Fly Fishing With Strike Indicators

December 24, 2004 By: Marshall Cutchin

If you’ve been lucky enough to nymph fish under the tutelage of someone who’s mastered spring creek fishing, you’ve probably quickly latched on to the value of fishing with a strike indicator. What seems at first uniquely absurd (“We are fishing with flies, right, not bobbers?”) suddenly makes all the sense in the world. This week, MidCurrent adds a new article about strike indicators written by veteran fly fishing instructor and spring creek expert Brant Oswald. “Even among the fly fishing community, the sport is defined variously. Some anglers fish choose to fish nothing but dry flies, others refuse to fish a sinking line, and still others fish weighted flies but turn their noses up at split shot on a leader. What we need to recognize is that these definitions carve up the sport along arbitrary lines, and that one angler’s vision of fly fishing is not morally superior to another.”