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recommendations for mono dropper rigs

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dannyplug1

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Tying up some dropper riggs in an attempt to remain sane in covit lock down with my wife.  For the surf I use leaders that are 60-pound ande leader.  What test ande would you guys recommend for the dropper rigs?  20. 30, 40.  Also, I fish a light rig in the back waters and often use a dropper.  My go to rig is a mombo minnow and a rays fly on the dropper rig.  my main line is braid with a five foot 15- or 20-pound Berkley big game mono attached to the plug.  about two feet above the plug, I tie a dropper loop in mono and then use a perfection to loop the dropper to the mono leader.  I use 15 or 20 for the leader.  What do you use for the the dropper?  I would think that you would have to use a lighter line for the leader in case you get two fish on which might break off the line that the plug is attached to.  thanks, bored as hell at work chuck

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If you want all your dropper loops to be exactly the same size so all rigs are identical tie the dropper loop first finding a suitable model that provides the preferred size finished loop. This way each rig has the exact same size loop, exact same distance from swivel to loop and exact same distance from loop to snap (or plug)

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I use Ande mono for leader material. 20# back bay, 40# out front. My main line usually matches leader test but sometimes I drop to 30# out front. Double headers should not be an issue if you drag is set correct. 50# & 60# will work as well. I did find that the heavier pound test especially Fluor were harder to make the dropper loops.

I always tie my dropper first then cut back for length like SC. I also like about 4”-5” inches from the dropper to my swivel connection to keep my teaser away from the braided main line.

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I experiment with different lines and rigs. I generally end up back to the cheapest line from Walmart for all but the most important plugging rod/reel combo. 
 

 A bunch of things change what’s needed. For example, when my kids or my nephews are fishing, they don’t stop reeling until the line stops - usually because of a swivel at the tip. Even when it doesn’t break that guide, I still get annoyed so I rig those ones really really short, one dropper right above the sinker loop (surgeons loop) and a small swivel that hopefully doesn’t crack the inner ring. (Better yet, I prerigged the designated kid combo with a bait rig that I FG knotted directly & no swivel. )

 

For me, I use droppers only for targeting smaller species nowadays since the circle hook regs came around. I tried circles on droppers but not much success except doggies. 

 

So for the standard small fish dropper loop rig I don’t go below 20-30 lbs test to prevent tangles - aiming for a test that’s hopefully weaker than the braid. (For intentional breakage control. And then I’ll do an overhand knot in the line right above the bottom sinker loop.)

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 A while ago I did some testing on different ways to tie teaser leaders.  I found that the standard dropper loop knot always failed well below the published line strength. The best was to tie the leader to a swivel with a Palomar knot and then another piece for the loop from the same swivel.  Down side is that the teaser loop doesn't stand off very well.

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I recently watched a John Skinner video where he uses a simple overhand loop about 2-3 inches long on a 6inch leader tied to a teaser. He looped the overhand loop through the top eye (the eye tied to the leader) of his swivel  and passes the teaser back through the loop making a loop to loop connection of overhand loop to swivel eye. I tried it with 30# leader and it worked great. The loop held the teaser leader away from the main leader. No tangles at all. And you are able to make quick changes of teasers. I pre-tie a number of different teasers and keep them in a small streamer wallet. Works great! 

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While I agree that a dropper loop is not as strong as an improved clinch or Palomar I disagree that using one automatically puts you at a disadvantage. I actually used all three knots in my dropper rigs. The way I see it is expecting any knot to be as strong  as two separate knots is just never going to happen - in theory any knot of any kind should always be the weak link in the chain and fail first. That out of the way I've used both methods over the years and never had a failure of any knot in any kind of rig and that is the basis in which I formulate the following opinion. While one way is stronger than the other both ways were stronger than the fishing line attached to the dropper rig so how much stronger is necessary? I found the separate leader to the swivel fouled substantially more than the dropper loop and didn't cast as far. So for me in my view I was "out of the water" a lot more with the separate leader and wasn't covering as much distance on the cast. In my opinion I was minimizing my actual chances (percentage-wise) of presenting an unfouled rig to a larger area with an increased potential of being seen

Edited by SC
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54 mins ago, PeteA said:

I recently watched a John Skinner video where he uses a simple overhand loop about 2-3 inches long on a 6inch leader tied to a teaser. He looped the overhand loop through the top eye (the eye tied to the leader) of his swivel  and passes the teaser back through the loop making a loop to loop connection of overhand loop to swivel eye. I tried it with 30# leader and it worked great. The loop held the teaser leader away from the main leader. No tangles at all. And you are able to make quick changes of teasers. I pre-tie a number of different teasers and keep them in a small streamer wallet. Works great! 

I'd like to see that one.  Any idea which of the many videos John has made would show that?  A link maybe?

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6 mins ago, Dan Tinman said:

I'd like to see that one.  Any idea which of the many videos John has made would show that?  A link maybe?

 

 Bad day fishing is still much better than good day work.

 

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him had better take a much closer look at the American Indian.
                                                                                     - Henry Ford-

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10 hours ago, Dan Tinman said:

 A while ago I did some testing on different ways to tie teaser leaders.  I found that the standard dropper loop knot always failed well below the published line strength. The best was to tie the leader to a swivel with a Palomar knot and then another piece for the loop from the same swivel.  Down side is that the teaser loop doesn't stand off very well.

Dan I have taken that idea one step further and tied the Palomar to the swivel but left the leaser leader long enough to tie a smaller TA Clip to that for the teasers.  I also leave the other end coming out of the Palomar long enough for the plug, jig, or fluke rig tied to a larger TA Clip. No issues, and the teaser/ jig rig is multi-functional

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