[birdman]

I like fishing a dry / dropper rig in the summer. Has anyone ever caught anything on the point fly in the winter? I was just wondering if it would be a better choice to use a strike indicator over a 2 or 3 fly setup instead. This would allow you to run an additional nymph instead of the dry.

Thanks,
Birdman

[phisherman23]

Never tried a dry/dropper rig in the heart of the winter, but I've gotten strikes on a stimi through late November. Personally, I'd opt for a big ol' dry fly (royal coachman, orange stimi, royal wolff) over a strike indicator just to give yourself another shot at em. You could still run a nymph or midge below your second fly...just gotta be extra careful on that back cast!

[birdman]

Good info, the only worry I had was ice build-up on the dry from casting. It would definitely be a good thing if fish were rising at all, but on the flip side, you could run an extra nymph/midge with an indicator..

[phisherman23]

Good point about the ice build-up. One trick to prevent this that I've yet to try is applying dry-fly dressing liberally. I like gink, but I'm sure there's plenty of others out there that would work just fine. We've got plenty of winter left out here in Colorado, so maybe one of these days I'll try and find some open water to test some of these theories!