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There is so much written about how to set up your leaders when trout fishing that if you try to follow it all, particularly if your a newcomer to fly fishing, you can be forgiven if your a little confused.

When it all boils down it doesn't have to be as complicated as it's made out to be. I have set out below how I set up my trout leaders for both social and competition fly fishing and I hope that will provide some incite for you.

Leader set ups are not a one size fits all proposition and you should vary the following leader set ups to suit:

1. How you net fish. (How your fly line is connected to your rod is critical here. My systems all go through the top runner cleanly in either direction and allow me to lift fish well into reach of my net.)
2. How you change fly lines.
3. How you changing leaders.
4. How you keep in contact with flies.
5. Your casting style.
6. The weather conditions.
7. Finally, how you can measure lengths of butt section or tippet to come up with uniform leaders without having to use a tape measure or some other additional bit of equipment.

LAKE

Keep in mind that for all my lake trout fishing I fish with 10 foot #6 weight fly rods with relatively soft tips and consequently if your using a shorter or longer rod you may need to adjust some of the measurements that I have used.

I have 3 identical modular 7/5 fly reels dedicated to my lake trout fishing and each modular reel came with 3 modular spools that are loaded with 9 different fly lines. That means that if I take those three fly reels and the 9 spools with me to a competition or other fly fishing outing I have back ups for the reel I am using and a comprehensive range of fly lines to choose from.

I am not saying that buying three modular reels each packaged with 3 spools is the way to go for every body but I always recommend that even if you only buying 1 reel and 1 line to get started make it modular as that means that as you buy extra lines that when your fishing you can do easy line changes as described a little further down in this article.

Then also if you decide you need a separate reel for say river fishing or bass fishing make that the same modular reel you purchased for lake trout fishing. That will give more lines spooled up on interchangeable spools and a backup reel any time you have a reel failure.

Having said that I have 7 BFR modular 7/5 reels that I purchased progressively over a 10 year period and they cover all my reel requirements for my trout lake fishing, my trout river fishing and my bass fishing. Even with 9 reels in service and something like 30 domestic competitions and 6 international competitions, my practice fishing and my social fishing (which my wife says is excessive) for each of those 10 years I have never had a reel failure that I couldn't fix myself. Having said that having back up reels on hand particularly in competitions has given me piece of mind.

Also I note that generally modular reels with the standard 3 modular spools are often less expensive than a single spool non modular reel. Fair enough they may not have as good a drag as a more expensive non-modular reels but I can't actually remember any time in my fishing history where that has been a problem.

All the fly lines that I use for my lake fly fishing are finished at the business initially the manufactured loop that comes with most fly lines these days. When that manufactured loop starts to wear I replace it with a 20 mm long Maxima Ultragreen monofilament nail loop knot. I like that loop connected to the fly line to be about as thick as the fly line itself but always stronger than the strongest section of my leader so that if I get snagged and loose part or all of my leader and my fly line and and loop stay intact. For my #6 weight fly lines the monofiliment loop I use is generally made of 25lb Maxima Ultragreen monofilament line. I use these monofiliment loops as they are stronger than many of the manufactured loops that come on fly lines are less visible than braided loops, allow neat leader to line connections without introducing any hinging effect and and of course allow for easy line or leader changes.

Loch style leader - 3 flies

Basically all the leaders I use when lake fishing lakes are variations on this 'my standard 3 fly loch style leader' set up and I am quite happy using them from a boat or the bank.

1. Fly line with manufactured loop or 20 mm long Maxima Ultragreen monofilament nail loop knot.
2. My leader starts with a butt section made up of of 60cm of 18lb (0.33mm diameter) Riverge Grand Max fluorocarbon. The first butt section is connected to the fly line loop with aopen loop closed with a locked blood knot.
3. To that first butt section I connect a second butt section of 60cm of 14.5lb (0.26mm diameter)line Riverge Grand Max fluorocarbon connected to the first butt section with a surgeons knot.
4. The balance of the leader and droppers is made up of Riverge Grand Max fluorocarbon as my tippet. The tippet length used depends on the application but for lock style fly fishing I use 3.5 meters connected to the end of the second butt section with a surgeons knot. By the way my arm span finger tip to finger tip is 1.75 meters so for me that is two arm spans of tippet.

   I generally fish with the lightest tippet size I can get away with on the day.

   A good fall back size if your not sure of fishery itself, the conditions or the size of expected fish is the 7.5lb (0.185mm diameter). The other Riverge Grand Max fluorocarbon that I use on this set up are either side of the 7.5lb so that's 9.5lb (0.21mm diameter) and 6lb (0.16mm diameter).

5. The first dropper is 1 meter down from where the leader joins the fly line. For me that is the distance from my finger tip to the tip of my nose.
6. The second dropper is tied in half way between where the fist dropper is tied in and the tip of the tippet.
7. Droppers are 22 cm long ( a hand span for me) and connected to the main tippet by surgeons knots.

