Leader designs

[John Waters]

Hi Gordy and Daniel,

It is interesting and I agree with your observations. I think leader performance is impacted by the caster more than we think. I was always looking for the perfect leader, one which turned over without any humps and troughs and when it straightened on a forward false cast, the fly would turnover at a point that was in a straight line with the flyline and my line of sight. For fishing I could just make some adjustments to provide the turnover profile I needed for the type of fishing I was doing. I used leader designs that other people said were great and more often than not, was disappointed when I used them for casting. They worked for them, not me. Maybe I was expecting too much of a leader but I now believe the caster impact is critical. As I have said before, the efficiency of a leader is a function of each segment's material, length and the speed the caster generates through the turnover. If we remove the material issue and use say one material eg monofilament, then turnover is a function of each segment's length, diameter and the speed the caster applies to the cast. I have learned that minimising the humps and troughs is the key, video the tool and experimentation the method. Small changes to a section's length and diameter can make a difference, hence my earlier comments about each caster playing around with turnover. However, the changes that may work for one caster may not be as beneficial to another, hence the importance of the impact of the individual caster and the speed they impart to turnover. That is why the best accuracy casters even experiment with leader composition, on the day of the event.
For fishing who cares so much, I don't. It is more important to be fishing than to be experimenting with a few millimetres of leader section length here or diameter there, so using a general pattern is fine. However for accuracy casting it is a very, very different if you want to be your best.

John

[gordonjudd]

video the tool and experimentation the method.

John,
What kind of a background are you using so that you can see the troughs and humps in the leader as it turns over?

I have thought about spray painting the leader white so it will stand out against a dark background, but that would have a slight effect on its linear mass density and stiffness.

Your comment on the caster's impact on layout is no doubt a key factor. From my experience most of the tournament casters in the U.S. use Steve Rajeff's leader formulas. The thinking is "if it works for Steve, then it will work for me" is probably misguided.

Year's ago John Napoli (a top caster at the Long Beach Casting Club) showed me how he "tuned" the length of the tippet he used for the dry fly and trout fly games to get the fly to hang over the target for a split second on his false casts so that it was easier to gauge its distance.

An inch or two in the tippet length affected how the fly would hang, and different flies also had an effect. Thus he would make a loop connection to his tippet so that he could tune the length for a given fly. That is how picky how some tournament casters are about their leaders.

It would be interesting to see some slow motion footage of different leaders unrolling with different weight flies.

Not easy to do, but maybe Graeme could use his expertise to take some videos against his black background with the camera set perpendicular to the roll out area.

Gordy

[Paul Arden]

Coloured mono should work, Gordy, or maybe we can dye it without adding too much weight. Even a permanent market pen should have an effect. It will wash off after a while but for a short time it should work fine.

I know that the top guys in accuracy are tinkering with their leaders. Prior to this I didn’t really have the consistency in my accuracy stroke to do this. I kind of feel that I am at that point now however and really plan to spend a lot of time on leaders this summer, Back on the boat I throw at rings most days, just for fun.

When this lockdown I over I’ll visit the tackle shop and stock up on leader material. I might have to order some online because most of the stuff locally is - erm, strong!

Incidentally I did organise a special trade deal with Maxima for the British Team. It meant buying in bulk. If there are enough people who would like to take advantage of this, then I’m pretty sure I can put the deal back together, for Board members. At the time there wasn’t enough of us interested to make it work. From memory it was 10 spools of each diameter. But hey my memory seems to have lived a different life to me!

Cheers, Paul

[John Waters]

Hi Gordy,

A smooth background with the light behind the camera works but it varies, and sometimes you lose the thin sections, however, you can still see the path of the fly or fluff in those cases. Yellow or green mono is good against a dark background and it just needs trial and error. I agree, tippet length can vary greatly. I can understand tournament casters wanting to tune their gear as much as they can, they do the same with technique, no value following a strategy that is set up to deliver suboptimal casting outcomes.

John

[Morsie]

Of course all of this goes completely out the window when you need to design a leader for billfish, tarpon, wahoo or barramundi. At that point practicality overtakes all other considerations.

