Fly Fishing In Cumbria, Lake District Fishing, Spey Casting Tuition, Cumbria Fishing Trips and Fishing Guides

A balanced outfit doesn't just mean the rod/fly-line are well matched (AFTM), and that it feels well balanced in the hand, it also includes the leader (the invisible link between flyline and fly) which has to transfer the energy of the fly-line to the fly, (to turn it over), so diameter, length of leader, breaking strain and the size/weight of fly are all very important. The heavier the fly, the shorter and heavier/thicker the leader must be to keep control of it during the cast, the lighter the fly the longer and lighter the leader can be. On average, a leader that is as long as the rod works in most situations. It is always a good idea to use tapered leaders to give a smooth turnover, either they can be bought ready made tapered (expensive), or you can design your own to suit certain situations that you might encounter.

The leader should try to be a continuation of the diameter of the end of the fly-line or at least two thirds, so a thick butt piece for example 20-25lbs of stiff nylon needle knotted into the core of the flyline will suffice. Then using a water or double grinner knot to a lesser diameter, say 18lbs then 12lbs, then 8lbs, 6lbs and so on until the diameter of the nylon suits the fly/lure we intend to use, the end piece being the tippet. Also from these joining knots we can make droppers if needed, so long as we use the loose end of the knot that lies toward the fly end of things.

Types/compounds of leader material have an influence of the make-up of a leader, nylon monofilament and copolymer are very adaptable. Both can be treated to either sink or float. Stiffer nylon can be used for the butt piece and the main taper (for the turnover) and the much softer copolymer used in the last two feet (the tippet) for presentation if you are for example dry fly fishing and need a drift. Fluorocarbon is heavier than water and tends to sink, ideal for nymph and lure fishing and has good abrasion resistance but weaker for the diameter than nylon.

Knot strength is compromised as in all leader material if the knot is not lubricated and pulled up slowly and carefully. All three can be happily knotted together as long as you exceed two thirds difference in diameter (marked on spool by dia" or x) each step down the taper, (this may not necessarily mean breaking strain difference, be careful when mixing the weakest link needs to be at the tippet).

Whatever number the X rating is; make the total to 9 and that will give you roughly the breaking strain.

To find diameter in ooo"; take the X number away from 11, e.g.; 11-6x: ans.=005"dia / 11-4x=007"dia.

Below is a rough guide for the AFTM rating of flyline for a particular fishing situation which is our first concern, next is the rod to match that. As an example, it is not much use using a 7/8 outfit to deliver a size 18 dry fly on a 2lb tippet because the tippet would snap before the rod hardly bent, (as well as scaring every fish in the area due to the heavy line touching down). On the other hand there would be a problem trying to deliver a heavy lure on a 4/5 outfit, it just will not turn over. Presentation is everything!

AFTM #	ROD LENGTH	FLY SIZE- to suit tippet	LEADER TIPPET	TYPE OF FISHING
0-3	6`-8`	18-24	8x/7x = 1-2 LB	Small stream, brook
4-5	7`-9`	14-18	6x/4x = 3-5 LB	Small/medium Stillwater/river
6-7	9`-9`6"	10-16	5x/2x = 4-7 LB	Medium/large Stillwater/river
8-9	9`-10`6"	12-6	1x/0x = 8-12 LB	Large river, reservoir, shooting head work, light salt, sea-trout, salmon
1O-12	9`-15`	10-2	10-18 LB	Large river, double hander, salmon. Single hander, saltwater/heavy lures
4-7	10`-11.5`	16-10	3-6 LB	Boat fishing with multi droppers

Profiles of flylines fall mainly into a couple of categories, double taper (DT), weight forward (WF) and shooting head/taper (ST), with a shooting head being an extreme version of a weight forward. For short work there is no difference between a DT or a W.F. as the profiles are exactly the same for the first ten yards.

3 common flyline profiles:- Top - double taper(DT),- middle - weight forward (WF) and bottom - shooting head/taper (ST)

If medium distance is required a WF would be the best choice because of the thin running line behind the forward belly section. This will offer little resistance when the fly-line is shooting through the rings on a cast, but we lose line mending control and can not aerialise much more than the short belly section when casting. Long distance a shooting head/taper with braided nylon for running line which has even less resistance would be the order of the day, but presentation will suffer.

Longer lengths of line can be lifted and aerialised with DT's but not shot as far as a WF, the advantage of line mending is quite apparent when using a DT. So it's horses for courses, they say a DT is great because you can turn the line around when one end is worn, I have found by that time both ends have deteriorated to such an extent that it is useless.

Whatever your choice pay a lot of attention to line care, give it a clean regularly with something like Armoral (a PVC cleaner) from Halfords, a lot cheaper than other cleaners, and do not touch the line with insect repellent it will melt. This will slow the process of your line cracking and improve the slickness when casting.

We can use different densities of lines to present the fly at different depths and at different flow rates. This may be by using a sink tip on the end of a floater, to a full sunk line. When using these types of lines it is important that you roll cast the fly-line to the surface before attempting to lift the line into a cast.