Indicator Options for Stillwater

When fishing stillwaters either in the shallows or weed pockets, in depths over 10 feet and up to 25 feet integrating indicator tactics can pay big dividends. Phil Rowley showed me the many benefits of using indicators at his Stillwater School. Here's some Stillwater Indicator tips.

By integrating Indicators into your stillwater strategy you will be able to:

• Avoids snags and fouling

• Work shallow water depths

• Work weed pockets and above debris and weeds

• They will give you the ability to surgically control depth and retrieve speed.

Indicator Versatility

Using indicators for fishing stillwaters is not just for chironomid fishing.

• Of course one of the best uses for "Slip Indicators" is for presenting chironomid larva and pupa patterns near the bottom. It is probably the most effective method.

But you can also use indicators for;

• Water boatman, scuds, leeches and smolts

When are he best times to to use indicators

• For presenting Chironomid patterns close to the bottom

• Use when fish are sensitive to depth and holding at a particular level.

• Ideal for fishing shallow water depths above or between the weeds.

• You can use "Slip" or "Quick Release" indicators to fish to depths of 20 feet.

• Allows you to surgically fish right above weed beds and into weed pockets.

• Great for kids or inexperienced anglers.

• Good for fishing alone and using two rods when legal.

Types and Uses of Different Types of Indicators for Stillwaters

Yarn Indicators

Yarn indicators are best when the indicator is set at 12' or less. A yarn indicator is set in a fixed position, so the 12 foot depth is based upon how far you can reach to land the fish in your landing net standing in a boat, probably not more than 12 feet. If fishing from a pontoon boat or a float tube you must set your yarn indicator shorter. They are good for crystal clear water. In crystal clear water use a white indicator.




Dry Fly as Indicator


If you're a stream fisherman you're probably well aware of using Dry Dropper techniques. This can also pay off when fishing stillwaters. You can imitate two stages of an insect. Using a dry fly as an indicator is excellent when trout are in the top third of the water column. In the wind the larger the waves the larger the fly. You'll want to keep the fly spacing in stillwaters 3' to 5' apart depending where the fish are feeding.

As a note, I was fishing a crystal clear lake in Montana a few weeks ago and I was sight fishing to big cruising rainbows. They were not interested in my sinking line presentations. I rigged up with a size 16 Parachute Adams and trailed a black and red Chironomid pupa 4 feet below it. I was able to fool a number of finicky rainbows with the dry dropper rigg. It works!

To rigg a Dry Dropper leader, use a 9' to 12' tapered leader with an added 2' to 3' of tippet. Keep your tippet a minimum of 2' long. If it get's shorter clip it off and tie another 3' tippet on.

Corkies

Corkies are available in solid or bi-color and are typically held in place by toothpicks. The Bi-color ones are great for signaling tangles. They are an old standard but still effective.

Quick Release Indicators or Slip Indicators

Probably the most versatile and popular indicators for stillwaters are "Slip" or "Quick Release" indicators. They allows the stillwater angler to probe deep water up to 20 and even 25 feet deep. The indicators are available in many sizes and shapes. They use a peg that releases when you have a fish on and when the indicator reaches your rod tip the peg pops loose and the indicator and peg slides towards the fish. You'll want to use a swivel or tippet ring to make sure you don't lose the peg if the fly breaks off. A swivel will hold everything safely in place.

Indicator Leaders

• Hybrid leader - Use a standard tapered leader.

• Or even better try a tapered "Rio Indicator Leader". This is an excellent leader for chironomid fishing or whenever you need the flies to sink fast. The 10 ft tapered leader has a short orange butt section for fishing "Naked". It's Level tippet does not slow down the sink rate. The heavy butt section makes casting the indicator easy

• Add a 24" butt section to your fly line using .025 or .030 material with a nail knit. Use a Fast-Tie Tool.

• Add a 10 foot Rio tapered Indicator leader using a blood knot, 3x or 4x

• Add Fluorocarbon tippet to complete leader with a Triple Surgeon's knot

General Indicator Notes

• Carry all types in your "Stillwater Kit Bag".

• Carry different colors - People see colors differently

• The mood of the fish may dictate size, type and color

• When fish are being sensitive, use a tapered or a small round indicator

• Use a fly line like a Rio Indicator Line or a Rio Grande Line

Summary
Add a collection of indicators to your stillwater kit bag and you will take your stillwater game to another level

Kingfisher Drift Boat Build - Scarfing the Side Panels.

The next step for the Kingfisher build is to make one 3/8" x 4' x 18' long plywood panel out of 2 sheets of 3/8" x 4' x 8' and one piece of 4' wide x 2' long. You do this by "Scarfing" the two panels together. It can be described simply as joining two pieces of plywood to make them longer. This is done by beveling two ends of the plywood in the 4' dimension to roughly a 7 to 1 ratio. This means that the length of the bevel will be 7 times the thickness of the plywood. In my case the sides are constructed with 3/8" Okoume Mahogany Plywood, so the length of the scarf will be 3".