[John Waters]

Not sure about that Peter, you should see the work that goes into tournament leaders for high density lines that are used on lines that weigh 38 grams over 15 metres and those that weigh 120 grams over 15 metres. Not sure how they rate on an AFTMA scale but they sure can be a challenge to cast.
All aspects of tournament technique, rods, lines and leaders are very much based on practicality. No difference in casting to a billfish etc than casting heavier or lighter tournament gear for a WC. Never fished for billfish but in my ignorance, I expect it is about controlling heavy gear accurately and at distance, in adverse conditions. I suspect it is not dissimilar to casting ICSF events when the pressure is on in a WC with a wind blowing strongly onto your casting arm. The only difference is the fly and the platform.
I think practicality is paramount in both fishing and casting. Gotta’ be if you want the best outcome in either pursuit.

John

[Paul Arden]

I asked Steve Rajeff for his thoughts on leaders.

Leaders-
Design depends on need. Start with a basic formula, then modify to suit conditions/application.
50% butt, 25% taper down, 25% tippet is a good starting formula. Conditions will dictate the changes.
Each section shorter in length, descending to the tippet.
The tippet may be much longer, length and diameter to suit conditions of drift, spookiness, sink down, etc..
The more precise turnover and smoothness needed, such as for high accuracy and delicate trout presentations, merit more sections with smaller incremental descending diameters jumps. Each region, butt-taper down-tippet, may use multiple pieces of material, as little as .002” - .003” per reduction in the taper down area, will promote smooth turning over of leader to the fly. The closer to tippet, the smaller the reduction for smoothness and better knot strength. Often found in lightest tippet usage, just .001” drop down needed for best strength. Have used as many as 6 to 8 sections for super finesse applications. Sometimes, have used knotless tapered leaders for taper area, to eliminate some of the knots. Butt section diameter casts well when stiffness matches fly line stiffness. Check junction of leader to line, holding about 18”with loop to loop or nail knot in middle, watching how smoothly it transfers. Should look continuous flow bending. Sometimes, in trout fishing, have found it necessary to use much thinner butt section than ideal for smooth casting, to achieve nice drift and prevent drag, specifically if butt section tends to sink. Often a problem in swirling water conditions. Smaller diameter nylon butt section will float better than same diameter fluorocarbon. Thinner diameter nylon floats better than thick diameter nylon. When entire leader floats, improves drift control. Length of leader determined by spookiness of species, water clarity, depth, wind fly size, air resistance, weighted or not. The clearer the water with less wind, the length may need to increase nearly double for spooky species like trout or bonefish. Material stiffness/subtleness will dictate diameter and alter by .002” to .004”. Stiffer material may be a couple thousandths smaller than soft material to achieve similar turnover rate. Dealing with huge flies such as for musky, it is possible to use straight leader, big stuff like #80. Casting may improve by trimming the tip of fly line a couple feet, starting with even thicker tip of line, to match stiffness of leader, up to #80. For sinking line applications, swinging for steelhead/salmon, relatively shorter leaders, 2 or 3 section leaders suffice normally. In near still water steelhead fishing conditions, have jumped to much longer leaders with more sections, similar for that of trout under those conditions. When it comes to leader design, an old friend said it is good to be rigidly flexible.
Steve Rajeff

[John Waters]

Thanks for posting Paul/Steve, appreciated.

John

[Morsie]

No John, Its about leaders that are not constructed primarily for turn over, they are constructed primarily and principally to withstand the abrasion/teeth of the head/mouth parts of the fish while including a class tippet section. The distal end is going to be anything from maybe 40lb single strand wire to 200lb f/c. In many cases there's no need for a butt section or a taper in between.

[John Waters]

Hi Peter,

Tiger fish are my example of leader practicality. Like all gear, leaders are selected to best meet the objective. I think we are talking about the same thing, all leaders are required to turnover and hold together, hence my comment about leader practicality being paramount. Steve’s single strand mono leader is a great example of that. When I am allowed out of the house, (my brownie points exceed my frequent flyer points now), I may organise a trip to fish for billfish, a mate is always talking about how exciting it is.

John