All

I have had a frustrating couple of fishing trips where I have blanked. I am fairly certain this is due to the fish being down deep and my inability to get the bl**!!dy leader and fly to sink. I have tried sinkant on the fly and various sinkants on the leader - these work for a couple of casts and then the leader floats again. I have just stumbled across "quick sinking leaders" which sound ideal but I can only find 5ft ones advertised or they are 11 ib breaking strain which is excessive for hampshire still water fishing.

so:

do they work?

and can anyone recommend a good brand selling minimum 9ft tapered 6ib breaking stain ones.

As always any help gratefully appreciated!

Ive never bothered much with sinking leaders HRR.Flies with a bit of weight in them,to take them down to the fish should be the solution to your problem,rather than faffing around with the latter...... Forgot to add,you will probably find you'll need a longer leader than nine feet.15-16' would be better,preferably longer if you can manage.

I'd go for flies with bead heads, to be sure. Anything that has a big marabou tail, then give it a good wetting before the first cast. That should get you down where you need to be - I have found flurocarbon sinks better/ faster than mono, too. However, with a heavy bead headed fly there probably isn't too muych in it.

Agree with the guys above...weighed flies are the way to go. A 12-13 foot leader should be fine for Hampshire small stillwater fishing...broaden your horizons to somewhere between 16 and 20 feet, as Wee Jimmy recommends, for gravel pit and reservoir bank fishing. Wipe down the leader with a bit of mud or some coarse fishers' line sinking spray to ensure it instantly cuts through the surface film. .....Oh yes ! And time your flies down carefully, you cannot afford to be casual about this, specially at this time of year. Try different depths, and use the second hand on your watch to be accurate and consistent.

I make my smallwater leaders from a 9 foot Hardy copolymer 6lb leader with 4 to 6 feet of 6lb Orvis copoly as a tippet. Frankly, I use standard mono for reservoir work and see no reason to switch (not a competition fisher). Leeda sell good 9 foot mono tapered leaders, I have had no problems with the Lureflash Viper 12 foot ones for long leader work, and as for the tippet...you could tow a car with Maxima ultragreen of 5lb to 8lb bs.

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JH based near Southampton