Leaders are tapered monofilament strands that connect the fly line to the fly. They are designed to cast (present) flies the way the fish expects to see food items. The right leader for your fishing is critical to your success.

Fly leaders have three sections--butt, midsection, and tippet. Leaders are tapered from the wide, heavy butt to the narrow, light tippet to help turn the fly over in casting. They are either hand-tied, with segments between knots, or they are knotless with a continuous taper from butt to tippet point. With the rapid improvement in monofilament technology, leaders can now be designed with hard butts and soft tippets and with a variety of stiffness, diameter/strength, and abrasion characteristics to fit virtually every fishing requirement. The packaging today tells everything you need to know about the leader and how it will perform.

What do we mean by the right leader? The one that suits the fishing situation. For instance, when you are fishing small flies on flat water for trout or panfish the leader must also be small in diameter and thus in breaking strength. It must have a relatively soft tippet for soft presentation of the fly, and it must be long enough to assure that the fish is not spooked by the line hitting the water during the cast.

Diameter	X-Rating	Fly Size
.003"	8X	#20-#28
.004"	7X	#20-#28
.005"	6X	#18-#26
.006"	5X	#14-#20
.007"	4X	#6-#14
.008"	3X	#6-#12
.009"	2X	#4-#10
.010"	1X	#4-#8
.011"	0X	#4-#6

The general rules are: The smaller the fly, the smaller the leader diameter (tippet end), or the larger the fly, the larger the leader diameter. Also, the smaller the fly and the flatter the water and the spookier the fish, the longer and thinner the leader needed to fool the them. Some spring-creek trout are so finicky that you may have to go as light as 7X or even 8X, while on salt water the tippet may have a breaking strength of 20 pounds with a shock tippet of 100 pounds tied in. (A leader's X-rating corresponds to its diameter. Breaking strengths (pound-ratings) of leaders with the same diameter will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. See diagram, left.)

Fortunately leader manufacturers have labeled their products to help you chose the right leader for your fishing. For instance, a bass leader should be relatively short and stiff to turn over the large flies you will use. Similarly, saltwater leaders will be relatively stiff, strong, and very abrasion resistant to withstand the large sharp teeth of saltwater fish and the powerful runs those fish make.

The connection you make between your leader butt and the fly line is important. If you decide to use a knot, the easiest is the tube or nail knot. The needle nail knot is the most secure of all the leader/line connections, but it takes much more time to tie. (The needle/nail knot connection is recommended for saltwater fishing.)

Some manufacturers make braided leaders that come with Chinese finger-puzzle-and-sleeve connections (you stick the line into the braid and it grabs; you dab on glue or slip on a sleeve). Braided leaders work fine in relatively calm fishing, less well in the wind, and they tend to hold water and thus become heavy.

A standard leader for stream trout, bass, and panfish is nine feet. Stillwater leaders may run as long as 22 feet, and spring-creek leaders are often 12 feet or longer. As the wind rises, casting such leaders becomes more and more difficult, so experienced fishermen shorten the tippet to aid in turning the fly over in the wind. For dry-fly fishing on flat water, the leader and fly line are usually dressed with silicon paste to make them float. Wind knots in tippets are the curse of the fly fisherman. When you find one you should cut the fly off above the knot and retie. (You may have to tie on a new tippet.) A wind knot can reduce the breaking strength of your leader by 50 percent and large fish will break off.