[Hooper]

I very rarely go over 12 feet for a single fly leader, Use a tapered leader, that will help with turnover, anything over 15 metres away from you will be difficult to hit on a surface pattern,hpld your rod around waist hight dont have the tip hovering above the surface, when you have a take on a dry wait a milisecond ( the old saying was to say God save the Queen, now King, I dont know if the one letter will make a difference) Lift into the fish solidy, dont yank back.

Playing a fish to softly will mean you'll lose more than you land, even on light tippet, I wouldn't go below 6lb on a stillwater. When you make contact, play the fish hard, bend your rod into him, 9 times out of 10 you'll be out gunning your quarry.

 

[Hooper]

Also this time of year foam daddies and fry patterns are your friend, whilst these are dries they sit subsurface and should be moved.

When you are seeing the occasional consistent rise but it not bubbling you can assume there are a lot of fish on the top 5 feet of water.

A good approach is to fish a Daddy on point, with one or two bobs bits behind him, ( if not ginked up a bob will sink), if you are a novice stick to two flies about 7 feet apart on a 12 foot leader.

Once you cast out, give a few quick strips, the daddy will cause some disturbance before very slowly sitting below the surface, the bob will pull him down lower the more static you remain. Because both flies are buoyant, you will always remain in the taking zone

Alternate your retrieve with strips, draws and pauses. When you get a knock, don't strike, move or keep moving your flies, until you lock up.

 

[Hooper]

This is probably going to sound really lame but I have to ask, from the rod tip down the line to the leader then the tippet is the first fly the 'point fly' then others after that droppers? Or does the point fly sit on the end of the tippet and the droppers are tied in between that point fly and the tapered leader? Sorry if this sounds a bit basic but .....

I wouldn't use a tapered leader with droppers, point fly should be the largest fly, this will aid turnover. When fishing droppers go up a line size for your dropper: e.g 7lb mainline 8lb dropper, this will greatly protect against dropper tangling.

Don't go to light on your tippet on a stillwater, I'll go down to a size 16 on a 8lb dropper.

 

[Hooper]

If I fish a dropper I tend to just tie a tippet on the leader and don't trim the knot back and tie a dropper on that 20-30 cm (mainly because I don't know better!)

Forget about leader when fishing a multicast, level tippet straight through from fly line, I only use a tapered leader if I cast large wind resistant flies or small dries.

12 feet of 7lb line, droppers 8lb tied with three turn water knot. Two fly cast spaced 7 feet apart or three flies at about 5 and 4.5.

Point fly needs to be bigger will help with turnover, as your casting improves the point this needn't be the case.

As you improve increase your leader to 15 feet I find this the ideal length for fishing three flies.

When you bring your cast in sometimes your dropper will be twisted around the mainline, do not get hung up by this, the fly's will right themselves in the water. Although periodically check leader for tangles.

And you will get tangles when fishing droppers.

 

[Hooper]

I think this is the way I need to go, it makes a lot of sense, I'm not happy dragging lures through on Di 3's so two floating lines would keep me happy enough. BTW why & how do you use a sink tip line effectively?

Embrace sinking lines buddy, they will be good friends to you, esp on bigger deeper waters. Also I find it quite exciting when I'm slowly doing the Roly poly and the rod nearly gets yanked out of my hands.