I have Beardy Paul to thank for these tips (as well as for the headline!). Since learning to tie my own tapered leaders, I’ve been much happier with my set-ups. However, when fishing a three fly rig with droppers (which is most of the time on the larger reservoirs) I have been getting niggled by having to re-tie the tippet ends so often. As I change flies, eventually the droppers get too short and I have to re-do the whole end of the line.
That was until Beardy Paul mentioned tippet rings! Now, I’d heard of them before but had discounted using them; they sounded fiddly and a waste of time. I couldn’t have been more wrong, they are genius! I simply tie a tippet ring onto the end of the tapered leader, then attach a dropper and another 4 feet of tippet for a simple two fly set-up. For a three fly set-up, I just attach another tippet ring, dropper and a final section of 4-5 feet for the point fly. And the best thing is that when the droppers get too short, you just tie on another length of tippet!
I was initially a bit wary about how strong they were and also introducing a whole new set of knots. However, I’ve used this set-up at Farmoor with some of the big overwintered rainbows there with no problems (the resident fish in Farmoor I are 5lb plus and put up a big fight).
I’ve combined this set up with some new tippet: Riverge Grand Max (another tip from Beardy Paul). The 9.5lb 3x is amazingly thin for such a strong tippet, which allows me to fish with confidence, not spook the fish and use a variety of flies on the same set-up, from small nymphs through to large lures.
Cheers Beardy Paul!
Interesting piece my father is a master brown trout fisherman from North Wales and he has introduced me to Tippett rings.. Can you get away with just one ring and your own Tippett or would you recommend a 2 ring three piece leader.. I live in NW ireland and am blessed with some excellent fishing..
Hi Gary – either is fine. I generally use two rings for a 3-fly set-up (2 droppers and a point fly) on the larger reservoirs but go down to one ring for two flies (dropper and point fly) for smaller lakes.