Ok guys this post is put up in desperation as recently fishing in mirror flat calm and trout rising all day and fish moved on my drys but wouldnt take due to the leader floating like a duck on the surface film. Asside from cutting my writsts there is nothing to cure the frustation of seeing trout come motoring up to the fly and then turn or swirl away.

i was using fullers earth mix that was of a tough consistancey initially and removed all leader shine grease etc however the leader would still float. (kamasan 7lb nylon also ended up on 5lb thinner stuff). I kept adding water to the fullers earth and eventually was adding a mud conistancy sloppy wet mix to the leader it pulled it down quite quickly. Problem is you only get 2 casts if that and the washing up liquid / earth washs off and the leader starts floating again. Now if u making lots of presentations to rising fish its not a via able option. Now the troutfisherman and phrase "degrease your leader" is rubbish my leader had no grease on at all and being rubbed down throughout the day to a a thinness of 2lb!!! and still floating.

I even tried a a long dropper of 10lbs flouro carbon in the middle of the cast thinking that would pull the mono down and that floated too. A full cast of florocarbon pulls the flies down in my experiance so i dont use it.

So does anyone have a magic fomula for sinking the leader and does not wash off in 3 casts? or have any tips/tricks to help sink the leader?

I have 3 kinds of fullers earth product and they dont do the job and xink sink also also washs off in 2 casts.

In such conditions when the surface tension seems particularly stubborn as a last resort I fish dries with Fluorocarbon leader throughout. I normally don't use fluoro for dries either, but it's better to have at least some time when the leader is sunk than none at all, if it does mange to pull the dries down (surprisingly difficult in a flat calm) just recast.

Tie a nymph/buzzer onto a dropper above you dry . This pulls your leader/tippet down and is an extra chance of a fish . Just adjust the size of nymph/buzzer accordingly so as not to sink the dry .

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Cheers Danny

Co-Founder of S.S.F.D 2010

Thats about the only thing you can do in the situation you found yourself in. The other requirement is extreme patience. You have to try to avoid the temptation to cover each new rising fish and hope that a fish slips up and takes your fly. Fish rising once and taking very small flies usually combined with intermittent sunny spells and flat calms is difficult and frustrating. Its particularly bad at this time of year.

I use mud from the bank. Give it a good rub in and that will solve the problem almost every time.

If you know you're having problems, you can use a little bit of fairly liquid. The surfactants in it decrease surface tension (that's their reason for use) and will drop a leader through surface tension easily.

Thanks
Rick

yeah fishing off the bank mud was a sure fire way of getting leader to sink properly.

on a boat I dont have that "luxary" but short of using washing up liquid out of the bottle direct i suspect as someone said the surface tension is too much.
Goes back to sunny conditions forget drys even if they are rising!!

Unles you have a nice little ripple to hide the leader

I use Dick Walkers leadasink on 3lb drennan double strength for my dry fly fishing. The tippet stays sunk and I don't have any problems with the flies sinking even when using 24s.