In article , Dave LaCourse
wrote:


Why do you want to go to 12' leaders, Tom.


On the one hand I think that this is the crucial question. there's a
pressure on us to fish longer leaders, or to cast longer lines, as
thought the whole business was some sort of competition. (which, imho,
it should be with the fish, but not with other people).

But the truth is often that the best line to cast is somewhere around
ten yards, and the best length of leader is often around nine feet.

On the other hand, I rarely actually measure my leader. I start with a
tapered cast one size above the tippet size I'm going to be using
(normally 3 lb), tie on a few feet of tippet, and when that's wrecked I
keep cutting and tying until the whole rig is clearly useless and I
have to start again.

I imagine that is roughly what a lot of us do.

On the other hand, I quite frequently find that I'm fishing a twelve or
fourteen foot cast ** not because I believe in it for any a priori
reason, but simply because it fishes better on the waters I'm on.

A lot of the time I'm on glassy, gin-clear chalk streams (spring
creeks) - in particular the Itchen, in Hampshire, england.

There, the one thing that will spell disaster is drag.

So what I'm actually seeking to do is have my tippet fall in a bit of a
bedraggle, that may unwind itself on the surface of the stream and give
just a few seconds for my fly to drift without drag over the lie where
my fish is feeding.

thus twelve to fourteen feet may give me a poor-looking cast, but may
also catch me a fish.

Lazarus