Fly Fishing Gear | Indicators

WHAT IS A STRIKE INDICATOR?

A strike indicator is a small, buoyant piece of material attached to your leader that helps anglers detect when a fish has taken the fly, particularly when fishing subsurface patterns like nymphs or egg flies. It serves a similar purpose to a bobber in conventional fishing but is often more sensitive and specifically designed for fly fishing. Strike indicators come in various forms, including foam, yarn, or air-filled designs, and they can be adjusted along the leader to control the depth at which the fly is presented.

WHEN AND HOW TO FISH WITH A STRIKE INDICATOR

Fishing with a strike indicator is particularly effective when using nymphs, wet flies, egg patterns, or other subsurface flies where detecting subtle strikes is challenging. Strike indicators are useful in a variety of water conditions, including rivers, streams, and still waters. They are especially beneficial in situations where the water is deeper, faster, or when the fish are holding near the bottom.

WHAT TYPES OF INDICATORS ARE FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

There are a few different types of strike indicator that all suit different purposes or styles of fly-fishing.

• Wool Indicators: Wool has been used by anglers since there were sheep in fields, which has been a really, really long time. Wool has the advantages of being readily available, environmentally friendly and (since they started raising green and red sheep) available in a variety of contrasting and bright colors.

  Wool is light and easy to cast, you can achieve a nice light presentation when sight nymphing in shallow water as well as being surprisingly buoyant when it comes to holding up heavy flies; just use as much wool as you need to support the amount of weight you are fishing.

  You will need to apply flotant when you attach a wool indicator, like the NZ Strike Indicator, and re-apply if fishing a lot throughout the day.

• Foam Indicators (bobbers): Foam is durable, easy to use and super buoyant, perfect for beginners especially on bigger rivers where delicate presentation isn’t as much of an issue. Our OROS indicators are super easy to attach too so they're perfect again for the beginner or a guide in a hurry to change rigs! Big foam indicators excel at holding up heavy tungsten nymph rigs even when you spice things up with a little extra split shot.

  Foam also doesn't get water-logged, so you don’t need to apply flotant to floating high all day, even in very rough water. You can also use large foam indicators to great effect in saltwater for drift fly patterns that don’t have much independent movement, like weed flies.

• Bungs: These indicators are fantastic for lake or any other still water fishing and have been a massive advancement in recent years for lake anglers. Bungs not only show you when a fish has eaten your fly, no matter how sensitive the take, they also indicate that your flies are hanging cleanly at depth and not hung up on the bottom or weeds.

  Our Fulling Mill Bungs work in tandem with Fulling mill Bung Bugs to create a perfectly weighted and highly sensitive system.

  These are perfect for fishing midge at different depth from the shore of a lake on a boat.

  ** Note: These are not designed for moving water as they won’t come to depth properly and allow the indicator to work how it’s intended.

• Mono, in-line indicators: These are the most technical style of indicator that we stock and are not designed unlike the others to ‘suspend’ your rig at a depth until the fish takes your fly. Rather these are made to be fished in-line, tight the flies with methods called high-sticking or Euro/Czech nymphing.

  You need to keep this bright line tight to register when a fish takes your fly, sometimes by seeing a tiny ‘tick’ or ‘bounce’ in the line but often by feeling through a light rod.

  These indicators from RIO and Scientific Anglers also indicate the depth that your flies are at by using different colors at set intervals and can help show you when they are ‘ticking’ bottom.

HOW TO CHOOSE COULOUR

When picking colour it’s important to consider what type of conditions you will be fishing in. For very shallow, clear water fishing to sight fishing spooky trout a small white wool indicator is usually best. On a bigger river though or lake white can get lost in foam lines or waves easily, so we prefer brighter colors like chartreuse or pink. Black is often overlooked, which is ironic as it’s very easy to see! Especially when mixed with other bright colors to create contrast (Mickey’s favorite color combo is black and chartreuse). Always keep in mind that the indicator is for you to see, if you can’t see it, go bigger, brighter or add more contrast (trust us, the fish don’t mind).

NEED HELP CHOOSING STRIKE INDICATORS? CONTACT US TODAY

If you need advice on selecting the right indicator for your needs, our friendly team is here to help. Contact us at our Tumut store at (02) 6947 4062 or via email.