World Champion's Winning Tips

I enjoyed Iain Barr’s articles on the World Championships, and would like to know the following. He mentions missing fish on different hooks and flies (issue 395, Leven). I can’t imagine he was tying loose dropper knots so how did he know the fish were taking all the flies? Also, what brands of red and black nylon did Iain use as an indicator (issue 397, River Tay)?
Mark Clasper

Iain Barr replies: While fishing on Loch Leven most of the fish were taking the lure on the point. Of the four fish I hooked and lost in fight they were all on the point fly as I could see the droppers. After years of experience I can also feel a weight difference between the fish being on the droppers compared to the point. I watched three fish take ‘on the hang’ and I could see the top dropper so knew the fish were taking either the point or middle dropper, both on different barbless hooks. During practice I fished single lures on different hooks and always found the debarbed B175 followed closely by the Hanak barbless hooks were best, but as with all barbless I lost fish on these too.

The French leader was prepared by my room-mate and he tells me it was red and black Amnesia leader material. Choose the breaking strain to suit your fishing.

Reprinted with permission of Trout Fisherman magazine.