Dropper Tag Knot Q and A Follow Up 

I’ve been following Devin for about 7 years and he’s helped me to catch big nasty trout on the Upper Delaware. Listen and learn.

I absolutely love the 16/20. Super strong and easy to tie.

Hi Devin I've been using the figure 8 dropper for a long time now. I use it for wet fly and Euro and rarely have I had a break off at the knot. I tie it slightly different to you in that I have the main line straight to the point fly and tie the droppers on using the figure 8. If I need to tie another dropper in I normally tie it just below the old dropper knot and keep fishing. I haven't tested the different methods for strength as you may have done, but plenty of fish have tested the knots for me and I have not had any issues. The figure 8 is quick to tie and has heaps of strength. I just though I would share this with you. Love the videos, keep them coming Cheers Craig

Great analysis as usual Devin! I used to struggle very badly with dropper tag twist (while using mostly surgeons or orvis tippet knot) until about 4 years back I saw a video from Kelly Galloup about how he rigs his upper fly 6 inch tags for a 2-fly drop-shot indicator nymphing setup. He does a mainline blood knot to join the 2 sections of tippet but trims those tags off - then for his upper tag fly he uses a small perfection loop (separate piece of tippet) that wraps around the main line above the blood knot through the small loop and it pulls mostly inline w blood knot when pressure is applied. The stiffness of the very small section of perfection loop helps prevent tangle in the first place and the tag fly pivots very nicely on the main line to help easily remedy a twist or tangle when they happen. I understand your points about surface area micro drag and extra knots - I'm sure those downsides would apply to the Galloup rigging too - but his method actually works very well to significantly lessen the twist problem itself - which is something I can't practically say for any of the other alternatives that I have seen/tried personally (as a non competition average guy) - including all those discussed in this video. Best wishes!

Perfect. No misunderstanding at all. Been an avid subscriber since the beginning. I have shown this method to all my co- workers in the fly fishing department at Al’s sporting goods in Logan Utah We all use it now. Thanks very very much. All your videos are great

Excellent work “nicely done “ your verbal and demonstrated explanation is very helpful. I have moved to a micro system finally and have of course noticed a big difference in strike detection especially in slow winter water. Maybe a video showing all how the micro system vs heavy tippets similar to the modern nymphing OG would have good traction

Thanks for the follow up, Devin. Great info as always.

Devin thanks for sharing all of your techniques and technical knowledge and explaining it so well!!!

Devin you answered a lot of my questions I like the figure 8 knot and the 16/20 just starting Euro thanks for the info looks like I need to practice to get the swing a lot of different techniques thanks again 👍

Thanks for putting this video together Devin. So much great information was included.

Wonderful tutorial! Thank you. This helps very much. I will put into practice, in the next few days, when we get outa single digit temps here in Western North Carolina. Have fun down south & safe travels!🎏

Good to see a new post, love this channel!

Very informative! Thank you so much for sharing.

Appreciate the follow up and being willing to interact with so many of us who are all trying to learn and improve our craft. Grateful to have people like you who share your wealth of knowledge and experience. Enjoy your trip south. dont pack your waders, be a man.

Great stuff, Devin.

Good video. Thanks for posting.

Hi Devin, I have tied a number of droppers today and by far the figure eight tag from the mainline is the strongest. It’s also so quick to tie. Thank you!

Excellent as usual.

Thank you Devin, learned a lot!

Excellent! Thank you.

Great follow up Devin! Lots of very good insights. I have struggled with the Uni knot to tie my second tag on with marginal success. I think I like your approach better, just retie and remove the damaged tippet in the process. Thanks!

Devin, as always you provide very thoughtful instruction. Do you have have an opinion about using a double surgeons knot for a dropper? I have encountered and landed some very large fish that required 4X tippet, do you ever go that heavy?

Devin, great video, as usual. Question: Do you ever use a loop knot to attach your nymph and/or dry fly, in order to give it more action?? thanks for your great work.

going to try micro swivels again. I experience all sorts of line/dropper tag twist. I fish primarily 5x and size 14-16 nymphs. But I hate euro fishing. I find it to be a very picky, overly complicated, and pain in the ass way to fish, full of half truths about how it works.

Suggested topic: if I wasn't comp fisherman and following/practicing for fips mouche rules here is what I would do different, here are techniques I would likely use, flies, equipment, etc. as recreational fisherman. Thanks for considering!

Devin - what’s your go to method to quickly adjust the depth of the nymph(s) when fishing the dry-dropper system ? I’m not convinced there is a perfect system for this, curious of your take (not that any rigs are perfect). Thanks for all the great content and fly tying supplies, your tungsten beads are the best!

This video is as good, if not better, than the video it's intended to supplement. Thank you for taking the time to answer question posed by your audience. One question, however, that apparently wasn't asked is about the advisability, in general, of using tags. The first reason for a tag that you adduce, that the dropper has more mobility and freedom of movement if attached to the leader by a tag, comes at a cost. Specifically, the freedom of the tag impedes the freedom of the point fly if they're moving in different current flows. As I understand it, this is the reason why many comp anglers are now moving to fishing a single fly. What are you thoughts on the matter?

I have another question, if you don' t mind. I don't think you've addressed this, but if you have, could you just point me to where in the video it's discussed. Let's say you want a six foot tippet with a dropper two feet up from the point. There are two ways of doing this: 1. Cut off a six foot length of tippet and then tie on a tippet about two feet from the end. 2. Cut off 4' 7" of tippet, and then tie in a two foot section leaving about six inches for the dropper. In #1, the dropper is formed from a separate piece of tippet; in #2, the dropper tag is formed from the initial length of tippet. The question is: is there any difference between these two methods in terms of strength, or anything else?

Great stuff - @Devin can you recommend a knot for re-tying a dropper, let's say it has been reduced to only 4 inches long and we want it 6 or 8 inches?

Awesome video Devin. I have gone from tippet rings to micro perfection loop at the leader-tippet junction. Then I double the tippet and tie a clinch to the loop (maybe an Arcay trick). What knot are you using here?

Hi a newbe Question? Would that be a good dropper knot, for simple Stillwater fishing? Like dry dropper ect. Two flies or both wet flies? Thanks for your help. Good info 👍

People need to practice their knots. This is a simple knot. Also Old Dominion trout bum has a video on the 1620 knot Very simple peace

Say you’re using a dry and a single point fly. You want to fish deeper still dry dropper . Tippet and knots in good shape. How to make this change? At 21:50 or so? Cut off dry tag completely. New fig 8 further away from point. Correct?

Up tag knot opens

didnt we call it a hopper dropper rig in the 80's?

You're not making it clear going on about nothing no point lost no point

your knot Fowles up and wraps around the main line. A dropper knot should be 90 DEGREES FROM THE MAIN LINE . It doesn't fowl up !