REVISED DOUBLE-TAPERED LEADERS FOR ULTRA LIGHT RODS

Article by Stanton Hector - Photos Tom Sutcliffe

Stanton on a Cape stream

I first heard about double-tapered leaders from Leonard Flemming during the winter of 2007 after he was asked by Ed Herbst to test a number of convex leader formulae. After a lengthy discussion on the virtues of these convex leaders I walked away rather invigorated and filled with new ideas. Even though the idea of convex leaders was not entirely new, at the time it was completely foreign to me. Surprised by the unorthodox construction of these leaders, the slight esoteric aspect made it very appealing. Using the Internet as a resource, the next few days and weeks were spent tying and testing a variety of leader formulas. With the new season in full swing, on-stream tests were a nothing short of a revelation. Having spent years fishing with George Harvey and Joe Humphrey’s style tapered leaders, I vowed never go back again. Despite their sterling performance, I always felt that there was something lacking about the internet-derived convex leaders.

This enigma was finally solved a few months down the line after returning from a midweek session on the Elandspad. The river was terribly low and on the day a howling downstream wind didn’t exactly improve conditions either. Leonard and I were both fishing convex leaders and it would be polite to say that we battled against the elements. Our leaders gave excellent turnover in the windy conditions while sight fishing to educated trout sitting in the ankle deep water. However, our stealthy presentations were either simply ignored or saw fish scattering at the mere sight of our descending leaders. During the aftermath of this rather humbling fishing day, I read an article Ed wrote on the shortcomings of modern leaders, particularly with respect to triple ought leader design. Therein he expels the use of thick diameter monofilament sections used for leader construction due to the impact factor thicker nylon has on the water surface i.e. the thicker the diameter of the nylon the harder the impact upon landing on the water surface.

Testy fish in a crystal run

Notice how evident the leader material is alongside the fish

In essence, marrying thicker nylon (which consequently generates stiffer monofilament leaders) to light weight fly lines becomes completely counterproductive. Like a light bulb going on in my head, it dawned on me that convex leaders have the thickest monofilament section roughly located in the middle. All of a sudden it all made perfect sense. The reason our presentations sent fish scurrying for cover was the section carrying the heaviest part of the leader was being cast to the spotted trout upon presentation. This in combination with the reigning low water conditions probably created even more of a disturbance on the water surface.

Armed with this new found information I revised the leader formulae I was using by scaling down and streamlining the monofilament diameters I was using. Two versions of the new leader formulae emerged, a long version for use on 2 – 3wt rods as well as a shorter version for use on 000 - 1wt rods. However, the shorter version can also be used on 2 – 3wt rods in windy conditions when easier turnover is required. Both these leaders were developed in conjunction with specifically constructed tippet sections, which will provide the best turnover under the prevailing conditions. However, alterations could be made to better suite the angler. Similarly, the tippet sections also come in a long and a short version, which are interchangeable depending on fishing conditions. So, what you’re looking at is basically a mix-n-match system for various fishing conditions. The leaders are also boiled as per MC Coetzer’s recommendation (One to two minutes depending on how supple you want your leader). The leader formulae are a follows:

*Leaders are all tied with Maxima Ultra Green monofilament

Short version (000 – 1wt):

20cm             0.22mm

35cm             0.30mm

15cm             0.25mm

20cm             0.22mm (end with a perfection loop)

Long version (2 – 3wt):

25cm             0.22mm

45cm             0.30mm

20cm             0.25mm

30cm             0.22mm (end with a perfection loop)

Tapered tippets:

The tapered tippet sections were constructed prior to fishing for ease of comfort and to obtain more accurate measurements of tippet sections. They are as follows:

Long version (for quiet and slightly windy conditions):

3X               50cm

4X               40cm

5X               50cm (to which lengths of 5, 6 and 7X can be added)

Short version (for windy conditions):

3X               35cm

4X               25cm

5X               35cm (to which lengths of 5, 6 and 7X can be added)

(Stanton Hector is an experienced and highly regarded small stream fly fisher. He is a PhD student at Stellenbosch University, is married and has a baby daughter.)