Questions about backing sighter / rig

[Mark Ferringer]

So my interest in the different types of sighters has gained my interest. Some of you are into the curlies, others are stanch advocates of backing sighters.  I am trying both to see what advantages/ disadvantages they offer me, but my questions are this... Do you typically fish 3 flies or 2, and what situation do you alter the number of nymphs you fish (is it always to increase weight or is it simply to present more targets to prospecting fish)?  Are they always tied off droppers or do you ever fish them in line like I always have?  I was taught by an old timer on Penns when I was in my teens to rig eye to eye, and it has produced over and over for me, as well as runs relatively snagless, but is there a better way?  I know that I asked a lot here, but i fished tonight with the sighter and my traditional rig and it produced well, but I wasn't confident enough to tie on droppers!  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[Dejon Hamann]

Most comp. anglers I've met start off fishing as many flies as they possibly can.  The thinking being: "the more I throw the better chance of something sticking." Myself included. However, over time most come to learn that that top fly is relatively worthless.  Not only does it often cause tangles and longer rerigging, but it doesn't produce enough for the trouble.  Many settle on 2 flies and some often start to dabble with one fly exclusively.  I tie a few of my "go to" anchor flies in 4 or 5 different weights - same exact fly, different weights.  Add to that a combination of medium and micro "Dropper" flies and you have a nice array of weight combinations from .2 gram all the way up to 4grams just with 2 flies. 

Droppers: Many camps say that fishing a fly on a dropper gives it more life then fishing it "in line".  Works for me.

Backing Indie: I used to use one.  But then I found brightly colored straight mono sighters and then the curly. 

For many comp guys we constantly practice by the rules.  For no other reason then it becomes second nature.  Since your leader can not be "broken" we must tie on droppers.  And since your leader must be "decreasing in taper" the backing indie poses problems.

[Mark Ferringer]

Very interesting and thank you for the info.  I am more intrigued by the day.  I missed that info about the decreasing size in tippet thing when I perused the rules.  I guess my 25 pound dacron doesn't meet that does it?!  Shit- I thought I was okay and feeling great about the setup and rig!  That's interesting about the number of flies fished.  On a normal day I take fish on all three flies, as I did tonite, but on that same normal day chances are that they would have taken one of the others had I been working a simple pair of flies.  Hmmm.  Interesting.  I am from the Humpreys school of thought (minus the split), as far as nymphing goes, but I guess I have just morphed it a bit with the rigging of my flies and the sighter.  I didn't use a sighter at all for the longest time, so I don't really care what type of strike detection device I use, I just like the idea of having one that isn't too obtrusive.  My brain will continue to chew on this.  I'm thinking about sighters and my wife is thinking about being induced wed.... I have a slight problem.

[Chris Puchniak]

Just don't tell your wife your thoughts right now!  Lol!

Us flyfishers in BC have to settle for fishing 1 fly 99% of the time, so I have little input on that matter. 

But I've gone from using no sighter to using the curlie now, and I've found that an excellent step forward.  If you can catch fish well without any type of sighter, the curlie will give you an excellent edge without being too obtrusive (IMO).  You'll have to try it and get the feel yourself though.  Having the addition of a visual aid along with your already developed fishing by feel method should come pretty naturally though and increase your strike detection significantly.  Really helps on long-lining too, when needed.