I had the pleasurable company of Derek and his good friend David yesterday for a session on the river. Not just any session but one that precedes a guided trip to the river San in Poland next week.

Wanting to arrive in Poland with some technical knowledge so as not to waste valuable fishing time, the focus of the session was to cast and fish using a ‘Tactical Presentation Leader’ et al Leader to Hand technique which they’d previously purchased having been advised that this would be a chosen technique to be used amongst others.

Now… I absolutely get this concept and understand totally where it could be advantageous given certain situations and conditions, however, to then try and do so with a leader that has more memory than a rocket scientist and knots seemingly tied by a 3 year old didn’t make things any easier.

The copolymer leader is packaged with lots of information printed on and within to aid your decision on how to set up your system based on your pre determined method of fishing. (Excellent stuff)

Straight out of the packet and unravelled – holding tension removed, it’s like an explosion in a spring factory. No great shakes here, all that it needs is a wee stretch and we’ll be good to go…

I think not!… stretch after stretch it’s ability to straighten improved not one jot.

(Left) I got this as a present from Derek, it is free hanging in this picture having been stretched five times already which by anyone’s measure should be plenty enough.

Derek & David’s were no different through the guides and out beyond the rod. Slack as we know is the bane of fly fishers when trying to load the rod through a given stroke, to do this with very little line mass is difficult enough and takes some getting used to, but with a line in this state casting it was not going to be easy.

Then we looked at the knot that joins the level 12mtr section to the 2mtr advanced taper section…?

And this knot is what exactly?… just rubbish and down right lazy, all 3 were the same.

And as for this tag section supposedly to make the locating of the indicator easier… I despair!

Having put some rights to the wrongs and pulled out as much memory in the leader as possible we set about the cast. Using quite soft tip rods (Hends & Hanak 10ft) and void of any line weight otherwise associated with standard weight forward/double taper fly lines, we worked on shorter casting strokes and increased inertia to work the tip and traject the leader. Once mastered and none too soon after, twas to the water we progressed.

With a snappy breeze and thus sometimes limiting the ability of this system as would be thought, the guys were restricted to relatively short casts teamed with some favoured RNPTN’s and Olive Quill nymphs. Fishing both upstream and up & across so as to work with both slack and taught drifting line techniques, the guys were soon into fish.

Having rattled two prior, David brings his first to the net from the upper reaches

Derek knows no bounds as to the length (depth) he’ll go to get a fly back… Oh yes – it’s one of mine

Getting to grips now with longer line nymphing, this sight, stalk, cast and take was text book

Dave – pleased as punch and deservedly so.

Likewise and casting in a tight tree laden pocket… some sterling fishing from Derek followed.

These beauties came on a size #18 flash back PTN teamed with 2 No4 and 1 No8 shot to drop the fly onto the fish within a foot of the drift. 2 casts resulted in these from the same pocket.

Well spotted and thus avoiding a squish as it hopped across our path – The protected ‘Common’ frog

Late afternoon and returning upstream from whence we came

We targeted likely known holes plucking fish from almost all we surveyed.

Pretty as a picture

The guys performed superbly this afternoon nailing plenty of good fish. If they were any lesser an angler in terms of capability they’d have scored little today… very much a case that their skills far out weighed the quality of the product, in this case the Tactical Leader.

I admired them for wanting to stick with the technique, I feel many areas would have seen a fly line perform better, however in certain runs it was lethal and pulled fish due to it’s delicacy.

They’ll almost certainly be putting the frighteners on those River San residents if they fish in the same vein. I’ve loaned them the rods used today for the trip and discussed some leader material alternatives to source, take and have a play with.

Finally: I will give the tactical leader a further mention in that by the time we’d finished it had lessened it’s grip on retaining coils and straightened a little. Perhaps the pull of fish, the weight of the flies and warmer afternoon temperatures helped but not to a degree where mine will ever see the light of day.

As to this L2H type set up & technique, much has been written, argued and debated… there’s a host more I’ll use before resorting to it… that’s called personal preference and you’ll have yours.

