The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

I've been using 10 - 13 ft leaders while using my 13 ft 8/9 Spey rod. In a shop today I was advised to use only 4 feet of leader. Seems counter to my gut, but I can see the logic.

What length leaders do any of you use while Skagit casting?

thanks for any input.

greg

You throwing a floating tip on the end or sink tips?

when you are trying to get your fly down to the bottom with a sinking line, you want to use a short leader to take advantage of the sinking tip. Otherwise, with a long leader, the leader will develop a long swoop in it and the fly will be way up in the water column, instead of being down in the fish zone. Just tie on a 1 foot leader butt and a 2-4 foot piece of 6-17 lb florocarbon leader, depending on water clarity and fish size.

Here is the rub,when performing spey casts with sink tips and short leaders, particularly a switch cast, snap-t or a circle spey, the short leader doesn't provide as much surface tension as a long leader does, so it creates timing problems. You have to pay more attention to your timing of the anchor before starting your D loop.

A short leader will make strike detection on a sinking line and fly much better also.

Interesting. Getting my fly down, was how the discussion started. The fly on my line, that is. I had been experiencing exacting what you were talking about. I feel the line brushing the bottom, but I could see and feel the fly up off the bottom. Was was casting great with the skagit, but just not catching.

I was asking if they had the new tungsten leaders from SA. Instead I left with some 12lb Maxima.

greg

Sink. Float would need the longer leader.

3 of 12lb Maxima is all ya need on the sink tips. tapered longer leaders nice for skating dries, IMHO timing the D loop should be based on the position of the fly line anchor so leader length should not be a big factor is your cast... my 2 cents

the reason I use florocarbon leader is it sinks better than mono, it has superior abrasion resistance, it is less visable to the fish and it is smaller diameter than similar sized mono so the fly will swim better. I used to be a Maxima faithful, but their leader material is way oversized, and if you test it, 12lb tests out at 16+lb.

Those tungsten leaders are for guys with floating lines that don't want to spring for a sinking tip. They hinge real bad too.

Do you use regular old 1x or 0x tippet/leader floro. That seems pretty easy to tie on to.

Or is there something else?

greg