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| Another Leader By Mike Alwin There are billions and billions of trout fly patterns out there. You can walk into any fly shop on this continent and buy an Adams. And if you look long enough, you’ll probably find a pattern you’ve never heard of and never seen before. Buy one, it might work. If it doesn’t, there’s always that Adams to fall back on. If an Adams will work, why is there such a dizzying array of patterns? Now the cynic will tell you that if you publish a magazine article about the next big deal fly, you’ll make a few bucks on the article and gain yourself a slice of fame, but there’s more to it than that. There are two other factors involved. One is the inherent creativity of our species, and the other is our perceived need for an improvement. Bob Mitchell once said, “The reason you tie your own flies is because that way you get exactly what you want.” Tying your own flies is one of the adjustments you make to further your success on the trout stream. If you’re fishing a dry fly, there are two adjustments you can make: change flies and change the tippet. If you’re fishing nymphs there are three adjustments you can make: change flies, add or subtract weight, raise or lower the strike indicator. When I started trout fishing in the early 70’s, short of money, I bought one leader and a spool of tippet material. How do you think that worked out? Like everyone else I gradually added longer leaders and more spools of tippet material, trying to adjust. I also spent a lot of time at the kitchen table practicing knot tying. That skill came in handy when I bought a copy of JOE HUMPHREY’S TROUT TACTICS and became semi-obsessed with his leader formulas. He had leaders for dry flies, nymphs, streamers and wet flies, all of which were designed for various conditions. So, I bought a leader wallet and filled it with leaders for the specific situations I envisioned for myself. They all worked, but I got tired of retying the dry fly leaders. Now most people don’t carry around a dozen leaders like that. Most people buy a leader and shorten or lengthen it to fit the situation. One of my friends, nameless, said I was crazy; I prefer to think of myself as thoughtfully engaged. Tying your own leaders is one more adjustment you can make to further your success, but you don’t have to carry a leader wallet to make these adjustments. Several years ago, Gary Borger published an article about his latest leader design he called the Uni-Body Leader. I honestly don’t know why it took me a decade to screw around with it but two years ago I succumbed. Warning: it is unorthodox. Here is the formula. 48” — .020” 12” — .013” 48” — .010” I made only two modifications to this formula. I substituted 20 lb Amnesia for the butt section and I attached a tippet ring at the end of the .010” material. You can tie the entire Uni-Body with whatever nylon you like; I used the amnesia because I like its visibility. The tippet ring allows you to modify the tippet without chopping up the Uni-Body. To fish a nymph or streamer you can add just a foot or so of tippet material of the appropriate diameter. To fish a dry fly or swing a wet fly you can add a couple feet of your favorite tippet material. You might be bewildered like I was at the radical nature of this design, but it turns over well and serves almost any function you can imagine. |
Another Leader
