Leader/tippet color for brown trout
Jean Daneau
20 ft), 6X when dry fly fishing for brown trout. What about color? How
should I choose the color? Brown, green, transparent.... Does it
depend on the water... the time of the day... weather sunny or cloudy?
Michael Goldstein
Whoa, Jean, where are you fishing?
I've caught lots of Brown trout, and rarely used a 15 foot leader, much
less a 20.
Keep in mind that the longer leader turns over with much more
difficulty, and also forces you to us less line for a given length of
cast, which will make it harder "load the rod". So with a 20 foot
leader, you'll need to cast at least 35 feet (20 foot leader plus, say,
15 foot of line). On many streams your average cast will be much
shorter than this, say 20-30 feet, making it impossible to use a 20
foot leader (and even a 15 foot would be tough).
So, in general, you want to use the shortest leader you can get away
with. This is determined partly by trout species (Brown trout are
perhaps slightly warier than other species), but more by the specific
water conditions.
You use a leader, in general, because fish may be spooked by the sight
of your fly line, or by the splash of the fly line on the water. A
longer leader helps both problems.
If the fish is holding deep in smooth-surfaced, crystal clear water, a
15-20 foot leader may be justified.
-- Fish holding in shallow water have a much smaller field of view.
Therefore you can get away with a shorter leader.
-- Stained water reduces a fish's vision. Any color other than
absolutely clear lets you get away with a shorter leader.
-- Turbulence, waves, roiling, or any other surface condition other
than mirror-greatly reduces the visibility of the line or leader, and
also masks slight splashes of the line on presentation. Therefore lets
you get away with a shorter leader.
In practice, most medium size streams fish well with leaders in the 10-
12' range. You may need to go 12' to 15' in spring creeks or big,
clear water, (this is pretty standard length in NZ)or glassy pools.
Maybe 20' in extraordinary cases. Don't be afraid to lengthen and
shorten your leader in the course of a day, depending on the cast. In
one stream I often fish, I usually use a 8-9' leader in the faster,
more turbulent runs and pockets, and lengthen out to 12' for a couple
of deep, slow pools.
Also, consider using a lighter line weight for spooky fish (less
splash...a 3 wt. rod might let you catch fish with a shorter leader
when a 6 wt. might spook them). Finally, while it's usually not a big
deal, avoid using "neon" line colors. Consider gray or dark green
instead of neon orange, yellow, or other bright color. (You can dye
your existing line using standard fabric dye. Just drop the line into
a pot where the dye has been dissolved in hot water. Remove when it
reaches the right color -- do NOT boil.)
Finally, with respect to your question about tippet color, I'm not a
big fan of anything but transparent. The colored tippets are supposed
to be useful when they match the "stain" of the water (e.g. brown
tippet in tannin-stained water). For very spooky fish, I'd instead
recommend using fluorocarbon tippet. This should disappear in any
color water.
Michael
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DayGlow15
>20 ft), 6X when dry fly fishing for brown trout. What about color?
I usually use a 9 ft , 6x leader/tippet (about 20 inches of tippet) for all my
Dry fly fishing, and that usually works; even on the Letort Spring Run and
Slate and Cedar Runs.
Sherman Dunnam
tippet of about 2 or 3 feet. I only use clear mono (except see below about
flouro). I use this setup for wet and dry flies on spring creeks and small
to medium rivers and it seems to work OK in most places at all times of the
day.
This year I am experimenting with flourocarbon but so far haven't seen any
advantage (other than to the vendors who can charge much more). Maybe later
in the year when the water is lower and clearer the flouro will come into
its own.
--
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Sherman Dunnam
www.flyfishingjournal.com
Stream Reports, Free Fishing Software & More
Jean Daneau wrote in message <3738cbe8....@news.francomedia.qc.ca>...
>Experienced brown trout fishermen recommend long leader/tippet (15 to
Jean Daneau
green... What if the water is clear.... What if it is sunny,
cloudy...??
>>Experienced brown trout fishermen recommend long leader/tippet (15 to
>>20 ft), 6X when dry fly fishing for brown trout. What about color?
>
stephen welsh
: Experienced brown trout fishermen recommend long leader/tippet (15 to
: 20 ft), 6X when dry fly fishing for brown trout. What about color? How
: should I choose the color? Brown, green, transparent.... Does it
: depend on the water... the time of the day... weather sunny or cloudy?
Jean,
Good Grief ....7', 9' - 12' at most .. 4, 5, 6x depending on rod, water,
fly, wind etc. I've used clear, brown and more recently fluoro-carbon.
There is little difference that I've noticed, although the brown makes
*me* nervous on flat water.
Remember these guys were 'experienced' and may have reached a 'zen'ith in
their ability ...ie. they use 20ft leaders 'cos they can.
Steve
Bill Kiene
Jean Daneau <jda...@francomedia.qc.ca> wrote in message
news:3738cbe8....@news.francomedia.qc.ca...
> Experienced brown trout fishermen recommend long leader/tippet (15 to
> 20 ft), 6X when dry fly fishing for brown trout. What about color? How
> should I choose the color? Brown, green, transparent.... Does it
> depend on the water... the time of the day... weather sunny or cloudy?
Hi All,
Fact: We are selling a little more flourocarbon leader material every year
and the price is going down a little too. I see that almost all companies
have flourocabon now. Keep this in mind.