Long tapered leaders

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ok dude,

you just seriously piqued my interest with the Itchen thing. My last
name is Graves and so this is in my blood, otherwise, I wouldn't bother
with this post. I have a fascination with the spring creeks on occasion.
(Letort spring run, etc.) I frequent the Catskills mostly, and this
formula works great on the snooty fish there.

I actually had an invite to fish the Itchen once, but couldn't scrape
up the cash for airfare. Someday though....

I have tried the Orvis bradied leaders, they used to work very well,
They were popular in the 1980's. And they worked great, esp. in small
sizes to 7x, but they are a hassle to tie. The interval sections were
only 7", and if you messed this up, your accuracy suffered greatly. The
formula below is very mellow and forgiving.

this is George Harvey formula, from Pennsylvania USA. This guy is
(was?) an interesting fellow, teaches flyfishing at a State college.
The legendary Spring Creek runs through the campus. This leader
formula works really well, you can do an incredible "pile cast" with
it, and get oodles of slack. It has a 36" tippet!!!!! In the words of
legendary Michael Palin: "say no more!!!"

The downside is; you must use Maxima for the butt sections which is a
wonderfully limp material, not as strong compared to the new stuff,
but again, you only use it for the butt sections, you use the good
modern (clear) stuff for the tippet.

I use Orvis Super Strong for the tippet section. Never fails. *You do
have to learn how to properly join two sections of different
stiffnesses of materials together, which can be tricky.

Lately though, I've thought that maybe a surgeon's knot might work
better than a blood knot to join the stiffer tippet to the butt. The
interesting thing about this leader is the fact that the overall taper
is very gradual, as opposed to the standard thinking that you need a
very stiff, rapidly, descending butt section.

BTW, a compound leader will always turn over better than a one-piece,
but with a one-piece, you won't have the weedball problem on the knots.
I know this may be a common problem in spring creeks.

Contact Fly Fisherman Magazine (USA) for info on this article, it came
out maybe 8 years ago. maybe longer, can't remember...

Here's the formula. I swear this lays out the best I've ever seen, for
small stuff with no wind..... In the lenght you are looking for, this
will fit the bill.

Tight Lines, Tally Ho, etc.

George Harvey Leader formula:

4X 5X

.015--- 18-19" (MAX.) .015----- 18-19" (MAX.)
.013-----18" .013----- 18-19"
.011-----18" .011----- 18-19"
.009-----18" .009----- 18-19"
3X-------15"
3X-------15"
4X-------36" (!!!!!) (S.S.) 4X-------15"

5X-------36" (SS)
(!!!!!!)


Sir, your problems are now solved. you could probably go all the way
to 7x by continuing the 5x formula, but I would shorten the 6x interval
section to maybe 10-12" . S.S. stands for the final "Super Strong"
section, but use whatever tippet material you want. Again, just be
careful tying that last tippet joiner knot. You'll see what I mean....


--
rustyspinner
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