Take me to your Leader

Grasshopper

A great question, this is! If your leader of more than 19 years, you mean, taught him well, I have. Very knowledgeable, he is, though admit, he would, that always learning, he is. Each time out to fish he goes, improve, his skills do.

Many species of fish, in his long time upon this earth, he has pursued with the fly rod — trout of every flavor, bass, musky and pike, bonefish, tarpon, permit, jack crevalle, giant trevally, and many more.

But if the leader you fish with you mean—the one tied to the end of your fly line—then yes! Much about the skill of a fly fisher, the “leader” chosen reveals.

So, of the leader of the FATC for many years, I will ask him to speak. Answer your question for me, I will have him do. Handle it well, I am sure he can.

Hey DanStag,

I see I was designated to answer your leader question. In my 19 years of teaching fly fishing and in my over 50 years of fly-fishing experience I have seen it all pertaining to leaders. And along the way I have learned a LOT about the why, when, what and where of leaders.

So, if I may I will answer in short bullet points so if you want to discuss more we can. They will not be in any particular order. Let’s start:

1.        I have seen many a new guy or inexperienced fly fisher using a leader that is too short. I have seen fly fishers cut off flies and never add tippet as their leader gets shorter and shorter. I remember in the early nineties fishing on the famous San Juan River in New Mexico, a gentleman was fishing next to me. As I was having a great day of catching, he was not. He asked me what fly I was using. He was using the same. He asked me what depth I was fishing. He was at the same depth. So, I decided to go over to him to see what he was doing. His leader was too short AND his tippet (remember that’s the end of the leader always) was too thick for the fly he was using.

2.        That leads me to my next point. The tippet of your leader should be the proper size for your fly. We teach the Power of Three, i.e. take your fly size divide by 3 and that should get you close to the tippet size that you should be using. In other words, size 18 fly you should start with 6X tippet. Of course, this will differ depending on other factors like clarity of the water, speed of the current and even size of fish you are hunting.

3.        Adjust your leader length for the type of fishing you will do. Dry fly fishing will tend towards a longer leader (9’ – 15’) so not to “spook” the fish targeted. Streamer fishing can get away with short leaders (5’ – 9’) depending on other factors like size of the fly you are using. Nymphing with indicators the leader length may depend on the depth of the water you are fishing. And if you are fishing Euro-Style Nymphing they have gone to very thin 30’ leaders of 4X diameter – “thin to win mantra”

4.        Are you using mono or fluorocarbon leaders? Many fly fishers will use only mono leaders for dry fly fishing since mono has a “tendency” not to sink as fast as fluorocarbon. While fluorocarbon leaders are less abrasive and “harder” to see underwater (more invisible). When nymphing I tend towards fluorocarbon. If using a furled leader what are you trying to accomplish with this technique. The furled leader casts well but doesn’t sink well so I stay away if I need my leader to sink as in nymphing.

5.        “Sinking” poly leaders can help you get your leader even lower in the water column. If you need to get down quickly then this may be an option. We call this the “poor man’s” sinking tip fly line.

6.        Do you need a bite/shock tippet on the end of your leader. Fishing for “toothy” predators this may be an option by using wire or maybe heavy mono or fluorocarbon.

7.        A good leader starts in the butt section of the leader. Most “out of the package” leaders come with a thick butt section but only for fly lines that are 2wt – 6wt. Heavy fly lines need a thicker butt section at the end of the leader to “cast” the fly line properly. When I use my 10wt or even my 12wt rod I have a thick mono section that connects to my fly line allowing me to turn over the fly line especially with big flies.

8.        That leads me to tying your own leaders. With package leaders they are made with a taper until the last roughly 2 feet of leader which is the same diameter – the tippet. With say a nine-foot leader there is, with a pre-packaged leader, a “collapse point” where the leader fails to straighten out, causing the tip to buckle, fold or pile in a heap rather than unrolling smoothly. This why most expert fly fishers tie their own leaders with specific leader formulas. These leaders cast much better than packaged leaders do. I highly recommend as your fly-fishing experience increases that you should start to tie your own leaders – you won’t regret it. I have a great leader formula that I can give you.

9.        You need to tie your knots well. I have seen some wild knots in my time on the water. Knots like the double Davy, non-slip loop knot and the 16/20 knot proved very strong at one of our fly-fishing schools during a knot challenge we had one night. Also, a great knot for bigger fish is the Palomar knot. Of course there are many knots out there. Tying tippet to tippet you can’t beat the blood knot or the double surgeon’s knot, but they must be tied well. Find a good knot that is easy for you to tie, is strong and remember to spit on it before you cinch it up. A leader is only as good as it’s weakest link – the knot.

10.  Lastly, attend one of the many schools we have to better your skills from our FATC fly fishing class, Advanced Western Waters to our Euro-nymphing schools. These schools talk a lot about the importance of leaders. As I always say in our fly-fishing class (the second class), understanding the leader and tippet is where the “rubber meets the road”. You gotta know!

So can I tell a lot about a fly fisher from his leader? – yes!