That gives me a 4.7 meter leader including the tippet and 1.35 meters between each of my 3 flies.

 
These dimensions work well for me as I do not have to rely on a tap measure or any other sort of measuring devise to ensure that my measurement are correct because:

• My hand span is 22cm
• My arm is 60cm long so if I hold the tip of a line in my finger tips and play it out to my arm pit I have 60cm every time.
• My arm span, finger tip to finger tip with arms outstretched, is 1.75 meters so two arm spans of line is 3.5 meters.

Getting the dimensions of the leader including the tippet right are important for several reasons:

• When the top fly is retrieved to about 30cm from the tip of my 10 foot fly rod that means that I can easily reach the connection between the fly line and the first but section of the leader and if I thread a different line up from the bottom runner I can snip the leader off at that connection and easily tie it to that alternative line. Then all if have to do is swap the original line modular spool off my reel and replace that with the alternative line modular spool ... with practice that means you can doa line change in just a minute or two.
• When landing a fish when I have the top fly retrieved to about 30cm from the rod tip a fish on the point fly is within range of my landing net.

Loch style leader - 2 flies

The same as above except I measure out only one arm span (1.75 meters) plus half an arm length (60cm / 2) to give me a 2.05 meter leader and then put the top dropper 50 cm down the tippet from where it is joined to the second butt section giving me a 1.55 meters between my two flies.

Polaroiding, single dry fly or single wet fly

Either of the two leaders above but without the complication of droppers. Keep in mind however that if your fishing a 2 or 3 fly lock leader there is almost no down side to clipping off the 1 or 2 dropper flies and leaving the dropper hanging there without any fly attached as you fish a single wet or dry fly.

Leader variation for static and slow techniques

Everything is the same as on my standard set up except that the middle dropper fly is tied in just one meter above the point fly

Another reason why 'my standard' leader set ups works for me is that it facilitates easy line changes as described below.

• Put out a long cast with the line current line.
• Whilst line and its team of flies are settling get ready for your line change by putting on your reading glasses if you use them, put the reel or in my case the modular spool holding the line you want to change to handy.
• Fish the cast out but this time recover you line onto the spool so that the top dropper fly is 300mm clear of the top runner on the fly rod.
• Pit a clip on the leader between the first two runners to ensure that you don't loose your leader.
• Lay the middle of the rod over your knees.
• clip the leader of the loop on the end of the fly line.
• Take the modular spool of you reel and put that back in your bag.
• Put the replacement modular spool of line on your reel.
• Connect the leader to the loop on the end of the replacement fly line using an open loop and a locked blood knot.
• remove the clip on the leader between between the first two runners an put that back in your bag.
• Your back in business now and witha little practice the line change over will have taken you less than 2 minutes.

RIVERS

Photos from the World Fly Fishing Championships in Slovenia in 2012.

Keep in mind that for all my river trout fishing I fish with 11 foot #3 weight fly rods with relatively soft tips and consequently if your using a shorter or longer rod you may need to adjust some of the measurements that I have used below.

I have 2 identical modular fly reels (the same as the ones I use for lake fishing as described above) dedicated to my river trout fishing and each modular reel came with 3 modular spools that are loaded with 6 different fly lines. That means that if I take those two fly reels and the 6 spools with me to a competition or other fly fishing outing I have back ups to the reel I am using and a comprehensive range of fly lines to choose from.

I am not saying that buying two modular reels each packaged with 3 spools is the way to go for every body but I always recommend that even if you only buying 1 reel and 1 line to get started make it modular as that means that as you buy extra lines that when your fishing you can do easy line changes as described in the lake fishing section of this post.

Then also if you decide you need a separate reel for say lake fishing or bass fishing make that the same modular reel you purchased for lake trout fishing. That will give more lines spooled up on interchangeable spools and a backup reel any time you have a reel failure.

Having said that I have 7 BFR modular 75 reels that I purchased progressively over a 10 year period and they cover all my reel requirements for my trout lake fishing, my trout river fishing and my bass fishing. Even with 7 reels in service and something like 30 domestic competitions and 6 international competitions, my practice fishing and my social fishing (which my wife says is excessive each of those 10 years I have never had a reel failure that I couldn't fix myself. Having back up reels on hand particularly in competitions, has however given me piece of mind and generally modular reels with the standard 3 modular spools are less expensive than a single spool non modular reel. Fair enough they may not have as good a drag as a more expensive non-modular reels but I can't actually remember any time in my fishing history where that has been a problem.

Nymphing

 
Not so long ago it was common to see leaders of 30 or more feet long being used in rivers, most of them being variations of the longer French style of leader. Whilst I dallied with those longer leaders, for me, they only worked some of the time with wind being the factor that limited their suitability. My response to the longer leader was to set my river fly fishing outfits up so that they were manageable in most conditions and the set up described is is what I came up with in for the 2010 World Fly Fishing Championships and still use today. By the way just a year or so after that World Fly Fishing Cahamionships Fips Mouche, the organisation that sets the international rules for competition fly fishing, limited the length of a leader to twice the length of the fly rod being used so my set up fits into that rule just fine.

