A flies “floatability” has always been a priority when fishing larger western rivers. Fishing two flies has now become quite common. In order to have a dry fly hold up a bead headed nymph it must be tied with “floatability” in mind. “Floatability” can be an excessive amount of hair, hackle, foam, yarn, or even a Thingamabobber. Yes that’s right the thingamabobber has been integrated with flies. Check out some of our hi and dri patterns pictured below.
Hi and Dri Parachute Hares Ear is a great searching pattern. I’ve used it during Green Drake Hatches as well as for March Browns. It can hold up your #14-16 bead heads when it’s a size #12
Hi and Dri Green Drake in a size #10-12 is an outstanding floater and will hold up size #12-16 nymphs in fast water. This fly is heavily dressed and may not trick your flat water feeders, but in big water you will see it and it will float.
Chubby Chernobyl floats like a toy sailboat. It is a Golden Stone imitator and will hold up standard and tungsten bead heads up to size #8. This fly has been performing really well this year on the upper McKenzie and should work in size #8 on all of our small tributaries.
Jimmy Z is a great floater but a low floater. His muddler head keeps him up but also let’s him dive like and egg laying caddis. Killer attractor pattern.
Thingamastone, just ridiculous I fished this fly all day yesterday with a size #10 Possie Bugger under it. Not ever having to dress a dry fly is a little weird, but very nice. This fly is durable, high floating and you can see it from another zip code. $4.00 a fly and limited quantities at this point.
Thingamahopper, similar result to his cousin the stonefly. This is only the beginning in terms of Thingamabobbers integrated into flies. Wait till next year.
VIDEO: How to rig hopper-dropper
It is a great time to head to the upper tributaries of our rivers and fish a hopper dropper system. Keep is simple, take some Possie Buggers and Prince nymphs sizes #10-14 and a hand full of high floating dries, your boots and shorts, and go do some rock hopping. Try the upper McKenzie on the McKenzie River Trail, the South Fork of the McKenzie above Cougar Reservoir, Salt Creek, Salmon Creek, the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette, and the Middle Fork above Hills Creek reservoir. All of these streams are perfect for a two fly system, and with the hot weather they are a great spot to escape the heat.–CD
Fished the upper McKenzie yesterday, Frissel-McKenzie Bridge, 3PM-PM. Incredible sustained Grey Drake hatch all day and night. Big fish going off in all flats and pools. Lots of big Salmon flies (orange) up high off the water. Incredibly, almost no wind except for the always present wind tunnel by Bigalow’s. Was as good a day as it gets for the big redsides.
Chris: What about a dropper loop instead of the blood knot and then attach a loop to loop connection of 2x with the big dry fly? This way you don’t cut the leader.
Awesome patterns– I knew someone would get a thingamabobber tied into a fly before I would 🙂
You seriously gotta check out mikey wier’s hoppicator– it’s got mono loops tied into each end so it’s adjustable, it’s the best hopper-copper-dropper system I’ve seen yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkrnqcxNSMw
i just watched mikey’s video and i must be too dumb, cuz i can’t figure out how it works. hard to see on the crappy youtube quality.
Love the Video and definitely lobve the Hoppicator!
Rob R – I am with you. I watched it twice and I just dont get how he is maintaining the adjustability he refers to in the video. Can anyone chime in?
Jim and Rob R – I’m having the same problem, the only way I could work through it was to tie-in a set of mono loops onto a hook and loop it to a bit of leader. Through trial-and-error I was able to figure it out:
1) Make a loop in your leader material at the level you want to attach the Hoppicator
2) Pass the leader loop through the front loop of the Hoppicator, then over and around the body of the fly.
3) Snug the loop to loop connection and pass the trailing end of the leader through the rear loop on the Hoppicator. This step is what keeps the fly upright and in-line with the leader.
The key seems to be to have the loops be big enough, but not too big. Again, trial and error. I hope that this was helpful! cvh