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Outside the competition scene there are no rules about adding floating or sinking devices to leaders or fly lines as visible indicators for use when nymphing rivers. Consequently all sorts of floating indicators in the form of bits of foam, plastic, wool etc. are added to nymphing fly lines or leaders so that fly fishers can see when they have had an enquiry or take.

On the competition fly fishing scene it has been a different story and the use of indicators, for a long time now, has been limited by rules that, amongst other things, dictate that "neither sinking nor floating devices may be added to fly lines or leaders".

You only have to go back a few years, to a time when if you wanted to have an indicator when nymphing a river in a competition, you would use a dry fly and fish a nymph under that.

Over the last few years indicator nymphing on the competition scene has gone through quite a revolution.

The first break through came with the French long leader form of fly fishing. In that system a short section of coloured braid (the type you would use as backing behind a fly line) was initially included in the leader as an indicator. The fly line right down and to the end of that coloured braid was treated with floatant providing the angler with an indicator that was very visible and quite buoyant.

The reasons for changes to the 'Fips Mouche' competition fly fishing rules that govern competition fly fishing internationally are often hard to understand and for reasons that have never been adequately explained to me the governing body, all most as quick as it became popular, made the use of braided material as an indicator within a leader illegal.

The next development was coloured monofiliment tippet material and whilst not as buoyant or as viable as the coloured braid the coloured monofiliment has continued to be an accepted material for the use as indicators in river nymphing set ups. Quite a few different ways of using coloured monofiliment as an indicator have been contrived and of course a few have been ruled illegal by "the fun police".

Theses days the most common form of coloured indicator in a river leader set up is the inclusion of a length of monofilament within 1 to 3 meters of the point fly.

The current limitations imposed by Fips Mouche Rules and Managers Meetings limitations as I understand them are:

• Rule 27.2 provides "Leaders may be knotted or knotless, and continuously tapered down or level." This means that as you add each section to your leader it must be thinner than the section above it ... so choose the thickness of your coloured monofiliment indicator line carefully.
• Rule 26.4 and 27.3 respectively provide that neither sinking nor floating devices may be added to fly lines or leaders. Interestingly the governing body, Fips Mouche, has remained relatively silent on the use of coloured monofiliment in leaders and instead has allowed "Captains Meetings" at various World Fly Fishing Championships to limit how the coloured monofiliment can be used.
• As the use of coloured monofiliment developed Captains Meetings have resolved that the minimum length of any component within a leader has to be 30cm un-streached. This was brought in as a Captains Meeting rule to avoid the use of coils in the leader itself. What was happening was that innovative competitors were creating a coil much in the same way as described below but it was in the leader itself not the tag as as in my leader set up. These inline coils were great indicators but if made to long made the strike less effective so typically the in-leader coils were much less than 30cm long un-stretched.
• The next step was that rather than the in line coil it became common practice to leave the tag ends of the coloured monofiliment section reasonably long and untrimmed when the coloured monofiliment was tied in. These long untrimmed tags add to the visibility of the indicator. This process has passed scrutiny of Managers meetings of a couple of World Fly Fishing Championships now and is how many competition fly fishers present their coloured indicator today.
• The step below is a logical next step that I have made and at this stage, to the best of my knowledge, complies with current Fips Mouche and Managers Meetings rules and is the indicator set up I use in my longer leader river nymphing set up. Whilst I tested it with my controllers at the 2014 Fly Fish Australia National Fly Fishing Championships it will be interesting to see if it will be tested and pass the scrutiny of the "fun police" (Fips Mouche or Managers meetings).

  In any case, I am still keen to share how I use coils in my river nymphing set up with you because, to the best of my knowledge, it is currently a great form of coloured indicator for competition fly fishing and of course a great ongoing leader indicator for recreational river nymphing.

Materials

Process

A	Cut a 75 to 80cm length of bi-colour indicator material so that you have full section of orange at one end and a full section of yellow at the other end. I find it handy to mark 30cm out on a length of white paper and as I tie the coloured indicator in reference back to that so as to ensure that I don't creep inside that measurement and therefore breaching the Fips Mouche rules as described above. I also mark, with a permanent marker, the indicator material itself so that I can see where my knots need to be when I tie the coloured indicator into my leader set. This ensures that I finish up with 15cm of each of the two colours of indicator.

B	Take the two colours (that’s around 75 to 80 cm) of Cortland 0.33mm thick orange and yellow Cortland bi-colour indicator line. Tie the orange end to the 0.35mm thin end of your section of Hends camou leader taking particular care to ensure that the knot finishes up where you made the permanent mark on the orange end of the indicator. I use a surgeons knot for that connection and leave the orange tag end which is around 25cm long as it is for the time being. Tie the yellow end to a length of 0.16 Shogun tippet material taking particular care to ensure that the knot finishes up where you made the permanent mark on the yellow end of the indicator. I use a surgeons knot for that connection and leave the yellow tag end which is around 25cm long as it is for the time being. 30cm down from the yellow indicator tie in your fine tippet material again using a surgeons knot.

C	Take a tooth pick and using a short length of sticky tap secure that so that it is directly above the knot where the leader joins the orange section of indicator. Holding the standing section of indicator snug with the tooth pick wind the tag end in touching turns around the tooth pick and standing section of orange indicator. Whilst holding that in place with one hand take a short length of sticky tape and lock the loose end of the tag to the tooth pick and standing line directly below the coil. It's important to leave the orange coil exposed so that it is in contact with the hot water in step E.

D	Take a second tooth pick and using a short length of sticky tap secure that so that it is directly above the knot where the yellow section of coloured indicator joins the 0.16 section of Shogun tippet material. Holding the standing section of 0.16 Shogun tippet material snug with the tooth pick pick up the tag end and wind that in touching turns around the tooth pick and the 0.16 section of Shogun tippet material. Whilst holding that in place with one hand take a short length of sticky tape and lock the loose end of the tag to the tooth pick and the 0.16 section of Shogun tippet material directly below the yellow coil. It's important to leave the yellow coil exposed so that it is in contact with the hot water in step E.	<

E	Taking care not to disturb the bits of sticky tape holding your coils in place place the coils in the bottom of a cup. Fill the cup with boiling water and leave it for 10 minutes. Empty the boiling water out and immediately fill the cup a second time with boiling water and leave it for stand for a further 30 minutes.

F	Rinse the coils under cold water to make sure they are set. Carefully remove the sticky tape from above and below the orange coil and then remove the tooth pick. This will leave you with a coil sitting below the knot that joins the tip of the leader to the orange section of coloured indicator but with a straight tag end.

G	You can leave the straight orange tag end there but my preference is to clip that off leaving a tight orange indicator coil that is just 10mm in length. Even though that orange coil may stretch out to double its length when fishing it generally keeps its basic shape for many sessions of river fishing.

H	Carefully remove the sticky from above and below the yellow coil and repeat the process above but this time leaving a neat yellow coil that is directly below the knot that joins the yellow section of the indicator to the 0.16 Shogun tippet material.

I	You can leave the straight yellow tag end there but my preference is to clip that off leaving a tight yellow indicator coil that is just 10mm in length. Even though that coil may stretch out to double its length when fishing it generally keeps its basic shape for many sessions of river fishing.

J	The finished indicator with coils is very visible and durable. I like to apply a wax based floatant to my whole leader including my coloured indicator and coils.

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