The New Zealand Strike Indicator is a new take on the old yarn style strike indicator. Over the years, subsurface fly fishermen have seen strike indicator styles change and evolve. Each new style has had its strengths and weaknesses, and fly fishermen have had to choose the indicator that worked best for their specific situation. For the last several years, the plastic bobber has dominated the indicator market and has, without a doubt, been the most popular choice among western nymph fishermen. The New Zealand Strike Indicator has a few big advantages over any other indicator available today, and many anglers and guides are beginning to favor it over the others.
How it Works
The New Zealand Strike Indicator is a wool yarn indicator that attaches to your leader with the use of a specialized tool and a tiny section of rubber tubing. The rubber tube holds the wool tightly around your leader without putting any bends or kinks in it. The yarn comes in a wide variety of colors and both the size and position of the indicator are completely adjustable, meaning that you can use the New Zealand Strike Indicator in rivers and streams of any size and in good or bad light. Because of the way it attaches to the leader, it takes a few extra seconds to install one of these indicators, but that is easy to overlook given its numerous advantages over the plastic bobber.
Delicate Presentations
Because is is made with wool yarn, the New Zealand Strike Indicator lands on the water’s surface much more delicately than other indicators, making for stealthy presentations to wary trout. If you find yourself fishing crystal clear waters on a sunny day to spooky fish, you will quickly notice the advantage of using an indicator that lands softly on the water.
Less Plastic
Conscientious anglers are always on the look out for products and accessories that reduce their environmental impact, and one of the best ways to do this is to reduce the amount of plastic that we haul out to our rivers, and the New Zealand Strike Indicators allow us to do just that. The indicator itself is made of all natural New Zealand wool and only the tiny length of attachment tubing is synthetic. Both parts of the system are totally reusable, making the New Zealand Strike Indicator a very environmentally friendly accessory.
No Leader Kinks
Perhaps my favorite thing about the New Zealand Strike Indicator is that it attaches to the leader without putting a kink in the line. This feature has helped me to get a lot more mileage out of expensive tapered leaders. Over the course of a busy fishing season, I spend less money and put fewer damaged leaders into the landfill.
If your are dragging heavy salmonfly nymphs through turbulent riffles on the Colorado River during runoff, you might want to stick to the buoyancy of the plastic bobber, but for more typical scenarios, the New Zealand Strike Indicator will give you noticeable advantages that will help you to catch more fish everywhere you go. Pick up the yarn, rubber tubing, and special application tool here or visit Vail Valley Anglers in Edwards, Colorado for a closer look.
Andy “Otter” Smith, Guide and Content Writer
