For buzzer imitations I try to pick patterns which don't spin when casting. Droppers with spinning flies is just asking for problems.
This quote comes from Sunk Lines and Big Women(yeah the title did it for me) and I got some questions on this:
1) How do you distinguish a spinning pattern from a non-spinning pattern?
2) I went reservoir fishing this weekend and tried out various multiple fly-setups. One problem kept coming back though, no matter what the rig: the additional tippets kept turning around the main line after a few casts. Is the above quote cause of this, or is my casting? :p And how can I fix this?
I have never seen anything that stops the droppers from twisting around the main line and i have tried most things. Different knots, different flies, different leader material. They can all vary the amount of time it takes the dropper to twist around the main line but nothing i have done has ever prevented it from happening.
The big problem comes when flies twist so much on the dropper they send that twist into the main line. You can end up with the leader doubling back on itself and twisting up into a real mess. 3 flies, 2 droppers and the main leader all twisted up is horrible to try and fix. Easier to remove the leader and replace it with a new one.
The worst flies for twisting have something on them the causes a lot of wind resistance. The foam eyes on boobies and large heavy hackles that stand out at right angles from the hook shank are the most obvious. Some patterns that have material sticking out over the eye of the hook can cause problems. Maybe that is where the person is talking about buzzers not spinning. The white gills/breathers on some patterns(shuttlecocks, shipmans) can cause these flies to twist.
Getting a stiffer leader material can help prevent twisting but once it gets kinks or twists they can be very difficult to remove.
Tying a half hitch on the dropper around the main line can also help. It makes the dropper stand out at right angles to the main line.
Setting up the leader correctly with the heaviest fly on the point is another thing that will help. The heavy fly sinking through the water can help to untwist the droppers as it pulls them down.
You can also try playing around with the length of your droppers and see if that helps much. It changes with the leader material you are using.
One thing i would be interested in is if anyone has ever tried using rings where the droppers are tied in. Does it make any difference to the twisting or are they just something else to waste money on?
I used to fish 3 flies with two droppers quite a bit and had similar frustrations with twisting, not surprisingly :-). I came to the same sorts of conclusions as blackwater. Stiffer tippet helps. I also found it helps to slow down your casting. Use the minimum speed and power to get the cast out.
One thing I did try was Hends dropper rollers:
They work pretty well but are also pretty fiddly and easy to drop :-). I stopped using them after the first packet.
I haven't tried rings for droppers but I do use them all the time at the tippet to leader join. If the tippet is going to twist up the ring doesn't usually stop it so I don't think using them for droppers would make a lot of difference, except possibly for holding the dropper out at an angle. I reckon it might slide round against the main line after a while though.
In the end I changed my rig a bit and for the top dropper I tie the top/middle section off the bend of the top fly and cut down the dropper hassle to one. For my fishing that worked ok, the fish will still hook themselves on the top fly. The presentation isn't quite as good perhaps and it might not be for everyone. I've never really tried that rig with loch style fishing, just pulling or static fishing in lakes.
