Fishing with a bobber

[overmywaders]

Before anyone gets too upset, I am using the term "bobber" to denote the hand fly, the dropper fly closest to the reel in a multiple fly cast. Bobber is an old term for this dropper, and descriptive of one very useful fishing technique - dancing, bobbing, this fly upon the surface of the water.

In "Streamcraft" published in 1919 (an excellent book and free online at http://archive.org/stream/streamcraft00 ... 0/mode/2up) Geo. Parker Holden, known also as a cane rodmaker, says the following:

Flies should be fastened to the leader about forty inches apart. The bottom dropper- or bobber-fly, next the reel-line (also called hand-fly), should have the longer
snell or connecting piece of gut which suspends the fly; and it should be the larger or largest fly, as the cast will alight better when the end fly — stretcher-, tail- or point-fly — is a small one.

I have found when fishing a bobber, that, in order to get the most time for the bobber to dance and "bob" upon the surface, the point fly should be large -- the opposite of Holden's recommendation. A large point fly, a.k.a., stretcher, will provide enough drag on a tight line to "stretch" the leader, allowing me to keep the bobber above or on the surface of the stream. And when a trout sees that large point fly - perhaps a streamer - seemingly chasing the bobber fly, which is trying to get airborne; well, what trout can resist grabbing the bobber?

Holden recommends that the bobber have the longest drop; however, if you want to fish downstream, you might want to have enough line out to diminish the likelihood of the trout seeing you. That being the case, a short dropper strand is appropriate for the bobber, a longer strand and the bobber would never get to the surface at a distance.

Any other ideas on fishing bobbers?

Regards,
Reed

[DUBBN]

Bobber = Big Dry fly that I can tie a nymph, flymph, or softhackle off the bend of its hook, and use to detect strikes. Bobber.

[overmywaders]

Dubbn,

Certainly many people use the term bobber for a float. Dobber is also used. Dobber, for example, can be used to denote a dry fly tied on a dropper above a wet fly tied on as the point fly. Clearly I was using the term bobber to express the bobbing action of the hand fly.

As an FYI, you might wish to read the local regs well if you use your dropper-off-bend-of-hook technique. In some fly-fishing only water, your method is not legal; the flies must be independently fixed to the leader, not in-line with each other. This is presumably to avoid the use of stinger hooks in trout waters, where the fish takes the lead fly, and the second fly, perhaps only a few inches behind, catches the trout in the flank or gills. Also, some people use a second such hook for those instances where the trout quickly rejects the lead fly and the fish is hooked on the outside of the mouth as it tries to swim away. IIRC, someone was actually promoting this second method, but the second hook was bare.

I know that most fishermen use the dropper off hook bend as a convenience; however, it is hard to write laws that don't restrict some perfectly acceptable practices in order to stop bad practices. Thanks for your response.

Regards,
Reed

[DUBBN]

Oh, I check my regulations. It's perfectly legal. I can drop (thats why we call them droppers) two flys off the bend of the dry, for a total of three flys and still be legal. Been that way for years. In New Mexico, I can only fish two flies in tandem.

One technique coined by either Charlie Craven or John Barr is called the "Hopper Copper Dropper". Lead fly is a high floating Hopper pattern. "Copper" (dropper), is usually a Copper John. "Dropper" (still just another dropper), can be any subsurface fly, nymph, egg pattern, etc..
Tends to get confusing when the term "dropper" is used in so many ways. For me, if the fly is attatched to the bend of another fly by means of tippet, it's a dropper. Just my opinion.

[overmywaders]

Dubbn,

Language changes. So long as we make clear attempts to communicate our meaning in the current context, it doesn't matter what words we use. OTOH, we don't want "words mean what I want them to mean", ala Alice.

For example, in the poem "To a Skylark" we have the verse describing the bird - "Happy, happy liver!" An uncommon use of "one who lives"; however, we don't immediately assumes that the skylark has a prodigious drinking habit, but no diagnosis of cirrhosis. Or do we?

[DUBBN]

Dubbn,

Language changes. So long as we make clear attempts to communicate our meaning in the current context, it doesn't matter what words we use. OTOH, we don't want "words mean what I want them to mean", ala Alice.

For example, in the poem "To a Skylark" we have the verse describing the bird - "Happy, happy liver!" An uncommon use of "one who lives"; however, we don't immediately assumes that the skylark has a prodigious drinking habit, but no diagnosis of cirrhosis. Or do we?

Yep

[hankaye]

overmywaders, Howdy;

Is this the poem you refered to ???

http://www.bartleby.com/101/608.html

Read through it several times and failed to
find the line you referenced..
Maybe it was another poet's work of the same
name or a different poem altogether...
Would be interesting to read the whole poem.
For me anyway...

hank

[Jim Slattery]

Hi Hank,
Great talking to you today. The poem is Wordswoth's here is a link the poem is "To A Skylark" not "To THE Skylark": http://nosleepingdogs.wordpress.com/poe ... ks-appear/

[hankaye]

Jim S. Howdy;

Dang ol' Google search ... did a copy and paste and that was the one that surfaced...
amazing how the misplacement of a simple article can confuse the issue...
I enjoyed the conversation as well..

hank

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

Jim S. I found the poem...;

To a Skylark« William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

"UP with me! up with me into the clouds!
For thy song, Lark, is strong;
Up with me, up with me into the clouds!
Singing, singing,
With clouds and sky about thee ringing,
Lift me, guide me till I find
That spot which seems so to thy mind!

I have walked through wildernesses dreary
And to-day my heart is weary;
Had I now the wings of a Faery,
Up to thee would I fly.
There is madness about thee, and joy divine
In that song of thine;
Lift me, guide me high and high
To thy banqueting-place in the sky.

Joyous as morning
Thou art laughing and scorning;
Thou hast a nest for thy love and thy rest,
And, though little troubled with sloth,
Drunken Lark! thou would’st be loth
To be such a traveller as I.
Happy, happy Liver,
With a soul as strong as a mountain river
Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver,
Joy and jollity be with us both!

Alas! my journey, rugged and uneven,
Through prickly moors or dusty ways must wind;
But hearing thee, or others of thy kind,
As full of gladness and as free of heaven,
I, with my fate contented, will plod on,
And hope for higher raptures, when life’s day is done."

Shelly wrote his, also with the same title. Both gents lived during the same time period...
Late 1700's to mid 1800's.
Reckon the copyrights didn't cover transalantic travel during those times