Last Updated:
03/07/05
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LEADERS By Danny Riley Gene Strickland filled in for the scheduled guest speaker for the March meeting who was unable to attend. It is always very interesting to listen to Gene because of his vast knowledge of the local fishing and particularly the local fly fishing spots and methods. He began his presentation by giving us an update on the fishing and sharing some of his recent observations, such as the catching of black drum and large trout in this area during the past year as a result of the net ban amendment passed by majority vote of the public during the 1996 elections. Later in the program, Gene talked about the construction of flyfishing leaders for saltwater fishing. He stayed after the presentation to show those who were interested specifically how to tie the leaders. As a follow up to the obvious interest in this subject, I wanted to share some additional information about flyfishing leaders and their construction. The data in this report are taken from information produced by Dennison Research, 2220 S.W. Troy, Portland, Oregon. Their instructions and formulas for making compound tapered leaders are the result of their research on the physics of movement of fly lines in the casting process. Their designs are based on scientific data of the most effective transition of energy from the fly line to the fly via leaders. Dennisons notes on leader making state that on the forward cast, the fly line imparts only a small fraction of its initial energy to the leader, which in turn, loses energy rapidly as it moves forward, pulling the fly behind. To transmit this diminishing energy most efficiently, each strand of the leader should vary by no more than .002 inches from the preceding strand. The stated "pound test" of the leader material used is meaningless. Only its diameter is important to the transition of energy. Also, the leader should taper abruptly at a point about 60-70 percent of its length from the proximal end. To assure uniformity of materials, accurate diameter measurements, and the probability of tying secure knots, the same brand of leader materials should be used for each segment of your leaders. The data offered by Dennison Research are as follows:
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