Trout often hold in deep water. Water well beyond the reach of a dry dropper rig. Water well beyond the vision of sighting a dry fly. It is only natural they do so where they can avoid contact with the world beyond the river. Deep water provides refuge from aerial predators. It makes the trout feel safe. However, with a fly angler present, indicator rig in hand, the trout can’t afford to feel too safe.

An indicator rig allows the fly angler to present their flies to the fish at these seemingly inaccessible depths. It is an important method to have in a fly fishing repertoire. A lot of water regularly fished can be big, with deep pools and heavy flow. The indicator has the ability to stay buoyant, even with the heaviest of weighted nymphs enabling access to these depths in these trying conditions. The best beaded nymphs are those made of tungsten. These things plummet and get down better than anything else bar split shot. 

By virtue of fishing deep water, there is a lot of tippet between your flies and the indicator. Should you need to strike, the most important thing is throw out the dry fly rule book of being soft, considered and even delayed. Replace it with the polar opposite. By the time the energy indicating the eat has transferred up through the tippet and into the indicator, resulting in dipping under, stopping, jittering etc, the trout may have had the ability to spit the fly. You have to strike as quickly as possible. Further, because there is more line between your flies and the indicator, you have to strike really bloody hard to pick up that slack, and apply tension on the fly, hopefully hooking the fish. Finally, don't be considered. Be proactive. Be instinctive. You rarely see the trout eat your fly when fishing an indicator rig, all you have to inform your judgment is that indicator. If it does anything out of the ordinary, strike. If you think it ‘ticks’, strike. If you simply sense a fish under the indicator, strike. 

Fishing off the drift boat with Mum on the Tumut river last season saw us run into this problem. Mum, having been conditioned to the delicate and considered nature of fly fishing by virtue of seeing thousands of A River Somewhere re-runs, wasn’t really striking hard enough to set the hook. We were experiencing a lot of fish being hooked initially, and then popping off mid fight. Secondly, Mum wasn’t overly attuned to the lighter ticks of the indicator, reflecting a ‘soft’ eat. Being a keen birdwatcher, her attention was otherwise focused upwards in the trees. With some concentration, proactive striking, and really going hard on the strikes, Mum was able to rectify the issues and start bringing some good numbers of rainbow trout to the boat. 

The indicator 

The indicator can come in many shapes and sizes. The various types each have their place in certain conditions, and it is valuable to be aware of each. 

The New Zealand Strike Indicator/Yarn

Yarn or wool as the indicator works so well because it is very buoyant and with some help from some floatant, is pretty water resistant. The yarn or wool can be tied straight to the rig, however this limits the anglers ability to adjust the depth. The New Zealand Strike Indicator is an awesome method and solution to this issue. It is my go to option for 90% of waters I fish indicator rigs. The method involves a small segment of tubing in which the leader is threaded through to create a loop. The yarn or wool is then passed through, and locked back down to the tubing by pulling the indicator tight. This positions the indicator on the rig. This tubing allows the angler to move the indicator's position along the rig, enabling much greater control and adjustability to the depth your nymphs drift through the water column. The NZ strike indicator is pretty receptive to ‘eats’ and will react accordingly. This makes the job of discerning when to strike that little bit easier. 

The bobber

The bobber is a pretty general term, and is not overly dissimilar to those used for conventional gear fishing. They are generally spherical foam based or plastic casings filled with air, and float extremely well. By their nature, they do float by ‘bobbing’ along with the current.

One issue with the bobber indicator is that ‘soft’ takes, especially those in slow water, aren’t as well reflected by the indicator.

They do tend to be reusable and are less wasteful compared to the other indicators. They also have similar adjustability functions and can be moved along the rig to adjust your depth accordingly. 

The foam stick ons

The foam stick on types of indicators are small shapes of foam, with a sticky adhesive inside that can be wrapped around the rig holding it in place. Whilst pretty responsive to takes, they don't seem to float quite as well as the other types when using heavy nymphs (e.g. 4mm tungsten beaded nymphs). 

They are generally only good for one use as the sticky adhesive wears off, so can be quite wasteful.

The rig breakdown

The length of the leader can, and should, vary in length depending on the conditions you are faced with. I have found in Australia you can get away with a leader length of approx. 4ft, however in NZ, with clearer water and spookier fish, a length closer to 9th is needed. The leader can be 30lb maxima straight through when using the shorter lengths, however to get the rig to turnover, a tapered leader is best.

The indicator is then attached at the end of the leader, allowing complete control of your depth when adding the tippet. Trim your leader down so the diameter below your indicator isn’t too long, nor too thick. Having tippet below your indicator, vs. thicker leader, helps gain depth faster. This minimises the line’s tension as it sinks through the water column and can help it sink faster.

Apply a length of tippet below suitable to river conditions, approx. 5-6ft works well for Australian high country rivers like the Eucumbene and the lower Ovens when in reasonable flow. Tie your nymph off and get fishing. 

Double nymph rig. When fishing two nymphs, you have two options.

i) Snip a 30cm length of tippet off the rig, approx 30cms, tie the lighter of the two nymphs you plan on fishing to the rig, then tie your 30cms of tippet you have just snipped off to the back of this nymph. Finally tie the heavier of the two nymphs to the rig and you have a deadly two nymph rig that covers two depths through the water column. 

ii) Instead of getting 30cm of tippet by snipping it from your rig, simply get an additional 30cm’s and tie it to the rig, approx 1 ft from the bottom, using the triple surgeons knot. Snip the tag of the knot facing back up the rig, then tie your lighter nymph to the tag facing down the rig. By the time you have tied the knot and trimmed the tag the optimum length is approx 15 cms. Finally, tie your heavier nymph off the bottom of the rig. This method also fishes two different depths in the water column, but being connected to the tag allows the lighter fly to drift more naturally.