Dorsey Indicators - Which Colors to Use?

Whenever I see anglers improvising fly gear from bits and bobs from other materials and not just making it work, but finding a best-in-slot item to use in their toolkit, I get really happy. One of the best examples of this is the Dorsey indicator.

Conceived by Patrick Dorsey of Blue Quill Angler, the Dorsey Indicator is nothing more than a bit of polypropelyne macrame yarn combed out, whipped in the middle with some fly tying thread, and attached to your leader as an indicator by an medium, 1/4 inch orthodontic rubber band. Yes, the same rubber bands that traumatized countless children with braces.

If you want to whip some up yourself, Troutbitten has a great write up of how to make them. One thing I will say is...

DO NOT BUY AN ENTIRE SKEIN OF MACRAME YARN. DON'T DO IT.

As you can see, a two inch piece of yarn will make three indicators. A skein of Bonnie Braid has 100 yards of material. It will last longer than the heat death of the universe. Instead, pay a visit to FlyFishingCord.com, where you can buy three-foot lengths of the material for about a buck a piece. You'll still have enough material to last you a lifetime of fishing (if you're my age) and some left over to bequeath to your heirs.

Tonight, I'm tying up a bunch of different colors. It's common for anglers to choose two colors, often contrasting. This improves visibility and adds some dimension to your indicators, showing rotations in the indicator more clearly. So far, I've got black and pink (which actually looks more white than pink), yellow and red, orange and green, and blue and chartreuse. I'll try to fish these under a variety of lighting conditions, water types, and sunglasses, and will report back when I find particularly useful color combinations.

We're Live -- Let's Get This Fishing Sideshow Started!

Welcome to Day 1! What are we going to do today? No clue, but we're going to do something! Something fly fishing-related, even! I put together some Dorsey yarn indicators last night, so we'll probably go into that a bit. I'll also see if I can't lay out some more concrete plans and goals for this year, both for my fishing as well as this site.

You'll notice the site is fairly bare-bones. That's because I have no idea what I'm doing, but rather than wait until I do, we're just going to do it live. As needs arise (several already have), I'll build out the site along the way.

Thank you so much for being here, and I look forward to our adventures together!