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Please read this article in conjunction with the companion article:

• Fly fishing tips

At the 2012 World Fly Fishing Championships which I participated in as part of the Australian team, leader lengths were limited to twice the length of the fly rod. Whilst at the "Worlds" that limitation was a rule variation it has since been entered into the rules.

My dry fly set up is ideal for accurate and delicate presentations of dry flies in a range of sizes and has been developed to comfortably fit the requirement of the leader not being any longer than twice the length of the fly rod.

This leader has been designed for use with a 11 foot (3.35 meter) #3 weight fly rod. If you’re using a longer or shorter rod you should adjust the length of the section of Hends camou leader that you use in the leader set up as detailed below. Whilst any dry fly line that balance well with your rod will work I have settled on for my dry fly fishing is a #3 Scientific Anglers Trout series forward taper fly line. This is an olive line and has the SA dry tip technology and is only 0.70mm thick at the business end and is 90 feet long. That line is loaded onto a BFR 5/7 reel which many would say is better suited to a #6 weight rod. I do have smaller reels that I don't use because the slightly heavier reel helps me balance out the slightly longer fly rod.

My leader is taken from a 9 meter Hends camou leader. These leaders are constructed with a level 2 meter butt section which is .57mm thick a 2 meter tip section which is .21mm thick and a 5 meter tapered section in the middle running down from .57mm to .21mm.

Alternatively you can select another leader of a length and thickness similar to the leader I cut from a 9 meter Hends camou leader. The only thing you do have to watch out for is, if you are a competition fly fisher and subject to the Fips Mouche rules, the thickness of the tip of your leader has to be thicker than any tippet that you add.

With the Hends camou leader what I do is first is cut 4.2 meters off the thin end of the leader as my basic dry fly leader. That dry fly leader is 0.35mm thick at the butt end which is ideal for a nail knot connection to my dry fly fishing fly line and drops down to 0.21mm at the business end.

From the balance of the camou leader I then cut the next 4.2 meters off the thin end of the remainder of the 9 meter camou leader. I put that asides as for use as a nymphing leader for my French leader / longer leader nymphing set up.

For my dry fly set up, using a surgeons knot, I add 1 meter of 0.16 mm Shogun tippet material. The 1 meter of 0.16mm Shogun is important as I find that the step down in thickness allows a stronger tippet connection to the 0.21mm tip of the camou leader than if I tie my lighter tippet directly to the 0.21 tip of the camou leader. There are two additional benefits from stepping through from 0.21mm to 0.16 and down to say 0.12 tippet. The first is that I get a better turn over of your fly and the second of course is that if I have a break off where the 0.16mm section and the fine tippet join or below that it's easy to tie a new length of fine tippet on without having to shorten the leader.

I then add, again using a surgeons knot, 1.5 meters of 0.10mm to 0.14 mm Shogun tippet. The choice there is determined by the thinnest tippet material I expect I can get away with.

Finally I trim all of the tag ends close and coat the nail knot and the surgeons knots with Loon UV knot sense so that they all both pass comfortably and smoothly through the rod tip. This ensures I can always retrieve enough line when playing a fish to get it comfortably to the net. I also coat the nail knot and back to back uni knots with Loon UV knot sense and they both pass comfortably and smoothly through the rod tip to ensure I can always retrieve enough line when playing a fish to get it comfortably to the net.

When I am fishing this leader, as required, I like to apply a wax based flaotant to the first 10 meters of fly line, the camou leader and the 0.16 tippet but never to the final 1.5 meters of tippet.

This leader set up give me a very well balanced and compliant leader that is 6.7 meters long and twice the length of my fly rod.

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