I usually tie my own leaders and asked the bloke at my local water what BS tippet I should be using and he looked at me like I was mad! Been doing a bit of reading and realise I should be matching leader diameter to fly size rather than BS to fish size.

Tapered leaders seem to be the easier/neater solution. Any recommendations? I was thinking Diawa Wilderness, Fulling Mill or Profil. I will be mainly using dries sizes 12 down to 18 so think I need a 5x. Also, do I still need to tie a tippet onto the leader and if so, how do I match it?

Mike

Chart here with all you need to know:

http://www.orvis.co.uk/intro.aspx?subject=446

__________________
Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line;
Let me, less cruel, cast feather'd hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,
And with fur-wrought fly delude the prey

Mike,
Making your own leaders is fun and you can experiment a lot but it can be time consuming.
As you say, another way is to use a tapered leader. Here are a couple of tips for you.
Firstly make sure that the butt thickness of the leader is about 2/3 the thickness of your line. For example:
Line weight Diameter (mm’s) Diameter (,000 inch)
3 .45 to .50 .017 to .020
4 .45 to .55 .019 to .021
5 .50 to .55 .020 to .022
6 .55 to .60 .021 to .023
7 .60 to .65 .022 to .024
8 .60 to .65 .023 to .026
Second, work out what fly size you will most likely use. Again an example:
Tippet thickness mm/inches Fly size range
8x .08mm/.003” 20 to 29
7x .10mm/.004” 20 to 28
6x .13mm/.005” 18 to 26
5x .15mm/.006” 14 to 20
4x .18mm/.007” 6 to 14
3x .20mm/.008” 6 to 12
Now for the leader. I use Frog Hair and I am happy with that brand. Both Rio and Leeda are okay.
Thirdly, determine how long you want your leader to be. Most are around the 9' (Frog Hair is 9'6") but some are longer.
Lastly, assuming that you want to stay at the 9' length for the moment. Select a leader where the tippet matches hook size. I would suggest that you cut it about 30" from the tip and re-attach it. That way you will know when to either replace the leader or tie on a replacement tippet in the same size.
If you want to go longer, without buying a longer leader, try this. Get a leader of about 9' where the tippet is 1 size thicker (e.g. if you want a 5x tippet, then get a 4x leader) and add a 30" tippet to it in the diameter you want. This will bet you out to about 12'.
Hope this helps.

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"A traditional wet fly addict"

Uk representative and Instructor for Fly Fishing Masters - www.flyfishingmasters.co.uk

Distributor for Terenzio Silk and Artificial Silk Fly Lines - Pay distributor retail price.

Thanks gents.

or look at the Thread Rod dibble for the perfect leader set up.....much easier solution.