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Using that old adage ‘If I had a pound…’ every time I read or heard that putting loops in your leader system does nothing but hinge, I truly would be a millionaire.

Is this sweeping statement made by many actually a true one?… read on and decide for yourself.

Loop to Loop

A simple connection used to link 2 pieces of material together assuming that each has at least one loop formed at a given end.

The materials

Tapered or level braids, nylons, fluorocarbons, monofilaments and copolymers are our chosen link between the fly and fly line bespoke or pre-made. The makeup of such materials offer the angler a wide variety of essential properties to consider that can better inform us of how that link will ultimately perform: a taper, the diameter, its stiffness or suppleness, the stretching properties, the degree of translucency, its refractive index, the density and finally its ultimate breaking strain… these are most of the properties although we’re seldom informed of them in any reasonable detail!

How is the connection made?

Stiffness/Suppleness

I’ve taken and micro gauged the same leader material straight from the spool(s) of a reputable supplier.

Cutting similar 12 inch lengths from a range of diameters, they have been suspended off a straight edge without weight so as to provide a visual picture of the stiffness/suppleness of each strand.

I’ll call it the ‘Droop’ for simplicity… between 0.11mm and 0.18mm it was the same, as was that between 0.20mm and 0.30mm. However between the 2 groups they were different as can be see in the adjacent picture.

Without going into structures and mass properties, as the same material becomes thinner there is a fine threshold at which point it will droop more easily for the same length, the threshold in this case being visible at 0.18mm.

Doing the above against other brands is a very simple way to establish the stiffness/suppleness of one versus the other. By doing so you can then make an informed choice as to which you’d use for a butt section, mid section or tippet section of a leader you’re constructing (Stiff, medium stiff then supple perhaps!). As for a tapered leader there’s not really much you can do other than understand the tip section against that upon which your going to attach.

Loop size

I prefer a loop (circa 25mm) with which to connect the butt and mid section leader joints, from the mid to the tip section I will halve that diameter give or take.

With the odd exception, the thicker diameter is at the butt section of a leader, getting thinner into the mid part and so on down to the tip. The thicker & stiffer the leader material and smaller the loop, the more resistant the loop is to collapse. Certainly with the materials I often use.

For example: the picture below is a loop to loop connection with 2 similar pieces of 0.30mm line and 15mm loops. The connection is made but the knot won’t bed in, once I remove the tension it slides open. All be it fractionally, it’s more than I want it to!

This is the same line but now with circa 25mm loops, with the connection applied it beds together snug and there is no movement at all. My preference!

My leaders generally call for 3 or 4 loop to loop connections, I will make the loops smaller as I taper depending on the suppleness in each of the different materials I choose to apply.

I also take into consideration whether I wish my fly to pass through these loops, I regularly alter the length of my leaders at the butt & mid sections, sometimes with level additions and others tapered, the loop to loop connection aids this process.

Hinging

Here is a loop to loop connection below, this is NOT what I call a hinge… for me the transition in the cast with this is as good as any other upon which an intersection in a given leader can be applied.

This is the same branded 0.30mm attached to 0.20mm as pictured previously (Droop similar)

This however IS a hinge as would be described by anglers, caused so by the steep drop between diameters and therefor lack of stiffness as a consequence.

This is the same branded 0.30mm attached to 0.11mm as pictured previously (Droop different)

There are reasons for purposely applying a hinging connection in your leader, think about tippet and energy dissipation onto currents… that’s another blog article right there so I’ll leave that one with you for now.

You can successfully build some exceptional leaders and avoid the dreaded so called hinging joint, just understand better the materials you use. Give it a try, none of it’s rocket science, just believe in what you actually see and change it accordingly with some of the above perhaps in mind.

So going back to that sweeping statement at the top of this article: putting loops in your leader system does nothing but hinge.

The answer is Yes and No… but it’s up to me to decide.

P.S – A quickie edit after a question was posed… the loop I use for these connections is the perfection loop, see here for translation in pictures.

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