My river nymphing fly rod is a Greys Stremflex XF2 11" #3 weight 4 piece rod and the nymphing leader set up is designed for that rod. This rod is a pleasure to use and has a dynamic balance between sensitivity throughout its upper reaches yet has enough power from the butt up to fight surprisingly big fish.

The line I have settled on for my longer leader nymphing is a #1 weight Orvis Hydro Superfine forward taper fly line I chose this line, firstly because it’s dull olive in colour, which is prerequisite for a nymph line for me, and because the tip of the taper is only 0.60mm thick which means that it meets the FIPS Mouche competition requirement that the line be greater than .55mm thick.

That line is loaded onto a BFR 5/7 reel which many would say is better suited to a #6 weight rod. I have resisted buying smaller reels because the slightly heavier reel helps me keep the rod tip high because it overbalances the butt of the rod. This helps a lot when your holding the tip of a rod high for a full 3 hour session.

I changed my leader set up leading to the 2018 Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships when in one of the early training sessions I was introduced to a then new product called "Skafars Neon Wax". I have to say for me it's the absolute bees knees leader indicator. It's easy to apply to any knot or just the leader, comes in a range of colours including orange, red and chartreuse and can be wiped off your line if you decide that the indicator is at the wrong depth or spooking fish.

The balance of the leader and droppers is 1.2 meters of 5lb (0.12mm diameter) Shogun fluorocarbon connected to the second butt section with a surgeons knot. I leave the tag ends of that knot about 10mm long and apply a little Neon Wax to that knot and tags. By the way my arm from the tip of my fingers to my armpit is 60cm two arm lengths of tippet.

Making these changes has allowed me to fish much more intuitively as I am not as focused on the bi-coloured indicator as I used to be and I find that the Neon Wax is sufficient indicator to allow me to focus on my tippet which I keep well greased at least for the first 2 meters or so.

I have also moved away from my original technique of fishing my flies dead drift and now lead my flies ever so little but in any case enough for me to have hand contact with my flies rather than visual contact with my bi-coloured indicator. For me this works much better.

This system also has an advantage that at any point I can replace my tippet.

This is a great set up and with just 1.4 meters of the fly line outside the rod tip it’s still easy to employ longer nymphing techniques presenting a team of 2 flies 5 meters away with only the tippet actually sinking.

With little or no line outside the rod tip I can employ shorter Czech type nymphing techniques.

For nymphing with two weighted nymphs which I believe is the "money" technique for generally fishing rivers the technique involves casting up stream at an angle, having as little as possible of the coloured monofiliment actually touching the water, using the line of the coloured monofiliment and the floating section of tippet as an indicator and leading the flies down the drift just enough to keep in contact with the fly or flies and then swing the flies out at the end of each drift.

 

Swinging flies and across and down

Swinging flies and fishing across and down were my go to techniques for river fly fishing when I first started out and they are still great techniques for the right sort of water.

I no longer have a different leader set up for swinging flies and often punctuate a nymphing session by swinging the the nymphing leader above, with the same flies I have been nymphing with, often with plenty of success. If I find that swinging flies is a better technique on the day I do however snip of the 1.2 meter tippet and replace that with a tippet of up to 2.4 meters in length and at least one swinging fly.

 

Dry fly

My 11 foot #3 weight 4 piece CD fly rod is a fantastic rod and an absolute pleasure to own and use. The rod has a soft tip allowing great management of particularly small fish and a tough butt allowing you to put pressure on bigger fish.

I loaded that with a #3 weight Scientific Anglers trout series line.

I have taken the loop of that line and have nail knotted 60cm of .55 mm Maxima Ultra Green to the end of the fly line as a sacrificial butt section.

To that butt section I attach a 12 foot 4X leader using back to back uni knots. I coat the nail knot and the back to back uni knots with Loon UV knot sense to ensure everything passes comfortably and smoothly through the rod tip and thus ensure I can always retrieve enough line when playing a fish to get it comfortably to the net.

When fishing dry flies I make it a point of apply a silicon based floatant to my leader and my fly line as often as needed. I do however avoid using floatant on the tippet as I think it's in fact better if that doesn't sit high on the surface.

This outfit and set up fishes like a dream and allows both close and longer delicate and accurate presentations.

This is my preferred set up for fishing a dry fly. Not only can I cover a lot of water using drag free drifts managed with the long rod but I can effectively skate flies across the surface as the line swings at the end of the drift before lifting them off the water to recast.
 

Just digressing a little ... this is a good way to store leaders with or without flies connected.

These leader boards are made from gardening kneeling pads that you can pick up at most 'cheap' shops for as little as $2.

Notches cut into the edges of the pad are very effective in securing leaders.

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