Dropper Fly Patterns for Summer & Early Fall
A Beginner’s Guide: How to Choose the right dropper patterns for Your dry-dropper rigs during the dry fly season
“We should be fishing dries.”
World-renowned fishing guide and expert Hank Patterson said it best, and we should all follow his advice. When we can be fishing dries, we probably should be fishing dries. Why? Because it’s totally badass. You likely won’t catch as many fish, and you’ll probably have more misses than usual, but you’ll never forget the fish you catch on a beautiful surface take.
To help alleviate the pain of missing those picky top-feeders, it’s common practice to attach a second, or even third, fly behind your dry point fly. When trying to decide what to tie on as a dropper, I like to think about three basic ideas: depth of feeding, water speed, and time of day.
Depth of Feeding
How deep are the fish feeding?
I like to think about depth in terms of ‘where the fish are eating now’, not just ‘how deep is the water here’. We’re trying to fish where the fish are feeding, which is never as constant as the water depth.
If they are aggressively eating right off the top, forget the dropper and tie on a second dry fly. If there is only occasional top-feeding, it’s better to tie on an emerger pattern to grab the fish that look at your dry but aren’t ready to commit to it just yet. And if you’re blind-casting a fat hopper in deeper/faster/short-drift water, it’s time to break out those Pat’s Rubber Legs.
Water Speed
How fast is the water moving?
The slower the water, the longer the fly has to sink into the feeding zones. Conversely, the faster the water, the shorter the fly has to sink. The rule of thumb here is to increase the weight of the fly as the speed of the water increases. The faster the water, the heavier the fly.
Time of Day
What time of day are you fishing?
This is a simpler way to approach the idea of “matching the hatch”. If you already know how to match the hatch, great! If you’re a beginner, you can start with this simpler question while you learn more about the bug lifecycle and “matching the hatch”.
- Fish your larva, midge, mysis, etc. droppers in the morning
- Fish your non-weighted nymphs, winged nymphs, and dry/wet emergers around mid-day
- Fish your bigger patterns in the afternoon, both dry and wet.
Putting it Together
Ok, let’s see this in action.
Suppose we’re on the Frying Pan River in Colorado. It’s mid-July, around 11 am, and we’re standing on the inside bank of a bend in the river. It’s flowing at a wadable depth, the water isn’t slow but isn’t fast either. We’ve been seeing fish rising semi-consistently for the past 10 minutes.
Your buddy recommends using a dry fly and hitting the banks in front of the taller vegetation with a size-12 Grumpy Frumpy in Green Drake. What do you consider tying on as your dropper?
For this scenario, we’d go with an emerger or non-weighted nymph pattern as our dropper. You can match the color and size for these types of patterns to the hatch, or if you aren’t familiar with matching the hatch, start with the smallest size that’s the opposite color from your dry fly. Meaning, if you are fishing a dark & flashy dry fly, tie on a light & natural dropper. Size up and change colors & patterns as you see the fish react.
Some of My Favorite Dropper Patterns
Leave a comment below if you have any questions. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll continue bringing you my explorations of the latest patterns, tricks, and materials for tying & flying.