Getting Prepared

To do this I'll need to gather up and prepare the following items

• Two sheets of 3/8" x 4' x 8' Okoume Plywood. Check!
• One sheet of 3/8" x 4' x 2' Okoume Plywood. Check!
• I'll need to prepare a working surface/table to work on the scarfing and epoxying process. Check!
• One sheet of 3/4" x 4' x 8' plywood to use as a sacrificial sheet. Check!
• Screw gun and some 1 1/4" screws. Check!
• 4 foot straight edge. Check!
• I'll need a sharp block plane or low angle jack plane. Got both and they're sharp. Check!
• 12" straight edge. Check!
• I'll use my 4" x 24" belt sander to rough in the scarf joint. Check!
• 80 grit and 100 grit sanding belts for the 4" x 24" belt sander! Final Check!

I've got everything I need.

Scarfing the Panels

I'm going to use the 5' x 16' table I assembled to do the scarfing procedure. I built the table to be 24" tall and also built plywood blocks out of scrap so I can raise the table to 34" To do the scarfing I'm going to raise the table to 34". I've raised it and it is solid as can be.

Preparing the Okoume Plywood to be Scarfed.

• First I'll place my sacrificial piece of 3/4" plywood on my 34" tall table.

• Next I'll take one sheet of the 3/8" Okoume plywood and lay it on top of the sacrificial sheet. I'll make sure the long edges are aligned perfectly and I'll match the end of the Okoume plywood exactly with the sacrificial sheet. The Okoume should be on top of the sacrificial sheet and aligned with one edge and one end.

• Marking the scarf line. Next I'll measure 3" from the aligned 4 foot edge and mark it. I'll draw a line across the sheet in the 4 foot axis. 

• Adding the second sheet. Next I'll place the second sheet of 3/8" of Okoume plywood on top of the first sheet. I'll align the same edged as the previous sheet and line the 4' axis up to the line I've drawn 3" from the end of the 1st sheet. 
• As a note: The side that faces up will not be the side be up when you glue it up. This sheet will be flipped over. If you are grain matching the matching side will be facing down.
• I'll make sure everything is aligned properly and then place a couple of screws along the long edges of the sheets. These screws want to go though both 3/8" Okoume plywood sheets and into the sacrificial sheet to hold everything flat.
• Next I'll mark and draw a line 3" back from the 4' axis of the second Okoume plywood sheet.

• Now I need to make sure the sheets are laying perfectly flat and are tight to each other. If not, I may need to clamp a scrap piece of wood across the sheets.  If necessary this wood piece must be held far enough back from the 3" scarf line to work on the scarf. I'll check it with the straight edge.
• The second sheet piece will have to be screwed down through the two sheets of Okoume plywood and also into the sacrificial sheet to hold it in place during the scarfing procedure.

Scarfing the Panels.

Now it's time to let the sawdust fly. Turn on the air filter. Turn on the fan. Put on the dust mask and get after it.

• I'll put on an 80 grit belt on my belt sander and start working across, back and forth to start taking off the wood between the pencil marks and the ends of the Okoume plywood. Creating the bevel.  The bevel will end up being about 6 inches long because I'm beveling two sheets at once.

• As I work down through the layers the interior plies of the wood will start to reveal themselves in straight lines. I'll use these lines as a reference to keep the bevels straight.
• When I get close to the pencil lines I'll have to slow down and start checking the bevel with a straight edge. The bevel needs to be straight and uniform.
• As I get close I'll transition to my block or jack plane to finish the bevel.
• When the bevel gets close to "feathering out at the edge of the sheets I'll switch to a flat block of wood with sandpaper to remove any final high spots. Do the final fine tuning by hand.
• The scarf should look straight , be flat and when checking it with the straight edge it should be flat in all directions.
• This needs to be as perfect as possible as the better the scarf the stronger the joint.

Done with the scarfing. Here's a photo of the sheets laid out on the table. The sheet on the left will get flipped over and epoxied to the sheet on the right.

Next Up. - Epoxying the Scarfs

Kingfisher Drift Boat Build - Preparing the Solid Stock

I've got about 60 board foot of rift sawn white oak that will end up being lots of small dimensional pieces used to build the "Kingfisher". This is a process of making small pieces out of larger boards.

The plans from Cajune Boats include a complete parts list for all the dimensional parts for the boat. I made a master list from the parts list to manufacture the individual parts. As with building cabinets, I rough in the stock to 1/16" over and then will use my thickness sander to take it down to the final dimension. I also cut all the parts 4" longer than the final size. This allows for fine tuning the length when the parts are fit.

Here's a picture of all the white oak parts ready to be finish sanded to width and thickness.

I've got a Powermatic 17" wide platen sander. What a difference it makes having one of these. I used to run miles of trim through it when I was building custom homes. It is basically a thickess sander. I rough in my stock 1/16" larger than the finished dimension and then sand it down to the final thickness. It comes out perfect. The sanding belt is 17" wide.

This is the feed side. The control panel is on the right. The conveyor/ feed belt is at the bottom. It is connected to my vacuum system and uses compressed air to control the sanding belt tension. Sweet. It sure beats a planer and a belt sander.

Here's the wood all finish sanded to dimension.

Next step is scarfing the plywood side panels. That will be the next post.