Rigs
The duo rig: klink-and-dink
What it's for
A buoyant dry fly doing two jobs at once: it fishes the surface, and it suspends a small tungsten nymph below it — half fly, half indicator. New Zealanders call it the dropper rig, Irish and UK river anglers the duo or klink-and-dink. One cast covers two feeding depths, and the dry telegraphs every touch on the nymph.
The beats
The dry
A buoyant, visible pattern — a Klinkhamer or elk-hair sedge, size 12–14. It must float hard enough to carry the nymph and obvious enough to read at range.
The build
A 7'6" tapered leader to 3X, a small tippet ring, then about 18 inches of 4X to the dry. The ring is your break-point for quick changes.
The drop
24–40 inches of 5X fluorocarbon down to one small tungsten nymph, 2.0–2.5 mm bead. Start the drop at about the water's depth — lengthen in smooth, deep glides, shorten in skinny water.
Two riggings
Drop the nymph from an in-line tag at the dry's eye or the ring — cleaner drift and kinder for release — or tie it off the hook bend, the fast classic New Zealand way. Both work; the bend-tie can hinder unhooking and isn't competition-style attachment.
Read the dry
A dip, a stall, a slide against the current — the nymph has been eaten; tighten. And a fish boiling at the dry itself is simply a take: lift the same way.
Common faults
The drowned dry
The dry rides half-sunk or keeps going under with nothing attached — and when a real take comes, there's nothing left to read.
Fix: The nymph is too heavy for the dry, the drop's too long, or drag is pulling everything under. Go a bead size lighter, shorten the drop, re-grease and refloat the dry — and if it still won't ride, the water is telling you it's a tight-line nymphing day.
When you'll use it
- Fish feeding at mixed depths — some rising, some nymphing just under — where neither a single dry nor a straight nymph covers both
- Pocket water and creases where a klink rides the chop and the nymph fishes the slot below
- Quick changes: pre-tie the whole business end on a foam winder and swap it on at the tippet ring in under a minute
- Check the beat card: a few fisheries fish single-fly rules — the rig stays in the box there, not out of the repertoire
Related
Terms: tippet · leader · degreasing
Sources & how we know this (4)
- Conventional duo build: ~7'6" 3X taper, tippet ring, ~18 in 4X to a #12–14 buoyant dry, 24–40 in 5X fluorocarbon to a 2.0–2.5 mm tungsten nymph; start the drop at about water depth
Tactical Fly Fisher (Devin Olsen) — Creating a modular euro-nymphing leader · 2026-07-14 - Klink-and-dink method: buoyant dry as attractor and indicator, nymph below on 2–4 ft by depth; the dry dipping or stalling as the take signal
Fly Fish Guide — Klink and dink · 2026-07-14 - In-line tag vs hook-bend attachment trade-offs; bend-tie can impede release and is not FIPS-style leader attachment
Fly and Lure — How to fish the klink and dink method · 2026-07-14 - Single-fly rules on some fisheries prohibit two-fly rigs — a per-water condition, checked at the permit
Fly Fishing Forum (UK) — Are strike indicators taboo on chalkstreams? · 2026-07-14