New trick for multiple fly rigs

[jonbo]

Here's something I tried the other day for fishing multiple flies as we often do with nymph rigs. From 4x go to a foot or so of 5x, then 16'' or so of 6x. Use double (or triple) surgeon's knots. Leave the up-leader tag end on these just slightly long. Tie your (I can't manage the dadgum italics! I italicized the word "slightly" and I can't get it to quit!) end fly on to that 6x. Now, the flies up-leader from that you're going to tie on to separate 4-5" snells, that is, a piece of leader with a loop at the end. I used a Perfection Loop. I made up for myself at home a package of flies with snells. Now when you want to put on one of those up-leader flies, you simply loop the snell around the leader, put the fly through the loop, and cinch it down onto the leader, if you follow me. You do this above one of your Surgeon Knots, then pull the fly and loop down on top of the knot. the knot and little tag end hold it right there.

Very easy to change one of these out when you want to try a different up-leader fly. My problem had been the surgeon's knot with the 5" tag that we tied the upper fly on. I could change that fly once, and that was it. After that the tag got too short and I had to redo the whole tippet end/dropper assembly. This way I can retie flies several times before the last piece of 6x starts getting too short. Try it!

[wardw]

Interesting setup jonbo - you run into any issues with the dropper getting loose? Would imagine it would be difficult to keep it cinched tight after a few casts.

You catch any on the droppers while you were fishing it? Curious how much abrasion you saw above the surgeons knot and on the perfection loop. Seems like there might be a lot of friction going on

[jonbo]

There could be friction, I guess. It never came loose at all, nor threatened to. The thing is, I found the fishing a little slow that day. Because of that I kept changing rigs, flies, shallow, deep, etc. I never had the same setup for very long. If there was much wear just above the surgeon's knot I never discovered it. Within an hour I had changed everything and was swinging a soft hackle or something. It sure made it easy to change that upper fly out though whenever I was using it! The other thing, the top side of the surgeon's knot where the perfection loop is looped on, that can be 3x or 4x while the "snell" can be 5x or 6x so it will tend to be pretty strong at the connection point. Anyway, it worked quite nicely for me on the first tryout. I plan to use this "system" for awhile and will keep everyone informed.