Nymph rig
 

I wanted to get some idea's about if I am rigging this right. I have a pretty informal fly fishing education (learned from the kindness of strangers on the water).

I was taught to rig one fly (san juan worm or nymph) then tie on another to the shank of the hook so that ultimately there are 2-3 flies below the split shot.

Re: Nymph rig
 

Yup - I generally tie the second fly 12-18" from the first. There are other ways to rig it, but that is the easiest.

Re: Nymph rig
 

Totally appreciate the feedback, I have been wondering if it was correct or not. I know it is effective though, so i guess I shouldn't worry too much about it.

Re: Nymph rig
 

There is a pretty good book written by Charles Meck that is called "Fishing Tandem Flies"

Check it out if you are interested in more detail about fishing multiple flies at once.

Re: Nymph rig
 

There are two common methods used to tie the second fly to the first fly. One is the hook bend to eye method you are using, the other is eye to eye. The hook bend to eye route tangles less but the trailing fly will sometimes inhibit the action of the lead fly. The eye to eye method tends to get tangled more but both flies can move a bit more independent of the other. I started fishing nymph rigs with the flies connected bend to eye but as my casting improved I found that I could fish an eye to eye connected rig without snagging and tangling constantly.

Re: Nymph rig
 

There's many more than 2
Back in the day we used dropper loops
but I'm more likely now to tie a loop2loop connection with a long tag "Y" dropper.
Joni has a good illustration of this but is probably away for a while
I've never liked the droppers tied to the hook. Any fish trying to take the point fly has to push the tippet out of the way to do it.
Not good.

Re: Nymph rig
 

If you want to try the eye to eye thing, you can tie your top fly on with the tag end of the knot 12-18" long and tie your 2nd fly right to that. I'm too lazy to try and get 2 pieces of tippet through the eye of a fly. :)

I prefer tieing off the bend of the hook.

-m

Re: Nymph rig
 

I agree. If the fly you are tying to is small with a small hooking gap, tie eye to eye or use droppers.

"Any fish trying to take the point fly has to push the tippet out of the way to do it" ...... Or the leader pushes the fly away from the fish's mouth and you miss the take. With a small hooking gap, a slight deviation of the fly can cause the hook point to miss.

Re: Nymph rig
 

Since I always mash down the barb of the hook as step one when tying a fly, I have totally given up on tying the second fly to the hook bend of the upper. Way too often the lower fly tippet will slide off the upper hook when casting and sayonara lower fly.

I tie the second fly to the first fly's eye almost exclusively, but on occasion when the spirit strikes me I tie on the first fly with a long tag and tie the second fly to the tag.

Chris