If their is a fine point against the indicator it is you are not directly in tune with the fly on the end of your line. There can often be a delay between your indicator on top, and the fly underneath. I have always given a great deal of attention to the approach that what you are trying to do is be in complete control of your fly line and leader the INSTANT the fly line-leader, and fly hit the water. That is why I like to dry fly fish so much. All your senses become acute..especially sight. I want to see my rod tip, be able to manage the slack effectively, see the leader, and hopefully see the fly, but if the leader pauses, or twitches, OR a fish dimples the surface where my fly hit the water, then I raise the rod tip, and set the hook. That is why good casting is necessary. A poor caster often opens up the loop when a tight loop is called for, and the fly gets blown 3 feet up river above where he thinks his small fly landed. Often, a fish will take, the instant the fly hits the water, and how many times is the beginner groping for the line trying to get a hold of it, at the most critical time. But a strike indicator is also a depth control tool. You want the fly 2' deep the entire drift?..indicator does it. I make up lots of strike indicators, stay in the cutting edge experimenting with them....then seldom do I use them. I chose to dry fly fish first along with swinging soft hackles, then streamer fish.

Best day I ever had using a muddler was camping out on an Eastern WA lake, Lake Lenice having held a bug identification class that day on the lake seining bugs. The instructors planned on going out in float tubes fishing at nite for browns. Nite fishing didn't interest me much so I stayed in camp, and when they left before nitefall, I went down to the water's edge with a muddler tied on using a dry line. What action. Rainbows, and browns had moved into the shallows feeding on minnows I guess. My muddler worked time and again.

Remember, when you hone your skills and can present the fly, lower your rod tip and see out through the rod to the line, to the leader, and then the fly that is floating top side if you are dry fly fishing, all of that becomes a strike indicator..your rod tip, the line, leader movement, and the fly. If you are fishing subsurface, the rod tip, line leader still are strike indicators. Sadly said, very few ever expand their awareness to that level. When I was a guide, and on the water all the time, I could row, and look downriver yet still pick up on one of those indicators from my clients fly out to the side of the boat, and recognize a fish take before the client knew they had a take. The client just had never advanced to that awareness stage.

i guided hunters for a while and got to the point that i hated it. a lot like babysitting.