What leader material do you use?

[brian]

Over the last couple of seasons I've tried a few different types of leader material with varying degrees of success, what types of tippet material do you use for rivers, lochs, wet and dryfly fishing etc? do you think expensive fluorocarbon makes a difference? interested to know what you think.

cheers

brian. 

[shadar]

I've tried quite a few Frogs Hair, Rio Powerflex, Mamba, Maximas and Drenan etc, but have a preference for Fulling Mill Fluorocarbon. I think it's stiffer than a lot of other Fluoro's and i seem to have less wind knots with it.

Calum

[haresear]

When Spring comes around I generally use a 12 or 15 foot tapered nylon leader joined with a 2 turn water knot to a nylon tippet. I've been using Okuma Sensitech (usually the 5lb stuff) since I gave up on Stroft. It is a thin nylon and behaves well. I've used it mainly on rivers.

When Winter kicks in and I'm "fishing blind" after grayling, I cut back the leader to around 7 to 9 feet and tie a Riverge metal ring on. This lets me use a floating nylon butt and a sinking fluorocarbon tippet without having to knot fluoro to nylon, which I don't like doing. I do like fluorocarbon (Fulling Mill or G3) when using a pair of nymphs because it is stiffer than nylon and tangles are rare and easy to sort out when they happen.

Alex



 

[The General]

Hello

Fly line attached to about a foot of 12lb bs nylon, a yard of 8lb bs attached to that and another yard of 6lb attached to that.  This is more or less a constant and is never usually removed unless you get unlucky with a massive tangle  :shock:
On the day of fishing I add about a yard and a half of 4lb depending on wind.  Normally I only use two flies and these are roughly an arms length apart.   All the nylon is Maxima chameleon and has been since the eighties.  I catch loads of fish and have no trouble in all but the strongest winds.  I loch fish mostly and generally dry fly.  I make a loop and put the lines through twice to join the line and make droppers, again since the eighties.
As you can imagine, I have seen many variations and been shown "new" ways of doing things.  I have tried these things but have
found that in 99 cases out of 100 this set up has not let me down.  I have also found in my 106 years of fishing that when the fish are being really really difficult and will not come up to the fly that no other system works any better.   You can of course go down deep and find the fish but I have grown out of that style  :lol:
Last year I had a lot of success and I mean a lot of success with the DHE.  This year I experimented with another fly recommended on a thread on the forum, the CDC/Elk Hair.    On a wee loch in Inverness I actually had over twenty fish on the one
fly.   The fly eventually didn,t remotely resemble the original but until I actually lost all the feather and hair, it caught fish.

Jeez gone on a wee bit here but take advice, learn to use and take confidence in a system and you will catch fish (fish willing)

Tight tight lines
Davie

[garryh]

riverge for wets if the waters clear sightfree otherwise.orvis superstrong for dries.i keep coming back to these (must stop wasting so much money experimenting)

     cheers Garry

[Malcolm]

For trout the only material I use is Hardy copolymer. I use a Hardy copolymer tapered leader with a loop on the end (I cut off the level tippet section). This is my permanent butt and lasts up to half a season. To this I tie my leader of the day - about 6-8ft of level nylon for a single fly and about 10ft if I use a dropper. I have never been broken in 7 years using Hardy coplymer unlike my trials of a couple of fluoro carbons. Never again!

Malcolm

[Ian_M]

Maxima Ultragreen or Chamelion - mainly Chamelion.

[Pearly Invicta]

Snowbee magic line for me- I just like it. When I find climax I stuff I buy that too- again, I just like the stiffness and feel of it and it seem to suit the way I fish.

Fluro is not for me- just had too many breakages when I tried it.

At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with Maxima...

[east wind]

Been using 3lb Ashima fluro for years and had no real trouble until i got broken with this years fish so to speak. Used Sightfree and found it crap.

Trouble with Ashima is its very shiny, so i slobber it in fullers making it look like rope, causing (my excuse) too many fish laughing at my.

Started using fluro when i caught the dry fly habit, it helped turnover but mibee I've been using it as a crutch, don't need it, and should go back to Maxima.

Mind you at ?8 a spool that Orvis Mirage MUST be good eh.

Some good advice once again.

Cheers

[shadar]

From the replies that you have had Brian i would say that almost everyone has a personal perference.

Though the big and only question should be "which line do the fish prefer to be caught on".

The answer of course is that everyone has a personal preference, and what on earth were our ancestors catching fish on before the arrival of the unseen.all singing/dancing, and hidden forms of line that we have nowadays?

It's all down to preference, trends and budget.

Calum