At least 30 years ago a half dozen of us flew west from Maine, clear across the country to fish the world-renowned waterways in Montana.
We stayed in Bozeman and visited the Madison, Yellowstone, Gallatin, Jefferson and Big Hole Rivers, as well as Hebgen Lake. We enjoyed drift boat casting, wading and float tube fishing.
Our finned quarry included rainbow, brown and golden trout and the fish size, fishing style and tackle setup were a vast change from home.
Among all the wonderful fishing adventures and breathtaking scenery I had experienced, using a dropper rig on my fly line was an innovative and productive technique I’d never seen on Aroostook waterways.
Our guides tied a second, short length of leader onto our main leader near the midpoint, thus allowing two flies to be cast and fished at once. Presenting two different shapes, sizes, styles and colors of fly patterns truly increases the odds of a strike.
Any combo of dry fly, wet fly, streamer or nymph can be combined and the flies require some water current to yield a realistic motion. Casting from a drift boat moving downstream with the water flow yields a long, natural presentation. Wading and float tube anglers get a much shorter fly drift and must use rod tip action and line retrieval to aid fly motion.
Upon arriving back in northern Maine, I tried the new technique on local streams and rivers with a modicum of success. It wasn’t until trolling a lake where the dual-fly offering truly made a spectacular difference to the normal one-rod, one-fly approach.
It took me dozens of outings over a couple of seasons to fine tune my gear. The leader to leader tie-in for casting a dropper fly just wasn’t efficient for trolling. The tandem, or long, single-hook streamers wouldn’t run with a natural motion, and the two leaders were prone to twisting or tangling with each other.
Finally through trial and error and the discovery and inclusion of a tiny, often unknown piece of tackle called a three-way swivel, the perfect two-fly trolling rig came together.
I attach my three-way swivel to my trolling line with a four foot length of 16-pound test leader material. To the second eye, I tie on a 10-foot length of 8-pound test fluorocarbon — a thin but very strong material almost invisible in water that I’ve found far superior to monofilament. A 5-foot section of fluorocarbon is attached to the third swivel eye, and a nontoxic split shot sinker about the size of a pencil eraser is crimped midway on the shorter leader.
The extra weight from the split shot keeps the tandem streamer attached to the shorter leader running at least a foot deeper than the long leader fly and yields natural motion of both baits with little chance of tangling.
Variance in depth and distance apart is an asset of dual streamers and is always better than a single fly.
A trio of great streamers with combined feather and fur wings should be in every fly box. Several of my fishing buddies have had consistent success utilizing this setup — a few have made a slight change, trolling a tandem streamer and a size 7 Rapala as their second bait.
After an hour or two of trolling on most outings, a pattern will develop regarding which style of streamer is working better that day. The other flies on the dual riggings can then be changed to take advantage of the pattern du jour.
Never a fan of dragging leadcore line or using heavy rods, dodgers and downriggers for deep dredging lakes during hot weather, I still use my fly rod and two-fly dropper setup with success.
On a few occasions I’ve even had the thrill of hooking a fish on each fly at the same time — talk about a wild fight and lasting memory!
No matter if you troll rivers or lakes, spring, summer or fall, more flies in the water offer more variety. My two-streamer dropper rig has certainly produced more consistent fishing for me over the years — I’m sure it will for you as well.