The amount of joy it brings me to hear @jaredoconnor talking about indicators is hard to measure. This is truly a banner day.
Indicator Leader Formulas
- Thread starter jaredoconnor
- Start date
jaredoconnor
Peabrain Chub
@jaredoconnor I've got my old depth finder that I'll never use. It's yours if you want it. It's probably not going to be the easiest to setup on a float tube, but you've got that engineers mind - I'm sure you'll be able to figure that out.
ifsteve
Steelhead
12ft of 12# (fluoro or mono) tied to tippet ring. Then 4 ft of 3x or 4x fluoro tippet. If I am fishing deeper then just add 5ft of 15# at the fly line end or a second fly and appropriate length between the 2 flies. Yes it casts not well but as far as I am concerned no indicator setup casts well anyway, And I want as simple a setup as possible so when I ultimately get a bad tangle I can just cut it off and start over.
To the OP - that leader construction recipe is just plain crazy. WAY too many connections. And connections are points of failure or debris catching.
To the OP - that leader construction recipe is just plain crazy. WAY too many connections. And connections are points of failure or debris catching.
jaredoconnor
Peabrain Chub
Thanks for the generous offer, yet again! I feel like I need to keep things simple for the foreseeable future though.
On that note, for future reference, what’s wrong with just attaching weight to my leader and gauging depth that way? Do lake depths change too frequently for that to be viable?
Nothing wrong with this at all. It just takes a while longer to develop a mental picture of the bathymetry, so you can decide where and how deep to start fishing, and then what to do after that, if your first idea doesn't work.
That's the thing about indicator fishing lakes. It is really fun and effective when you are putting your flies in front of bitey fish. But it kind of sucks for finding them. At least, it can take a while sometimes.
There’s nothing wrong with plumbing the depth. For years I did that and pretty much stuck to areas where I could see the bottom. I caught fish. But the dang fish swim all over the lake. And finders let you see structures you would miss otherwise.
Jared, for 20' depths, I just use a regular tapered leader that's basically "used up," make sure to cut it back to 2x or 3x or so, then knot on a long section of 2x or 3x. If it's 2x I will probably have a surgeon's knot to 3x or 4x to my top fly. Then I tie some 3x or 4x to the bottom fly. I use a slip indicator with the peg drilled out so it can fit over big honkin' surgeons knots.
actually it is the best way, just use your clamp for the weight..having a depth finder in my skiff doesn't change how I determine leader depth, which is clamp hemostat to bottom fly, drop to the bottom with indicator unpegged, identify depth, then peg the indicator so balanced leech or chrom is suspended 1' above the bottom as a starting point.
Very true. I think that @jaredoconnor may even want to look into a couple other techniques for lakes, given that he hates actual fly line so much.
The first is fishing chironomids "naked," or sans indicator. Jared is already familiar with spooling yards of mono onto his fly reel, so it's not too hard to imagine him happily concocting a 30' leader with one or two weighted flies, slinging it out there and fishing it under his rod tip. I bet something like an 11' 3 wt would be pretty useful for this.
The second is something I've just heard about. You string up your reel with dental floss, somehow affix that to your fly (tippet? leader? IDK) and you pull a bunch off and let a strong wind make your fly bounce on the water, supposedly inducing strikes.
This was the method I learned in the 70's, a TDC on a long leader. When I joined the forum several years ago and learned about indicators, I though wow! I just had no clue. I've been sold ever since.
jaredoconnor
Peabrain Chub
Very true. I think that @jaredoconnor may even want to look into a couple other techniques for lakes, given that he hates actual fly line so much.
The first is fishing chironomids "naked," or sans indicator. Jared is already familiar with spooling yards of mono onto his fly reel, so it's not too hard to imagine him happily concocting a 30' leader with one or two weighted flies, slinging it out there and fishing it under his rod tip. I bet something like an 11' 3 wt would be pretty useful for this.
The second is something I've just heard about. You string up your reel with dental floss, somehow affix that to your fly (tippet? leader? IDK) and you pull a bunch off and let a strong wind make your fly bounce on the water, supposedly inducing strikes.
You can do that?!
@troutpocket shared his leader formula; he's a trout catching machine and his information is spot on.
Yeah, you can fish long leaders without an indicator; some guys are really good at it. @Engee did really well on Dragon this spring using this technique (and he Loves his Rio indicator line). I prefer a bobber, I mean, strike indicator.
Sonar units really, really help you find bottom (and sometimes fish). If you're lucky enough to find a Fishin' Buddy 120 (or 140C) with sidescan, all the better.
Bambooflyguy
Legend
@jaredoconnor have you looked for a bathymetric map of the lakes you are targeting? Many county sites/resources have them available. Not sure where you live but King and Snohomish have some great resources. I can provide links if they would help.
What you see on the surface and what happens below the surface can be very different. There are places on the lake where if you measure the depth off one side of the boat will be significantly different than the other side. Also if the lake is 30' to 50' deep, there quite possibly/will be thermoclines. One would want to fish the thermocline area rather than the bottom.
Example of a bathymetric lake map I know well. It has thermoclines at about 20' down and 30' down. Having a fish finder will help identify the depth of the thermocline because you may/can see fish.
What you see on the surface and what happens below the surface can be very different. There are places on the lake where if you measure the depth off one side of the boat will be significantly different than the other side. Also if the lake is 30' to 50' deep, there quite possibly/will be thermoclines. One would want to fish the thermocline area rather than the bottom.
Example of a bathymetric lake map I know well. It has thermoclines at about 20' down and 30' down. Having a fish finder will help identify the depth of the thermocline because you may/can see fish.
Attachments
I may be ignorant, but on ff only lakes aren’t barrel swivels and split rings considered “weights” and not legal?
jaredoconnor
Peabrain Chub
Add indicators/bobbers?