I do not use an Indicator at all but, others, obviously, like using them. Its your 10 Colors choice as to what you want to do. Indicators hinder casting with a T-rod to a considerable degree, and are unpleasant to cast in my view, and that’s also your shot to call, as well. The leader to fly line juncture is usually all the strike indicator that you need, but its usually better to keep your eye on the fish. And the real take away here is that you should not be just fishing the water blindly. This is Spot and Stalk Fishing at its best, where you always cast to a previously sighted and Targeted fish.
Much of the time, while you may not be able to actually see your fly in the water at fishing distances, you will usually be able to see the fish take your fly, and then raise the rod. If resistance is felt, set! If not, continue your fishing retrieve. Stop retrieving frequently from time to time to let the fly sink again, which is what the real pupa do when they get tired of trying to wiggle their way to the surface, they take a rest. Thus, two to three ascent presentations can be made for each cast, doubling or tripling your fishing efficiency per cast.
I use a Floating line about equal to the rod’s length. With the leader being about half again as long as the line is long, and a 3 foot or so long tippet, making the total reach about 35+ feet. As you can see the total line length combined with the rod’s length gives a considerable range and reach. With the relatively heavy Floating T-line, the line is not usually held up and off of the water, so you can usually use 100% of your total line length and rod reach lengths in your fishing.
For imparting a pulsing action to the fly while maintaining a constant fly depth, draw an imaginary oval with your rod tip, as you move the rod tip parallel to the water surface to retrieve the fly. Using these techniques will also enable you to get drag free drifts in wind generated surface currents by casting into the wind, which the Floating PVC Lines do a lot better than Fluorocarbon Lines can, because the sinking FC line will cause drag on the Floating Midge Emerger Pattern. And these same techniques also work well for fishing with wet flies, nymphs, and other dry flies, not just chironomid emergers.
Obviously, with the line and leader lengths we are talking about here, landing and releasing a fish presents some obvious problems, and there is a better way of handling them than using the usual Hand-Over-Hand line technique usually advocated, which I call the Stripping-In-Line-Technique. Both techniques begin in the same way - getting a hold of your fishing line and transferring the line over to your rod hand. But instead of alternating the line accumulation back and forth between your two hands, you form a pinch/ring with your first finger and thumb of your rod hand, and strip the line in with your off hand, pinching the line to control it when you reach up behind your rod hand to take in another length of line, by relaxing the line control pinch. Giving line to the fish when needed is also accomplished by relaxing the pinch, with the line ring keeping the line in your control and possession and under control at all times, until when you may have to put the fish back on the rod. When that happens, you just have to start anew, all over again, which you would also have to do with the Hand-Over-Hand method as well.