fly tied on to the end of the leader.
- Dropper: Any fly tied off the top fly. Some rigs use a single dropper and some use two. Some droppers are tied to tippet material extending from the bend of the top fly while others are extended from the hookeye of that same fly.
- Point Fly: This is the term applied to the fly out on the point. If a single fly is being used, then it is the point fly. If a dropper is at the end of your rig, then that is the point fly.
- Fly Sizes: #16, #14, #12, #10, etc. – these numbers are part of a system that is used to guage the size of the flies that we fish with. They are actually the guage for the hooks that the flies are tied on. A larger number correlates to a finer/smaller hook size. So a #10 fly is larger tha a #16.
- Tippet Sizes: 6x, 5x, 4x, 3x, etc. – these numbers are part of a system that is used to guage the diameter of the tippet material (both the very end of the tapered leader and the spools of extra material used to extend the leader and to add flies to a rig). The larger number correlates to a finer/smaller diameter material. So 3x tippet is much fatter and 6x tippet is much finer. This is similar to the lb breaking strength we were used to when using monofilament to spin fish. In fact, each tippet size has a correlating breaking strength as well. For example 3x correlates to about 8 lb test strength.
- Florocarbon: This is just the type of material that the leader and tippets can be made of. It is a little more expensive, but posesses properties that make it less visible to the fish.
So now let’s get back to those favorite rigs that I described in my last post:
Tandem Nymph Rig:
- 15-foot leader end-to-end (that includes the leader and tippets all the way through to the dropper).
- The dropper (point fly) is a #16 tan scud that was separated from the top fly by about 18 to 36-inches of 5x florocarbon tippet. Other droppers can be used as noted below and depending on the insects available in the river you are fishing.
- The top fly was a #10 caddis larva (hydropsyche) attached to 24” of 4x florocarbon tippet attached to a 10’ 3x leader.
- A strike-indicator is placed anywhere from 6 feet to 10 feet above the top fly depending on depth of water being fished.
- A micro-splitshot (or two) is occassionally used 8-10 inches above the top fly to help get down faster.
Fly Rig: Tandem Nymphs (Color Coded)
Caddis Fly with Dropper Rig:
- 10 and 15 foot leaders are used here.
- One fly combination is a #14 Goddard Caddis for the top fly with a #16 bead-head prince nymph dropper trailing by 3 to 5 feet. This is the rig that my brother-in-law chcuk used to extract his fish this past week.
- Another combination is a #10 Elk-hair Caddis top fly with a #10 hydropsyche caddis larva dropper trailing by 36-inches of 5x florocarbon.
- The dry fly served as a strike indicator and as fly in both of these combinations.
Fly Rigging: Caddis Dry with Caddis Larva Dropper (Color Coded)
These most favored of setups are used when plummeting the pools of almost any of our Wisconsin Rivers. The two caddis larva (hydropsyche and Rhyacophilla) are very common. I often use a small olive or black mayfly nymph for the dropper fly on the tandem nymph rig – there are a tremendous number of mayfly nymphs available in all of our streams as well.
Of course there is no single, perfect formula for setting these up – that is why the lengths for the leaders and tippets are shown to vary. You will need to learn to adjust the length on those droppers based on both depth of water and behavior of fish.
Hope this helps you in your trout outings this year!
Paul
WiFly - A Wisconsin Flyfishing Blog 
May 1, 2009 at 9:47 am
Paul,
Very well written and good explanation of techniques — well done.
However, I am at a loss why you would name streams and worse yet, post detailed maps pinpointing specific locations. I respectfully request that you consider not posting such detailed information about stream locations in future articles. Thank you!
May 1, 2009 at 10:05 am
Hi wibrookieguy – thanks for posting a comment. I hear your concern regarding sharing locations, however information on these locations has been widely published for years in books like “Exploring Wisconsin Trout Streams – The Angler’s Guide” by Steve Born, Jeff Mayers, Andy Morton and Bill Sonzogni. Another great reference is “Wisconsin & Minnesota Trout Streams – a Fly Angler’s Guide” by Jim Humphrey and Bill Shogren. Also, all of the catch-and-release streams are marked on the Wisconsin fly fishing regulations. Although I show the access points on a map, you will notice that I do not say specifically where I am other then the widely know bridge crossings like Collins Road on the Big Green. I do not plan to share details of every fishing hole up and down these wonderful rivers – people will need to explore on their own. It sounds like I must have bumped into a favorite spot of yours already, so let me know which one it is and I can modify that post a bit. My posts represent my journaling over the past 17 years and the desire to share with others the experiences and the locations where we enjoyed them. I think it is also helpful to get up-to-date fishing reports from me and anyone who cares to comment on their outings. Paul.
May 1, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I agree with the fact that there have been guide books written by authors such as Humphries/Shogren, Born et al., etc. But here are a couple of differences:
1. To glean any information from these books, you have to physically plunk down some cash to obtain it or at least check it out from their library. But on the internet, anyone with a connection can access for free. Should it be that easy?
2. You’re also providing real time fishing reports versus the authors only offering general information on select rivers as a one-time basis.
3. These authors only picked out the most well-known streams in the state — “sacrificial” waters if there’s such a thing. One thing I’ve seen with these blogs is there’s no such self-restraint…the blog writers often write about there day on a stream that a friend may have shown them that may not have been very well known or is a small, sensitive fishery. Now the entire world has knowledge about this stream — including location and how it fishes.
You have to ask yourself — who’s benefiting from having stream names published in these reports? Certainly not the stream. Again, it’s one thing to write stream reports in a generalized fashion “fished a Richland Cty spring creek” versus showing actual access points on a map.
Trout streams are like grouse coverts — they shouldn’t be broadcasted if you plan on hunting/fishing those spots again. Thanks again for considering my points.
May 1, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Oh, one more comment — I’ve never fished the Big Green…let’s say the majority of my fishing is concentrated north of Hwy 10.
August 14, 2009 at 9:36 pm
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