I fish without and vary stripping speed.
I agree.
+3.
Never had any luck fishing them under an indicator. If you are using the ones without a bead, they typically will not sink too fast and kind of ride high in the water column on the retrieve, so you should be able to keep them out of the weeds that are in a lot of small ponds. When you are fishing them without an indicator try and set the hook via a strip strike versus a traditional trout set of raising the rod tip. That way, even if you miss the fish the fly will stay in the strike zone versus flying out of the water.