Polyleader experience anyone?

I'm thinking of trying some Polyleaders, Airflo or Cabela's, for
fishing the higher water flows in the Upper Sacramento. Polyleaders
come in the following: Floating, hover, intermediate (1.5"/sec.),
slow sink (2.6"/sec.), fast sink (3.9"/sec.), extremely fast sink
(4.9"/sec.). Flies for this setup are Stone nymphs 6 - 10, and
October Caddis Pupa 6 - 8.

I use a Teeny T-300 for Steelhead fishing on the Smith River. It has
a sink rate 6.5"/sec., this is way to fast a sink for the Upper Sac in
my opinion.

I have also thought about a sinking Steelhead leader and
Polyleader/Steelhead leader combination to extend the length of the
Polyleader, all this ends with a 4 foot tippet.

My other concern is hinge effects when try to cast this creation.

Any thoughts appreciated.

I use Airflo polyleaders of the floating variety....mainly for trico
hatches.
They are amazing, with one caveat: you have to be intent on fishing with dry
flies all through the session. The tippet attaches to the loop at the end of
the Polyleader, and I have managed to use a rig for tricos as follows: one
foot of 5x, followed by a tippet of 6 foot of 7x attached to the leader.
Killer drag free float, but no way one is going to change to nymphs or wets
with this rig. Experiment, and by all means, report back.
Tom

Use them a lot but not quite as you described. My 6 wt. Delta has a
19' front taper. I cut it at the 10' mark then looped it. I can then
use the floating tip, or any of the 10' trout leaders. Basically gives
me a multi-tip line.

If anyone has an old standard WF thats worn out and the tip won't
float, hack off at least half the front taper, loop it then use any
Polyleader you like. Best done of 5 wt. or 6 wt. lines. There are
alos light trout tapers for lighter lines.

On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 22:10:10 GMT, "Thomas Littleton"
wrote:

I use Airflo polyleaders of the floating variety....mainly for trico
hatches.
They are amazing, with one caveat: you have to be intent on fishing with dry
flies all through the session. The tippet attaches to the loop at the end of
the Polyleader, and I have managed to use a rig for tricos as follows: one
foot of 5x, followed by a tippet of 6 foot of 7x attached to the leader.
Killer drag free float, but no way one is going to change to nymphs or wets
with this rig. Experiment, and by all means, report back.
Tom

Interesting input Tom I was mainly thinking about the sinking leaders,
but your use of a floating leader for dry flies is food for thought.
In the past I have just used Gink on my leader for a couple of feet to
get the result you have noted here, but after a while it wears off and
you have to start over. Good thinking on an old problem when the
Mayflies start to hatch.

Regards
Big Smile
Luke

"Thomas Littleton" wrote in message
news:6Fpoe.4147$zT2.1693@trndny04...
I use Airflo polyleaders of the floating variety....mainly for trico
hatches.
They are amazing, with one caveat: you have to be intent on fishing with
dry
flies all through the session. The tippet attaches to the loop at the end
of
the Polyleader, and I have managed to use a rig for tricos as follows: one
foot of 5x, followed by a tippet of 6 foot of 7x attached to the leader.
Killer drag free float, but no way one is going to change to nymphs or
wets
with this rig. Experiment, and by all means, report back.
------------
I have a bunch of the Airflos as well and the recent RIO ad about floating
lines getting waterlogged in the first foot of so got me to wondering.
Recently, I was using an Orvis bug taper line http://tinyurl.com/anmkd and
it started to sag at the tip as it waterlogged, would the Airflo floating
polyleader be of any benefit?

Chris "who hopes he doesn't fall for the RIO ad"