Can anyone advise on the best set up and methods- especially materials and diameters of leaders/tippets, for fishing dries and emergers down to size 18/20on small stillwaters.

Thanks in advance.

FHS

Bloody good pair of magnifying specs, and a lot of patience!! (i am 55 and half blind!)
Seriously though, the strongest/thickest flouro you can thread through eye of hook, to suit expected catches, tapered back towards line with larger diameter to aid turnover will do the trick.
regards
bert

I normally use a leader tapered to 6x for that size, with 7x for 22-26s.

At those sizes you are unlikely to see a take at distance, so if you intend to cast a long line you may want to use a 2 fly rig with a size 12 dry and strike at any movement near the bigger fly.

I have posted this image on a different thread


thats a size 28 CDC emerger in the stream, really there is no problem seeing them.
I use the biggest limp tippet that will fit through the eye. Usually old fashioned nylon... Bayer perlon 2.5lb or 3 lb if breaking strains mean anything.
This is added to a short ( 18 inch) 6 or 8lb perlon then a short Furled leader of the sort Mr Trout or Rod Dibble supplies. ( you can clearly see the tapered furled leader on the surface and the knot between the two nylon lengths). The lengths are very much down to your casting style and set up. My casting is awful so my entire nylon set up is about 4 foot maximum)

The message is dont go over the top on being too fine, and be really... I mean really carefull with your knots, as thats where you will lose your strength when going fine.

The smaller the fly, the more critical it becomes that the fly behaves naturally. This is why you don't get too many size 22 streamers, they simply are unnatural.
The heavier the tippet, the less natural the fly will behave. This goes for all aspects, such as presentation, drift, emerge etc.
It therefore stands to reason, that the lighter the fly, the lighter the tippet. This is fundamentally true, but there is always a trade off in lightness of tippets, and the point at which it will break. There are a few things to ensure that a light tippet won't let you down, like going slightly lighter on the trod weight, a rod with a more tip flex action, lubricatiing your tippet when tying the knots, using a tippet with a marginal streach capability.
The other very important thing, is to lengthen your lightest tippet section. If it is only 12 inches long, it will break far sooner than the same tippet in a section that is 24 inches long, due to the dispersal of stress.
Also very important to step it down evenly. You cant go directly from a 5 pound section of the leader, to a 1.5 pound section. All the stress will be absorbed by the thinner section, and won't be able to dissapate effectively, back up the leader, so rather step the tippets down evenly. Apart from adding tippet protection capability, this methiod will assist in the cast as well.
The most important influsencing factor thast will decide how well you can fish a light tippett, will be your own experience, and confidence, but you will be surprised at the size of fish that you will be ablew to subdue very quickly with very light tippets.

As I remember the general rule of thumb it's divide the hook size by three to get the maximum tippet size and use the limpest material you can find to get the natural drift that Andreb is speaking of. I use one of MrT's furled leaders and when fishing anything smaller than a size 18 hook will step down in two or three stages as does W.P.

Take care

Terry

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Yes, the limpest materia you can find, as well as the best leader for turnover, and therefore delicate presentation. The correct natural drift, is going to be influenced also by your technique. If you are laying down 12 feet of leader onto the water, and the top of the leader is being pulled by the current at you feet, nothing concerning tippet and leader construction is going to help. What you are going to have to do, is lift as much line off the water as possible, by lifting the rod up during the drift. This is where you might find advantage to a longer rod. I have a general rule of thumb, that says " the closer you want to fish, the longer the rod should be", specifically to lift as much line off the water. If you can get to the point where you have the fly on the water, and no tippet touching the water, and you can still get the fly to drift naturally down a riffle, you will get a lot of fish. A lot more comes into the equation with this type of fishing, like stealthy stalking and wading, ultra short casts with extra long leaders, lighter and slower rods, and much much closer fishing than what you are used to. It's a lot of fun.

I believe the OP said small stillwaters.

I've been hand-tying my own 7ft furled mono leaders out of 5lb Drennan float-fishing line. Used with a 5ft x 3lb Maxima tippet, I've been catching on dries down to size 22.

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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*****©(

Your damn right it did!! Sorry I missed seeing that.Thanks for pointing it out.

Yep, me too. Sorry. My brain is hard wired to think wild trout mountam stream with spooky trout over 5 pounds..... I need to change my outlook..