RIGGING & SET-UP
Start with an indicator at the beginning of your leader - the bigger the better as you will be able to see it well and it can suspend up to 3 weighted flies. Airlock indicators are a personal favorite due to their ease of use and effectiveness. From your indicator, start with about six or seven feet to the swivel. 15 to 20 pound fluorocarbon is a good choice for your indicator to swivel segment as it is thicker and stiffer, transferring energy and turning over easily. From there, add fifteen inches of 0x- 2x to your first fly. Taper that down one size to your consecutive flies as you wish. This will provide you with enough strength to fight fish quickly and also get hung-up flies off the bottom. Depth is critical. While split shot is very handy, you often only need a swivel between your first fly and indicator for external weight. The swivel acts like a tippet ring, but adds weight and rotates without twisting your leader. By tying your flies eye-to-eye with loop knots, each fly will move freely and all flies in the setup are likely to catch fish. Keep in mind that the sequencing and size of your fly setups will vary the tippet that you choose to fish. Lighter tippets are often needed with smaller nymphs to allow movement. We tend to fish relatively large nymphs/ leeches and therefore heavier tippet.