Following on from a thread in trout and grayling, how many of us feel that a tapered leader is an absolute must. Am I the only one who uses a level leader with a tippet?........................Have I been doing it wrong all these years?.....................birdsnest

__________________
Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

Try turning over a sixteen foot straight leader with a size 18 dry on the end then try it with a correct tapered leader i think you will find there is a BIG difference,if fishing rivers like the clyde for wild browns i would say its almost a must

All depends how you feel with your present method Roy.
If you are satisfied with your turnover doing it the way you are, then no problem.
I like Furled leaders, and mono tapered leaders, I find furled leaders really make a big difference, they are not every ones cup of tea, but that said, loads of anglers love them.
Are you fishing a dry fly mainly, because as Rookstorm says it's incredibly difficult to turnover a small fly with a level leader, or perhaps not in your case.
Do you know something we don't know. ?
Steven.

__________________
"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

I don't tend to use such long leaders on my waters so that's probably why I haven't noticed such a big difference. What is a correct tapered leader ? Please don't think that I am trying to be funny. I have used and do use tapered leaders from time to time but for the most part ie 10ft leader or so I manage perfectly well with a flat mono and tippet. The reason for this thread is that there seems to me to be a lot of different tapers used and I wanted to explore the reasoning for them.................birdsnest

__________________
Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

I doubt that very much ...............I do use dry / emergers quite a lot but generaly on a shortish chuck (10 -15 yards or so) I can't see 'em much beyond that. I find I turn them over ok at that........we're talking 2 to 3 yards of 5 to 6lb leader with a 2 to 3 foot 4 lb tippet for instance, a little lighter for small river work. If I'm mauling out a lure on the ressie (which I don't so much of these days I am only using a short leader anyway to get the heavier fly to roll over at full line distances. Perhaps I should experiment more with a taper.....................birdsnest

__________________
Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

Hi Birdsnest,
I always and have done for many, many years, use tapered leaders, for still waters I use a 15 ft tapered leader with a 3 ft G3 floro' tippet, for river I use a 6ft tapered leader, with a 2 ft G3 floro tippet, I never, ever change from this set up, I don't know if it is hinging, wobbling, sinking swimming, floating, flying or whatever, I do know this, it catches fish, and that is all I require of it, I fish for pleasure, haven't got the time or the inclination to think about what a dam leader does or doesn't do, just go out there and fish with whatever suits you Birdsnest, life isn't long enough to P*ss about, here today and gone tomorrow, you enjoy your fishing my friend, we're a long time dead...........
And all this, life after death, is a load of B*ll*cks

There does seem to be a vast range on the market these days.
A taper with a high propotion of level butt with a steep taper to a short level tip will produce a strong forceful turnover. It will tend to straighten keeping the fly as far away as possible from the flyline (Salt/Salmon).

A taper with a short butt section and a long propotion of shallow taper will still straighten but in a more gentle fashion(small flies/drys).

A taper with a short butt section, short steep taper and long level tip will tend to run out of energy during turnover and crumple creating automatic slack (river).

A long butt section followed buy a section of thin diameter mono which in turn is followed by a thinker diameter section of mono will again give a automatic slack line cast. The thin section cant transfer E to the thicker section so it crumples.

You probably get a lot of slack when you cast your drys on a level leader (depends on diameter and length)? For what its worth I use level mono when casting copper tubes as I am only using short lengths on sinking lines. I also use level when casting heavy nymphs and indicators. The slack created and thin dia of the level mono lets me use lighter nymphs to get to the desired depth.

Ta, Lee.

There is certainly nothing wrong with your method, but a taper does give a finer presentation.

I've never used a tapered leader, but then I struggle going over 12feet and have not (yet!) fished much dries/emergers... When I have tried the dries, I've not done so well! But for what I do (heavier fly on point, smaller ones on droppers, stillwaters) a 12 ft level leader does me ok, if not exactly giving elegant presentation.

However, I am keen to try dries/emergers, so I suspect I'll be trying out something a bit more sophisticated shortly, so glad you started this thread. (But I'll not be using anything like 8 knots to achieve a taper. That would just do my nut.)

Hi' BNest.
The whole point of using tapered leaders is surely to ensure that there is an efficient transfer of power down the complete tapered system from the shoulder to the fly on the point of the leader.
The arm tapers from shoulder to hand; the rod tapers from butt to tip; the line tapers to the connection with the leader; and to ensure efficient transfer of power down the leader, its butt should be equal to that of the end of the fly line and the stiffness should also be a match, IMHumbleO. However, for practical purposes, the experts ( people like the late and great Charles Ritz, who was Swiss, not French, I believe ) tell us that the butt of the leader should be no less than 60 -- 70% of the diameter of the tip of the fly line.
We have had discussion re turning over a small dry fly, I think trying to turn over a big dry fly would be more likely to show up the inefficiency of a thin level leader. The matching of leader butt to fly line tip helps eliminate hingeing. If a reader doesn't believe that tapers make a difference, perhaps he/she should try casting a leader that was connected by its thinner end, with a big dry fly tied on the butt. I haven't tried that, but I can guess how it would turn out. TerryC
PS Although it may not help convince the average angler, I was employed in high-powered radio transmission, and in that field, too, the matching of components/networks was essential to transfer power efficiently down a feeder line or through an electronic circuit. That concept helps me accept the argument for tapered leaders matched to tapered lines-- power is power.