Leader manufacturer

[corriekiller]

Try froghair

whits  froghair?    :shock:  is it finer thin bawhair?  :lol:

[Otter Spotter]

whits  froghair?    :shock:  is it finer thin bawhair?  :lol:

Its from the makers who brought you Frogs Fanny.

[corriekiller]

Its from the makers who brought you Frogs Fanny.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Allan Crawford]

These days I mostly use fluro for wet and dry on the lochs, Grand Max or Airflo sightfree G3 cause its cheaper and seems just as good. But I used to only use Maxima Chamleon for years for both peaty hill lochs and clearer rivers. Now I'm likely to start with fluro but if I'm not catching or rising fish and not hooking I might switch to Maxima, clear, green or brown depending on water colour or now sunny it is. I havent done much river fishing recently so experience is on the lochs and I have turned a poor day around just by changing leader material. Ofcourse fluro is also good at getting flies deeper while Maxima keeps flies higher in the water which might be the reason.

[Bobfly]

Has anyone experience to report on Barrio Tapered leaders which may be similar to the likes of Leeda Selectacast ?? They cost about £4 for a pack of three.

I was recently given two 50m spools of the Japanese flouro Grand Max Soft Plus at 0.185mm diam for 8.2lbs which has been good so far.....but maybe not for a windy loch !! Seems to have some give and to knot well enough - but quite pricey.

[Wildfisher]

Has anyone experience to report on Barrio Tapered leaders which may be similar to the likes of Leeda Selectacast ?? They cost about £4 for a pack of three.

I was told by an angler I met on The Don they  kinked readily, but to be fair that's  a  very common problem with cheap tapered leaders especially if you attach indicators. I have given up on all the cheepos and use Leeda Profil pending a move to trials with self tied leaders.

[Bobfly]

On the Irish Loughs the standard around Ballinrobe for L. Mask was/is Maxima Ultragreen at 0.24mm / 8lbs as it is a mono with the toughness needed for when the fish slashed at the bobfly and then headed down into the rocks towing three flies behind it, but I have been broken with it just the same! Feels a bit of hawser for anything else perhaps, but lots of folks do not seem to consider leader thickness as too important and even for Dartmoor streams some locals use it.....! Low cost - reliable - tough. 6lb Maxima is presumably a sound choice? 

[Allan Crawford]

On the large wild lochs like Arkaig and Lochy I dont find having thick nylon puts the wild brownies off and sometimes you need it !

[deergravy]

On the large wild lochs like Arkaig and Lochy I dont find having thick nylon puts the wild brownies off and sometimes you need it !

Don't doubt this at all, weird when you think about it.
A trout's a trout, no?
Try 8lb brown maxima on the Clyde - good luck!
Is it all down to the suppleness of fine nylon, or does the diameter itself put fish off?

[Malcolm]

I'm one of the heavy nylon brigade even on the Clyde. I've now settled on 5lb bs minimum (and that's Hardy Copolymer which is thicker and stronger than Stroft of a similar stated b.s. - I've tested them).
There's a couple of reasons for this.

First I am 100% convinced that the reason a lot of people suffer break-offs is because flicking thin nylon across a trout's teeth cuts nylon. I put a post up about this some months ago. It seems to me that he thinner the nylon the worse it is.

Second is that although it is very hard to snap 4lb nylon on a direct pull, a big trout can snap even strong nylon if the line becomes drowned - let's say a big fish in a good current sinks a lot of line then heads upstream against the current at a rate of knots. It'll snap light nylon like weak thread. Don't get me wrong there is a compromise to be struck.