Ontario Shore Fishing Forum

Dropper flies

Here’s something I used to do in the salt for mackerel, and when fly fishing in freshwater for panfish and bass.

Basically it’s adding one or more smaller flies on droppers in front of a lure or jig…….. or trailing behind on a leader attached to the tail hook.

When fly fishing back then I usually trailed a small nymph or ant off the back of a large floating fly or popper. The small pond rock bass and sunfish loved it.

Some other examples:

http://www.floridasportsman.com/2013/04/...d-fly-rig/

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreat...s/jigging/

http://lurefishingforbass.co.uk/fishing-...y-dropper/

For something different this year (and some S&G)- I hope to begin using this again using streamers in combination with plastic jigs - both in river fishing for all species,……… and in deep water fishing of a few Muskoka lakes for the hard to catch summer bottom dwellers.

Have any of you tried this in summer here in deep water?

Cheers,

OldTimer

Love this technique, works great IME on small resi Trout too!

Timely post, I've recently been dabbling with trailing a fly behind crankbaits. Maybe about one or two hours on this technique on slow days, but hasn't been successful yet. I'll have to try it on a good day and see if I can get anything on the trailing fly.

My plan is.......... to try medium size streamers - most likely with tinsel/mylar for a bit of flash and a bit of mariboo for pulsing action.

great idea

Will have to try this. Have seen this for nymph fishing but not with crankbaits

I did try this with a small wet fly behind my new pink Angry Bird at Penn Lake (Deerhurst) off the dock- the small smallmouths and rock bass just loved both.

I've been using this technique for years. Not so much while fly casting, but when vertical jigging through the ice for perch and other panfish. I'd rig a "buggy" looking bead head fly tied on a #8 - #10 hook 12" below a 3" jigging spoon. The flash of the spoon would call the fish in from a distance and the subtle action of the fly would seal the deal. I've lost track of how many larger predators I've caught over the years using this method but am constantly amazed to find a good sized pike chose a pinky sized fly over the nearby silver spoon!